There are many hundreds of Magnolia hybrids. There vary in size from large trees ( Magnolia Diva that can grow to 20m tall and 10m wide) to medium size shrubs (Magnolia x loebneri Leonard Messel 8m tall to 6m wide.
These are all deciduous, they loose their leaves in winter and flower in early spring before the leaves emerge.
The showy flowers are quite wonderful, rich in colour, solitary and simple in shape. The shape vary depending on the hybrid and can be globlet-like, saucer and/or cupped shaped and star shaped. Hybridisation means that there are lots of colours to choose from most of varying shades of cream, yellow, pink, mauve and purple.
Magnolia make great feature trees adding spring colour to the garden and rich green leaves during summer.