Lottah Nursery Tasmania, Australia
Bred by the New Zealander Blumhardt from M. campbellii x M. liliiflora.
'Star Wars' is a precocious cultivar bearing large deep pink flowers when less than a meter high. It is a vigorous cultivar with strong apical dominance inherited from its campbelli parent.
Callaway reports in her book The World of Magnolias that the the flowering display lasts for a month but we have found specimens several years old starting to flower in late August lasting through all of Spring, with a second display that begins in Autumn and finishes in July.
For an easy carefree magnolia of fairly large proportions, and seeming imperviousness to cold, this cultivar is difficult to beat. Mature size is expected to exceed 6 m.
(click on thumbnail for larger image)
60412-5502 (1, 7, 33, 136)