Evergreen Magnolia Magnolia grandiflora Teddy Bear

Teddy Bear is the broad leaved compact one. The frame is tight, upright and densely branched, and the leaves are short, rounded and thick with a heavy rust brown felt underneath, so even a young plant looks solid rather than twiggy. Cream white lemon scented flowers open through the warmer months, followed by cone shaped seed heads that split to show red seed before they drop. It is used where a screen has to have substance in a limited width: a courtyard boundary, a pair either side of an entry, a pool surround set back from the water.

Never put shears through it

This is how the cultivar gets ruined. The leaves are large, and a hedge trimmer cuts straight through them, leaving hundreds of half leaves that brown along the cut edge and hang on the plant for months. A sheared Teddy Bear looks scorched rather than clipped, and since growth is slow the mess stays on show until the whole flush has been replaced. Shape it with secateurs instead, taking whole shoots back to a node inside the canopy where the cut disappears. The same rule applies to holding it off a fence line: cut back to a junction, never across the middle of a leaf.

Spacing and ground

Around 2 metres between plants for a screen, which lets each one keep the dense shape you paid for without crowding its neighbour. Full sun to part shade, moderate water, slow to moderate growth. Prepare a wide area rather than a deep hole, work compost through it, plant slightly proud of the surrounding soil and mulch out past the foliage. It handles frost once established and copes with coastal gardens, though salt laden wind marks the leaves, so keep it behind something on an exposed block. Plant it out while the weather is mild, in autumn or at the start of spring.

Litter and containers

Old leaves, spent flowers and the seed cones come down steadily right through the year rather than in a single drop, so this is not a clean plant to stand over paving or beside a pool. In a large container it works well and is often the better choice for a doorway pair, provided you water deeply rather than often and feed more frequently in smaller amounts. Use a controlled release fertiliser suited to acid loving shrubs in early spring and again in mid summer, and keep the mulch off the trunk.

Teddy Bear against the other compact selections

Little Gem is the finer leaved alternative, quicker to gain height and much more willing to be trained flat, so it takes the espalier and narrow hedge work. Teddy Bear is denser, slower and heavier in the leaf, which makes it the stronger plant where a short screen has to look substantial in every season. If the screen needs to keep climbing past a single storey, step up to Coolwyn Gloss and give it the extra width it will ask for. Both compact selections are grown on as semi advanced trees where the screen has to start working sooner.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 15 sizes, from 250mm up to 1000L, priced from $179.00 to $4399.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Every size here is established stock rather than a starter plant, so this line is intended for immediate effect rather than for growing on. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to choosing a magnolia.