Large leaves tend to lend a tropical feeling to the landscape. Sweet bay's long blooming time and bright red seed heads further accentuate the plant s lush tropical appearance. My sweet bays are just babies now, about four feet tall and rather thin. However, I won t have to wait terribly long for them to become more prominent. They will grow more than a foot a year, producing more flowers and seeds each year.
All magnolias have fuzzy branches and frequently the underside of the leaves are fuzzy too.
To make things worse, the underside of the leaves are silver. Finally a book that not only tells gardeners how to avoid getting diseases and undesirable insects in their gardens, but how to get rid of them safely. Following their advice, I acquired an arsenal of chemicals in my garage that would kill virtually any creepy crawly thing that dared slither into my garden. What these books failed to tell me is the more you use these chemicals the more you need to use them. In a sense, your garden becomes addicted to them, as they kill all or most of the natural organisms in the environment that help your plants combat natural occurring bacteria, viruses and insects.