Botanical Name: Magnolia ‘Ann’
Common Name: Ann Magnolia
Notable Feature: Prized for its compact shrubby habit, impressive purple-red flowers, and its late season of bloom. ‘Ann’ is a member of the Little Girl series (‘Ann’, ‘Betty’, ‘Jane’, ‘Judy’, ‘Pinkie’, ‘Randy’, ‘Ricki’ and ‘Susan’) of hybrid magnolias developed and introduced by the U.S. National Arboretum in the 1950s.
Habit: A slow-growing, broadly rounded, deciduous shrub or small tree that typically grows to 10 to 15’ tall and about as wide. Hardy in Zones 4-7.
Foliage: Dark green and somewhat leathery in appearance. Elliptic in shape, 4 to 6” long with rippled margins. Leaves turn yellow in fall.
Flower: Red-purple in bud. Upon opening the 6 to 8 petal-like tepals are a rich pink-red on the outside and paler within. The slightly fragrant flowers, 7 to 9” long and 2 to 4” wide are held upright and bloom mid-April to early May, the earliest of the Little Girls. Flowers may sporadically repeat bloom in midsummer.
Interesting Fact: ‘Ann’ is a cross between Magnolia liliiflora ‘Nigra’ and M. stellata ‘Rosea’. Plants in the Little Girl series flower about 2 to 4 weeks later than the two popular garden favorites -- Star Magnolia (M. stellata) and Saucer Magnolia (M. x soulangeana), thus reducing potential damage to flowers from late spring frosts.