ALL 'Little Gems' are merely a particular cultivar of M. grandiflora. They are only dwarf in terms of the size of the leaves and their modest growth rate. But they still have potential to get HUGE. Mine is about nine feet tall and four feet in diameter. I would also add they are probably not the best choice for Zone 6 unless perhaps containerized and protected some over the Winter. While I do not have the issue with snow damage that many growers report, I do acknowledge that they are more prone to Winter burning/bronzing (especially on the south/sunny side of the tree). Though they do recuperated fast in the Spring (last Winter being mild, mine had no burn). In my opinion, their best feature is the lengthy season of bloom (May into Autumn). In addition to considering container growing, consider also getting a Magnolia virginiana. They are not evergreen in the North (some varieties of the species are semi-evergreen in the South), and their growth is fairly vigorous. Their flowers are extremely fragrant (more so than the grandifloras), and the tree is perfectly hardy into Zone 6.

Hi wannabeGardnr! Sorry for the delay. I tend not to frequent the forums as much this late into the season. I've posted a pic from 2011 and then late this spring. Unfortunately it's past the flowering stage in the 2013 pic, but I think it'll be a relatively tall deciduous soulangeana based off of how it grows. I don't recall how tall it is, but a good 6-12" of growth is common. It's still loaded with flowers too every year. It doesn't flower as soon as the earliest of the other soulangeanas, but it can get zapped from time to time. It looks so flimsy in the spring, with these giant blooms, but I haven't had any problems with breakage. I had a competing vertical leader/cross-branch that I removed, which may explain why it looks so sparse in the 2011 pic. Here is a pic from 2011 Here is a pic from 2013

It has huge blossoms, larger than other magnolias. We got written agreement amongst 4 neighbours to plant it in the extreme corner of one of our properties, so that each one of us would get 1/4 of the plant in our gardens. So far it has worked very well, and all the neighbours are happy. It should increase property values as it grows! Photo at the bottom is for visualizing size and proportion of a very young tree - the blooms looks like huge pink lilies or Japanese origami birds - it starts blooming at a young age. So far, it is quite columnar.

You could try one of the magnolia stellata hybrids, aka the "Little Girls" developed at the US arboretum -- "Jane", "Ann" and "Susan" are fairly easy to come by; they're a bit larger and have more pink tones than straight stellata. Breeders are working on yellow stellata hybrids, some of these are small, too. Also, there's a dwarf mag. x soulangiana, "Lilliputian" that doesn't get very tall, it's blooming right now in a 16" container on my balcony! Finally, consider sweetbay (mag. virginana) -- it'll eventually get taller than 6ft., but you can prune it, it's got great fragrance, the blooming season is June, and some varieties are almost evergreen in our area. Two places to find out more; Roslyn Nursery on LI, and Fairweather Gardens in NJ, both on the web. Magnolias rule! Jim