The Bracken Brown Beauty Magnolia was discovered as a seedling by Ray Bracken in 1967 and is now located on their farm in South Carolina. The Bracken Brown Beauty has earned a dominant status among the Magnolia grandiflora cultivars and it has several unique qualities that are responsible for this popularity. The Bracken Brown Beauty has the widest hardiness range given to any Magnolia grandiflora cultivar being able to handle -20°F. The Bracken Brown Beauty has more durability than other Magnolias as it can handle a wider variance of soil conditions and water levels than any other Magnolia grandiflora cultivar. At an age of 42 years old, the mother tree of the Bracken Brown Beauty Magnolia stands at 30’ tall and 20’ wide producing a compact pyramidal-oval crown. The dense growth habit of the Bracken Brown Beauty is self perpetuated by its multiple branching breaks from each spent flower giving numerous shortened branches. The Bracken Brown Beauty has leathery textured 5 to 8 inch oblong leaves that appear glossy, dark green on top and the underside is covered with a fine cinnamon brown fuzz. In the spring and sporadically throughout the summer the Bracken Brown Beauty produces large fragrant creamy white saucer shaped flowers that are 8 inches wide. These qualities allow the Bracken Brown Beauty to have tremendous versatility from tall dense screens, landscape specimens or framing accents.