SO MANY MAGNOLIAS, SO LITTLE SPACE. I sought suggestions from Andrew Bunting, president of Magnolia Society Worldwide and Curator of the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore School (with its spectacular Magnolia assortment of about 130 varieties, together with these at left, above)—and first, he shared his experience about their primary care, and notably pruning.
primary magnolia care
FULL SUN (or light shade in hotter zones), and well-drained soil that’s excessive in pure matter is the fundamental routine (although the sweetbay magnolia, M. virginiana, also can take a moist spot). Give the others these necessities, plus a lightweight layer of aged pure mulch, they usually additionally usually will thrive. Fertilizing isn’t wanted, says Andrew. (At Scott they solely mulch the circles of timber in yard areas, utilizing a combination of leaf compost and one-year-old composted picket chips.)
Magnolias usually shouldn’t the simplest to plant beneath, nonetheless, attributable to their fleshy, moisture-hogging root packages. “Some vegetation which is able to take dry shade will make a go of it,” he says, suggesting Epimedium, or Asarum, or Christmas fern. Amongst bulbs, strive Scilla, or Chionodoxa, and even toadlilies (Tricyrtis), he recommends.
Magnolia grandiflora, the so-called Southern magnolia, is the hardest of all to underplant—because of it has not merely these roots, nonetheless in addition to evergreen foliage to restrict water that reaches the world beneath.
Although magnolias are usually sturdy, diversified species of scale bugs is also an occasional pest on the Scott Arboretum, which is solely exterior Philadelphia (information on the gathering, and visiting).
I’d add yellow-bellied sapsuckers as a formidable opponent, and one is on the verge of killing the second of my two big earlier magnolias, and has offed completely completely different decorative tree species correct proper right here. Andrew confirms that the hen does like magnolias, which is why I sadly is not going to be altering mine.
The fundamentals of magnolia planting and care, from the Magnolia Society
magnolia pruning
THOUGH MAGNOLIAS usually want little pruning, there are two factors to maintain up a specific eye out for: Since nearly all magnolias are nonetheless bought as grafted vegetation, Andrew says, it is best to undoubtedly prune out any shoots which is ready to sprout on the underside, rising from the rootstock.
Likewise, eradicate water sprouts—technically generally called “epicormic shoots,” he says (picture above of 1)—that kind as vertical development on branches, notably on the saucer varieties. At Scott Arboretum, epicormic shoots are eradicated in late winter.
In each different case: “We do selective pruning, merely to sort them up or limb them up over time as desired.”
The Scott’s specimens of the Little Woman sequence of magnolias, for example, purchased proper right here to the yard in 1968, when the eight shrubby, smallish new varieties (reaching possibly 12-20 toes, home-garden dimension) had been launched by the U.S. Nationwide Arboretum. The surviving vegetation actually haven’t been pruned since—nonetheless fairly allowed to simply flip into their pure shapes. (One among them, ‘Betty,’ is all through the picture on the underside of the web net web page.)
Often, although, you desire a magnolia to go nicely with a specific yard want or house.
“I’ve seen ‘Galaxy’ common as a avenue tree, for instance,” says Andrew, “limbed up so its head begins 5 or 6 toes off the underside.”
At Scott, a gaggle of yellow-flowered magnolias is limbed up even elevated, offering the intense shade that gives the arboretum’s tree-peony assortment that form of light it prefers. Each ‘Galaxy’ and the yellow-flowered varieties are generally fast-growing—and fast-growing ones are the most effective magnolias for limbing up. The M. virginiana var. australis alternative generally called ‘Henry Hicks’ could be handled this manner on the Swarthmore campus (above).
Maybe the extraordinary of magnolia pruning, says Andrew: Attempt creating an espalier with a grandiflora type (the place hardy and reliably evergreen, the reality is–usually Zone 7ish, maybe 6B, or milder).
just a few completely different magnolias, from andrew bunting
BY NO MEANS an exhaustive tips, what follows is as a substitute the outcomes of an impromptu chat the opposite day—some highlights, not an encyclopedia. A hyperlink to sources that promote numerous the lesser-known varieties is on the underside of the web net web page.
For pure perfume: Magnolia virginiana or grandiflora.
Desire a native species? Many magnolias are Asian, nonetheless seven or eight are North American natives, together with acuminata (the so-called cucumbertree magnolia); tripetala; macrophylla and macrophylla subspecies ashei (beneath, flower element; tree at backside of the web net web page); grandiflora; virginiana; fraseri, and pyrimidata.
Coping with moist soil? Magnolia virginiana is the one completely different.
To view from beneath (as if planted on a wall, above a pathway): Magnolia sieboldii has pendant, aromatic flowers with a boss of purple inside; good to stroll beneath it when in bloom.
Yellow flowers? ‘Butterflies’ (beneath) with as rather a lot as 16 primrose yellow tepals, is a specific magnificence.
Nonetheless what a few yellow-flowered alternative that isn’t so rangy as some yellows is also, I requested? ‘Judy Zuk,’ a extra moderen cultivar from a sophisticated cross of M. stellata, M. liliiflora, and M. acuminata, is a really slim and upright plant, making it superb for tight areas.
Darkish-colored flowers? ‘Galaxy,’ ‘Randy,’ Magnolia x soulangiana ‘Lennei’, plus ‘Genie’ and ‘Black Tulip’ are some selections.
For tropical-looking foliage: M. macrophylla subspecies ashei (foot-long leaves and aromatic flowers, nonetheless on a tree to solely 12 toes–picture on the underside of the web net web page); fraseri; tripetala (the so-called umbrella magnolia, which Scott Arboretum has grown since 1932).
For evergreen foliage: grandiflora, and virginiana, too. (Relying on location, virginiana is also partially or fully evergreen in winter; ‘Henry Hicks,’ element above, and ‘Inexperienced Shadow’ are inclined to be extra so.)
About grandiflora varieties, notably (which Andrew furthermore admires for his or her showy seedpods):
- Hardier grandlfiora varieties for Zone 6ish gardens: ‘Edith Bogue,’ an older hardy choice, has been rising on Swarthmore campus since 1961; ‘D.D. Blanchard’ and ‘Pocono’ are advisable for implausible chilly hardiness.
- A favourite diminutive grandiflora: ‘Kay Parris’ (smaller in type, leaf, flower, and so forth.).
- For finest indumentum (the fuzzy cinnamon coating on the leaf undersides of various grandiflora varieties): ‘D.D. Blanchard’ and ‘Bracken’s Brown Magnificence.’
The newest must-have’s: New-ish Asiatic species, for gardens from Zone 7B or 8ish and milder, together with Magnolia laevifolia (shrubby and evergreen, beneath); yuyuanensis, above, and lotungensis (each evergreen).
All through the works from breeders: Search for a pink- or red-flowered Magnolia grandiflora, maybe, based totally completely on hybridization efforts beneath methodology correct this second, says Andrew.
magnolia procuring: sources, and extra
WHERE TO BUY completely different magnolias like these by mail, in case your native nursery doesn’t have them? The Magnolia Society has a list of distributors. (Above: ashei, left, and ‘Betty,’ one amongst many Little Women, right.)
(Pictures courtesy of Andrew Bunting and Scott Arboretum, other than M. laevifolia and M. yuyuanensis, courtesy Aaron Schettler. Yellow magnolia and epicormic shoot element from A Method to Yard.)