Sick Magnolia Grandiflora - Not Flowering, Losing Bark

Hello,

I have a very sick Magnolia Tree (Pretty sure it's a Grandiflora) and want to know if it will ever recover.

We bought this home less than a year ago and soon noticed the Magnolia tree was missing a lot of bark at it's base all the way around the trunk up to 2'-3' high.

Think this is called girdling. it's pretty major.

Upon close inspection the bark edges crumple away easily and I found bugs living in the rotten bark. If I cut away the dead bark 1"-2" I can find healthy tissue

It seems to be struggling along, keeping most of it's current leaves but a consistent amount are browning and falling off.

Shortly after moving in last summer a neighbour mentioned the tree hasn't bloomed well in several years. At first didn't think much of it but now it makes sense. This year it hasn't bloomed at all. It's very depressing as this tree was the highlight of the garden to us when we saw it.

From what I have read on-line this is pretty fatal. Any chance it will recover and if so what can I do?

Thanks

 

Alas, the girdling will prove fatal, no chance of recovery at all.

 

:-(

It was always a long shot anyway, hoping maybe there was some miracle cure.

Thanks for the reply.

Any suggestions on time frame before tree becomes a hazard and I should have it removed?

 

Ah... that's a difficult question and depends to some extent on what the underlying cause of the bark loss was. I'm not even sure how long the tree will take to completely die. That said, you should be good for at least a couple of years after the last leaves die, giving you plenty of time to plan removal.