I have a magnolia grandiflora which has never bloomed in the ten years it has been in the ground. The tree looks healthy and have new foliage each year, but not a flower bud to be seen. Any suggestions?
You ended up with a seedling that is apparently going to take a long time to reach flowering age. It's much better to buy vegetatively propagated named cultivars that have the sexual maturity of the parent plant. Usually these also have more striking foliage than usual. Other characteristics that prompt the selecting and naming of such forms include compact or columnar growth, jumbo flowers and above average hardiness. In the wild southern magnolia often produces a tall tree with a columnar trunk. Large-growing tree species tend not to flower when small but rather concentrate on building height, then when as tall as or taller than competing trees around them enter a mature phase where the crown becomes more spreading and flowering and fruiting is allowed to affect their branching habit.
