billit
 

I have a shrub which I do not know the name of.It has got a very glossy leaf on the top but a soft furry brown on the underside.It has flowered but it has taken several years to do so and the flower is very similar to a magnolia but probably just a little smaller.I was told it was known as the birthday tree.but I am not to sure about that.thanks for any help in identifying this shrub.

It quite possibly is a magnolia of which there are many. When does it flower?

In reply to beccabunga and the unknown shrub it as in fact only just flowered you may be right about it being a magnolia but i cannot find this one in my encyclopedia but I will keep looking,thanks for suggestion.

Your description rather suggests Magnolia grandiflora, common name is bull bay. It is an evergreen. Most varieties of it actually have rather large flowers, fast-growing and tree-sized. But there are also smaller, slower-growing shrubby varieties, and they tend to have smaller flowers, as you describe.

I'm not aware of any plant commonly known as a "birthday tree", and google didn't find me one. It is not impossible "birthday" is a garbling of "bull bay".