I'm doing a research project on Magnolias and need some info. Propagation methods carried out in B.C. Landscape uses. Some IPM methods on targeting magnolia diseases and pests.
Two good books to get your started: Magnolia's and their allies edited by David Hunt and The world of Magnolias by Dorothy Callaway. In general, magnolia's are propagted in one of three ways: cuttings, grafted plants and seed grown plants which result in hybrids- you don't know what you have. As you can see, though the question is a simple one there is no simple answer, a knowledge of indivindual species is necessary. The experts will surely devle into this topic with gusto.
For propagation info, you migth try Reimers Nursery in Yarrow. Their in the phone book. They produce a wide array of interesting Magnolias, doing the grafting work themselves. As for diseases, look into Verticillum alba-atrum . It kills Maggies around Vancouver regularly (also hits Acer campestre big time too). Best Ipm techniques is to keep track of infected areas and plant resilient species.
Deciduous magnolias for a windy site in Burnaby Apparently the evergreen magnolias are more wind-resistant than the deciduous ones. However, I want to plant a number of deciduous ones that will be ok in my fairly open garden. Any suggestions?
The popular, compact, bushy ones like MM. stellata, liliiflora. x soulangiana and their hybrids. It's the open-growing, treelike ones with long branches that twist and tear in gales. However, all have flowers with fragile tepals that can break in an exposed position if it becomes blustery at flowering time. Maybe you can plant some evergreen shrubs or trees to grow up with them and provide some shelter, make a contrasting backdrop for the deciduous ones.
Fungus problems prevalent down here, mostly stem dieback (thought to be Pseudomonas) and foliage mildew. Deciduous kinds sometimes arrive at retail outlets in late winter/early spring with yellow flower buds, apparently sprayed with sulphur to prevent dieback. Foliage mildew seen mostly on certain deciduous kinds (esp. Magnolia liliiflora and hybrids) during summer dry season, but also a problem on evergreen species in containers, causing premature dropping of older leaves and thin appearance (overplanted M. grandiflora 'Little Gem' often both dies back and mildews here, both in containers and in the ground, making it quite a stinker). As with other plants, a given specimen is not guaranteed to be a sick sister, just because a given malady may be rather frequent in the area; as always, good cultivation (suitable planting site, consistent aftercare) may be expected to prevent difficulties seen on less well-tended specimens.
Thank you Ron for the advice on relatively wind-proof magnolias. You' ve given me the courage to spend some money on these beautiful plants. It's rather ironic that evergreen magnolias are wind-resistant! I have one (a young one) and it appears to be true about wind-resistance.
Hi Sitka: Sometime browse through the various Garden forums of the UBC and look at all the wonderful Deciduous Magnolias Daniel posted pictures of. When you've been around Magnolias for many years you'll have a much deeper appreciation of the superb varieties that the UBC Botanical Garden has. Outside of the Strybing Arboretum at Golden Gate Park and Filoli Gardens in Woodside the UBC's Deciduous Magnolia collection is almost on a par to what Kew Gardens has in England. Granted, you going out and paying good money for the "Himalayan" Magnolias may not be what you want to do just yet but you need to look at those trees a few times and then see them in bloom several times. Daniel's truly outstanding images of those trees make me weak-kneed and I've grown many of those Magnolias he took pics of in the past and still have several of them. I always have marveled at the large sized, rarer to find, Himalayan Magnolias when I see them elsewhere. You have one of the better sources for seeing some rare and distinctive Deciduous Magnolias in all of North America real close to you. How much wind are we talking about? Deciduous Magnolias can tolerate hot winds here. Our Iolanthe, Star Wars, Athene, and Toichi Domoto's Lilliputian, all in the ground, get hit with the hot Northwesterly winds all of the time as they are almost totally exposed to the winds and they do not get chewed up much. What we worry about and there is nothing we can do about it is that every year when our Mags are in bloom it rains! We wait all year to see the blossoms and the rain, which we need, destroys many of the flowers but what we do see are worth waiting for. For you just starting out in Magnolias stick with the proven, rather easy to grow Magnolias such as forms of Stellata, Lilliflora and their hybrids such as the DeVoz-Kosar hybrids like Ann, Betty, Susan, Randy, Rickie, Vickie, Pinkie and the rarest to find but the darkest purple of them all, Darkest Purple. Royal Crown is always a favorite here. Lilliflora Nigra can be a good Mag to start out with. For Stellata's, Royal Star, Water Lily and if you can ever find one, Kikuzaki, make nice full shaped large shrubs. Leonard Messel is a great landscape tree allover California, I've used it for several people in landscape plantings. Peter Veitch and Veitchii Rubra make wonderful trees. Kobus, Kobus Rosea and Kobus Virids make nice shrubs with lots of blooms. Dr.Merrill is a standard landscape Magnolia here. Wada's Memory is another good one. Salcifolia in the right location can make a very nice landscape tree. For a Soulangiana, Alexandrina is another landscape standard here as well as Rustica Rubra. Lennei used to be planted a lot in the older landscapes. Amabilis is by far the best of the large flowered white Soulangianas if you can find one. If you want to go for the gusto and still not pay an arm and a leg for it like you would for most of the Himalayan Magnolias, then Denudata is real tough to beat. Sometime see the large Yulans (Denudatas) in bloom in the front courtyard at Filoli and I'll guarantee you will want to have one to grow on. I'll just stick with a few Deciduous Magnolias for you to check out and research up on. Most of them mentioned above are either real easy to find or are moderately obtainable. Another Magnolia book to look for is Magnolias by J.M. Gardiner. Here are a couple of URLs to get you started on your UBC Magnolia hunt. http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=418 http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=444 Jim
Just a quick note: What I wrote in my former post was all from memory. I did not bother to check the Magnolia Societies Magnolia Cultivars Checklist to see if I had misspelled any of the "girl" series Magnolias. Well, there is one error and probably two but Rickie is wrong and should be spelled Ricki. Vickie is not even referenced in the Magnolia Society Cultivars Checklist. Vickie is probably better spelled Vicky or Vicki but I've seen labels of it spelled Vickie when they came into the nursery. Darkest Purple was a variant of Susan but is much darker and later fades in color to what Susan starts out being. The tepals of Darkest Purple have noticeably more twist in the tepals than Susan has also. Another nursery standard Magnolia I did not mention is Galaxy which has been a real good bloomer for us but its sister seedling Spectrum sets so few flower buds that the National Arboretum gave up on it years ago. It is too bad as I feel Spectrum shows the Sprengeri flower characteristics much better than Galaxy does. I have a 30+ foot tall Spectrum in my front yard and I can tell you it is an "event" to see a flower on it. The most I've seen in 14 years in the ground was 4 blossoms. Also, one very well known wholesale nursery has had Verbanica mixed in with their Alexandrina since the early 90's and that nursery does regularly supply retail nurseries throughout both Canada and the US. A quick note on Little Gem. My first reaction is that if that Magnolia is having problems then the nursery stock is not clean to start with. I've not seen any problems with our form of Little Gem but then again it was developed here and came from one of the more clean growers in all of Magnolias. So clean in fact that many of the Magnolias at Strybing came from that nursery and virtually all of the Magnolias at Filoli originally came from that same nursery. At one time Don Kleim had over 150 varieties of Deciduous Magnolias before the many Gresham hybrids started showing up and long before the mass of newer introductions, as they've been around a while now, from Europe. (Star Wars, Athene, Apollo, Iolanthe and Vulcan are just some of those newer introductions). Jim
Reply to Mr. Shep Thank you for your time, I really appreciate it. I thought Little Gem was an evergreen magnolia - thank you for setting me straight. Your garden sound beautiful. Good luck with magnolia blossoms in the spring of 2005!
Personally, I like the Magnolia sieboldii, Oyama Magnolia. It's habit is broader and usually bushy. I haven't really investigated it's wind characteristics though.
Hi Sitka: Little Gem is an Evergreen Magnolia. It is characterized as being much more angular (tall and narrow) in shape than most Southern Magnolias are. Technically, it is a semi-dwarf for the Evergreen Magnolias. In all fairness to Ron B's post I've heard of cooler and wet areas having problems with Little Gem also but I've often questioned whether that form was the same as our form here. I have my doubts and because of that I am suspicious of less than desirable reports of Little Gem grown elsewhere unless I can see those Magnolias. I was taught Magnolias by one of the more dedicated ever in the nursery business. Magnolias for me is a true love, way beyond just a fleeting passion for the plant. No plant has hurt my feelings more than Deciduous Magnolias either but that was in large part due to my wanting to have the rarer, hard to find varieties that I and others later lost here due to graft incompatibilities with Grandiflora rootstock. I've paid $600 wholesale for a small five gallon Magnolia before and anyone that does such a thing either is certifiably "nuts" or really wants to grow that plant real bad. I'd like to think it was the latter of the two in my particular case. You have some people living near you and in this forum that can help you with a host of species and varieties to grow in your area. There are so many Magnolias that I did not mention that are worth checking into. I try to tell people to stick with the less expensive, easier to grow Magnolias rather than have them go out and pay good money to have some of the various forms of Sprengeri, Dawsoniana, Sargentiana, Campbellii, Mollicomata, (all of above of which I learned as being the Himalayan forms of Deciduous Magnolias) and now the many hybrids of the above species and one subspecies. I think it is safe to say that if the UBC Botanical Garden can grow a very nice array of Deciduous Magnolias that you can also where you are located. Good luck with this jewel of flowering trees. Jim
The Lam Asian Garden has just about the best possible conditions for growing the big, precocious (flowering before the leaves open) Asiatic magnolias - with its deep soils, natural underground irrigation, comparatively high precipitation, and little wind (despite being on a bluff) - that can be provided in Vancouver. Success with such plants there is not an indication that they will be easy to please on more typical sites. And you have to have the room for such brontosaurean trees to develop, be in scale.
The wind issue at the Burnaby site has not yet been established. Yes, many and most Magnolias do better grown in locales that are protected from the harsh (hot or freezing) winds but I've grown them into the wind here with minimal negative effects. We've planted Magnolias in a host of landscapes whereby the trees are fully exposed to the elements and they have done reasonably well for those gardens. I am not going to go into the virtues of the UBC's site for their Magnolias other than to say that someone knew where to plant them and that knowledge was not garnered overnight. Instead of being overly envious, nor jealous of them, I would rather prefer to respect them for offering such a nice display of Magnolias in their Botanical Garden. The Himalayan forms are not for everybody and not everyone can grow them. Yes, they do best in sheltered and protected locations but at the same time we fully encourage them to grow quite tall by possibly protecting them too much. Even at Strybing most of the Campbellii's are almost in a reclusive location whereby in order to see the flower looking directly down into the flower we need to be 45' off the ground. The Campbellii's that were planted more into the open with not with a lot of protection have branching that supports flowers much more accessible to view into, even with us standing on the ground. In shade the Campbellii's are taller and grown in sun the same plants are shorter and fuller. Why is it that our book authors have not picked up on that? So here we are in a desert growing a plant that for many years supposedly knowledgeable people in flowering plants felt we could not grow even with special consideration placed on protecting the plant from our harsher elements than most areas have to endure. Then the whole issue becomes an aberration in that what others saw growing here is quickly forgotten. A few years later, they again are telling people we cannot grow Magnolias here. Weve had to put up with such nonsense and insolence from others for a long while and in some ways we still are. Where we got hurt was when there was a concept of grafting these eventual larger sized Mags to induce flowering at a much younger age. One, world renown, Horticultural Foundation grafted several forms from Strybing onto a few forms of understock. It was unfortunate for us that most of their grafts were on Grandiflora rootstock but at the time we did not know for sure there would be graft incompatibilities that did not immediately show up but did a few years later. The only way to know for sure was to grow them on and that was the reason Don Kleim bought every grafted Magnolia that foundation had, every darn one of them. I do not know of any current day nursery that would spend $150,000 just to conduct an experiment. It takes real guts to do such a thing but we just considered the experimental process as doing our part as dedicated nurserymen. Yes, we got to see forms of Campbellii and Mollicomata bloom in seven years or less but we also lost the plants during the Summer after the Spring blooms also. We did learn that if the Magnolias were grafted onto Grandiflora rootstock that the ones immediately planted in the ground had a much higher survival rate after blooming than the Mags that were grown in large containers, for us 24 and 30 boxes. The few Magnolias grafted onto Soulangiana did better in the ground and grown in containers and boxes but Soulangiana was not nor ever was our preferred root stock as for us it was always Sprengeri. How many people have Sprengeri seedlings to grow on just to use for grafting? Not many even today still. Even today, the better known sources for Magnolias are not growing their own plants, they are buying them from somewhere else. For the record, there are people in the Magnolia Society that know I know this stuff as opposed to the people I once knew well in Japanese Maples whom almost all of them are now deceased. The penultimate reason our imports of the newer introductions are still alive is because we planted them in the ground when they first came in. We were told, I was told to my face, that those trees were grafted onto Sprengeri to which we later learned that was not true. The original imports we purchased initially grown in containers are generally no longer with us. As far as Sitkas plight, the plot size does indeed matter as to what Magnolias should be tried. How large an area and are the Magnolias to be used as accent plants or planted in a large open area. Most of the Magnolias I suggested in my first post are known, at least to some of us, as being the better Deciduous Magnolias for use in a landscape. Most of them will be cutting grown or originally grown from seed. Jim
Magnolias, windy sites and growth patterns etc. Jim (Mr. Shep): thank you for your long post. I don't have time to digest all the info I've received yet, but I thank you for your time and knowledge. It is interesting that protecting possibly causes growth unnecessarily high amongst other concerns. I will carefully go over all answers etc. and perhaps try to give more info. as to my windy site. It is not overly windy per se, but simply unprotected by buildings and conifers etc. For now, the information you have given is ample. Thank you very much.
Hi Sitka: You bet, you have a lot to absorb just from the more common, landscape standards that I mentioned in my first post. Read up on the varieties and go to the Magnolia Societies web site and others to get an idea as to the varieties you may want to try and grow. http://www.magnoliasociety.org Notice where and how the Magnolias were planted and situated at the UBC Botanical Garden. What we can see from the settings is far more influential and informative than what we will garner from reading various books on Magnolias. See how the Magnolias are grown is the best advice I can give you. When you are ready to talk varieties just ask and I'll reply back to you. Tall growing Conifers have been used as wind breaks for Magnolias. I know it seems hard to fathom but in several Magnolia settings that I've seen, Conifers were planted just to be a wind break for the Magnolias. For you it will be the freezing winds you will have to be wary of but even grown in the open there are species forms and varieties you can grow and not be too overly concerned about it. Your limitation will not be so much the winds but the length of time it is cold or perhaps the amount of time the ground is frozen will be the toughest element for you to take into consideration. Magnolias generally do not like frozen ground for any length of time. Cool, wet weather is not that big a deal as most of the better areas for growing Deciduous Magnolias in are cool and wet. Cold and dry weather conditions will be much tougher to successfully grow these forms of Magnolias in. Jim
I'm working on identification of a tall, upright growing, purple-and-white saucer magnolia that is seen here and there in Seattle as an older tree. Years ago I was given the idea it might be the one put out as 'Veitchii Rubra'*, which is thought to be a saucer magnolia and not a Veitch magnolia (see Magnolia Society online Cultivar Checklist, for starters), thus M. x soulangeana 'Veitchii Rubra' instead of M. x veitchii 'Rubra'. How my concern pertains to this thread is that 'Veitchii Rubra' was mentioned during the course of the discussion generated; I would like to hear what the attributes are of the plant Jim knows under this name. Since the 1980s I have seen what could be the same cultivar displayed by local nurseries as 'San Jose'. As is often the case with saucer magnolias, descriptions do not agree on what this one is supposed to look like. *As I remember it now, based, in part, on a specimen so-labeled at the Seattle arboretum - which I can no longer locate.
Both descriptions below are from the Henderson Experimental Gardens Plant Specialist '86 - '87 Magnolia x veitchii Peter Veitch - vigorous tree, large flowers of inverted pear-shape, 9 tepals, salmon pink at base to 6" long. Magnolia x Veitchii Rubra - growth is similar to M x veitchii Peter Veitch, flower is more bowl shaped, lightly suffused with deep red-purple, lighter tone inside. The flowers of Veitchii Rubra can be rather large. Larger in size than any Soulangiana I've seen. Let me some photos of the Magnolia in question as I will know if it was the same Magnolia Don Kleim sold almost exclusively to many nurseries on the West Coast. Jim An addendum: I am not sure what you want but I can say that the shape of the flower of 'Veitchii Rubra' is not typical of a Soulangiana. Some people insist that 'Veitchii Rubra' is a Soulangiana but I am not so sure that they have ever really owned one or have seen the same form that we sold. In regards to veitchii 'Peter Veitch' this form is not the same as M. x veitchii (campbellii x heptapeta) as the named form has a noticeably larger flower in size than the species form is and the shape of the flower is dramatically different. One being an inverted pear shape whereas the other starts out what with we called in candles, long and symmetrically narrow flower from top to bottom. Another physical difference is that Veitchii will have a pronounced white coloration to the tips of the tepals going down about 1/3 or more the way from the top of the tepal down and stay that way until the flower expands and the tepals start to open up. Consider the difference in shape this way. One flower is globose, big and round, on top whereas the other is conversely a stricta form from the top down. If you've ever seen a 'Peppermint Stick' as it starts out then you would have an idea as to the amount of white on the tips and the basic but more symmetrical, uniform shape of M. x veitchii. By the way, Don's form of 'Peter Veitch' came to him in the 50's from England. M. x veitchii 'Peter Veitch' differs from M x veitchii 'Isca' in the shape of the flower as once again one is more globose and 'Isca' is more bowl shaped, similar in shape to 'Veitchii Rubra'. 'Isca' starts out a creamier white in color with the salmon pink at the base and later before tepal fall will develop a noticeable stripe in the tepals whereas 'Peter Veitch' still will have a pink flush in the lower portions of the tepals prior to shedding its tepals. http://ww1.clunet.edu/gf/plants/category/gar-2460.htm Two selected forms we had at the nursery were M. x veitchii 'Don's Surprise' and M. veitchii 'Jo Ann'. The latter was named by Don at the nursery but was never released to the nursery trade until after his passing and the other, a sister seedling, was released to the nursery trade in posthumous fashion also. Both original stock plants in the ground still reside at the originating nursery location. As an added note: most 'San Jose' are light pink on the backside of the tepal. Don had a form of 'San Jose' that was a richer color, a reddish- purple instead of a light pink but was not quite as rich in color as a 'Veitchii Rubra' is starting out. The darker form of 'San Jose' would end up having a pink stripe on the backside of the tepal with light pink at the base whereas 'Veitchii Rubra' retains much of its original color but will fade to a light shaded reddish purple at the base and much of the backside of the tepal.
Re: Japanese Magnolia tree I wanted to share some photos I've recently taken of a Japanese magnolia. I know identification can be extremely difficult to pinpoint, but I was wondering if it could be a M. sargentiana or soulangiana or if anyone would have a good guess for it? I've got a copy of Gardiner's Guide so I can generally rule out some varieties that it definitely does not look like but I'm still not certain. The flowers have 9 tepals and are light pink on the outside. They're so lovely and I'd love to do a cutting. Since it's blooming so early this year, when would be the best time to take a softwood cutting? My photos of a pink magnolia I don't think I'll attempt to grow from seeds but was curious if the seeds are these (pictured below)?
Hi Honeysuckle In the photo you submitted you are seeing the reproductive parts. Magnolias are on eof the most primative groups of plans and so the reproductive plants are held in spirals (Whorls). at the bottom of the cone in the centre of the picture is the male parts (Stamens looking kinda ratty and dried up!) and the central parts are the female (pistil pink and plump). eventually if pollination and fertilization happens (they are two different things) the female parts will harden and expand and eventually produce glossy red seeds. Magnolias are generally beetle pollinated but can also be wind pollinated. so to answer the question are these the seeds?. well yes and no they are a little too early in the process to be called seeds. but with pollination and fertilization happening they have the potential to become seeds. Best to look through several books for the exact cultivar and you may never find out exactly which it is. ther are several good resources and you may want to surf for Hugh Wilson's plant taxonomy pages at Texas A&M he has links to lots of photos from all over the world. My guess would be it is a type of saucer magnolia and a hybrid at that. Probably Magnolia x soulangeana of some sort. Maybe a jury hybrid http://www.jury.co.nz/magnolias.htm as for the cuttings most probably when you start to see leaf buds emerge and extend. Great photos by the way!!! Pierrot
Your Magnolia probably was cutting grown. You can start softwood cuttings any time now. Your nice looking Magnolia is a Magnolia x soulangiana 'Alexandrina' and I know whose form it is. This one is different in color and in the size of the flower than the old form 'Alexandrina' which will fade to a higher degree of white at the base of the flower before the tepals fall. Also, the top of the tepals will show more white as the flower ages in comparison but the old form also have considerably larger sized flowers with more of a bowl shape when the flower fully opens than this form will be. We brought this particular form into the nursery just to compare it to the old form and also compare it to our 'Verbanica'. Around here 'Alexandrina' is the first soulangiana to bloom in the Spring. Jim
'Alexandrina' was being sold in France by 1831. Since then multiple clones have passed under this same name. Today there are at least three distinctly different cultivars being grown as 'Alexandrina': one bearing white flowers with a purple flush up the center of the outside of the tepal, a second with a fine purple suffusion, giving a pink overall effect, and a third that is nearly all purple on the outside. If still present, both of the first two types can be seen growing side-by-side on the south side of Loderi Valley in the Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle.
This isn't a reply-but a question of soils, sun & gen. care. I've heard that they like acidic soil-but how much? I have lots of rotted stumps broken down which I've been digging up.Would this be too much for my (in a pot) magnolia to be set into? Should I mix it w/normal loamy dirt? Also, how much sun-is morning sun enough? I really appreciate your answers. Thanks much Sue.