I mega-chopped a Black Tulip Magnolia! This is purely for science and learning purposes so everyone just take a deep breath. I found this nursery stock Black Tulip Magnolia that was significantly leaning, such that it would possibly never make a great permanent tree in the ground. But it has a beautifully thick trunk that I am going to try to bring down further over the next 5 or so years. It was in a 5 gallon nursery pot and it was marked at a significantly low price for this particular tree. It had some blooms that appeared to be aborted from a heavy frost perhaps. So there is one source of energy reserves not spent. It had leaf pods still closed from its last growing season which only 2 out of many had begun to open. I considered this another unspent source of energy reserves. As we’re starting to have consistently warmer and sunnier days in the PNW and considering my other younger Black Tulip Magnolia is leafing out like crazy, I hypothesize that this test-tree is likely to start ramping up it’s metabolism for the growing season. I removed it from its nursery pot and potted it into a large ceramic container with as little disturbing of it’s roots as possible. It is seriously root bound, but I will fix that in future years should this tree survive. I think the tree has enough reserves at the right moment in the very first moments of it’s growth cycle to be able to survive such a severe chop. My hope is that in the next 15-30 years I’ll have the world’s ONLY Bonsai Black Tulip Magnolia specimen with a delightfully thick trunk. I did use bonsai prune sealant. So wish me luck and feel free to offer any tips! It’s already a common belief that deciduous magnolia’s don’t respond well to heavy pruning. Guess we’ll find out.
