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what does a magnolia tree need to grow

How to grow magnolias

Magnolias produce large opulent flowers, usually in shades of pink or white, in spring or summer. In total bloom, the display tin be truly breath-taking. They range in size from big trees to meaty shrubs, and then there are options to adjust nigh gardens.

Quick facts

  • Shrubs or trees, large or small-scale
  • Flowers in spring or summer
  • Many prefer slightly acidic or neutral soil
  • Like a sheltered spot in sun or lite shade
  • Plant from autumn to spring
  • Fully hardy, only bloom buds may be frosted
  • Low maintenance in one case settled in

All you need to know

What are magnolias?

Magnolias are popular ornamental copse or shrubs, widely grown in gardens and prized for their large showy flowers in spring and summertime.

They are hardy, but prefer a sheltered spot and moist, well-tuckered soil. Some need slightly acidic or neutral conditions. Many magnolias are deciduous, losing their leaves over winter, but a few are evergreen, with dark glossy leaves all year circular.

Choosing the right magnolia for you


When choosing a magnolia, it'southward worth considering:

  • Flower colour and flowering fourth dimension

  • Ultimate size of the found

  • Soil blazon

Flower choice

Most magnolias have either white or pink flowers, from rich magenta through soft rose to palest blush and snow white. There are a few maroon, dark royal, yellowish or cream cultivars too. Blossom size and shape can also vary, with star, basin and goblet forms.

Magnolias tin can flower for a long period, often with a 2nd flush a few months later on. Different species bloom at unlike times, from early spring to belatedly summer. If y'all alive in a frost-prone region, it would be best to avert early-flowering species, equally the buds and flowers are easily browned by frost.

Institute size


Magnolias grow to a broad range of sizes, from shrubs merely ane–2m (3¼–six½ft) tall to large copse. And then information technology's important to choose a plant to suit the amount of space you have available:

  • For a small infinite, consider a star magnolia (M. stellata or its cultivars), with many-petalled white or pale pink blooms. Compact magnolias will even grow well in big containers.

  • For a medium-sized tree, perhaps as a specimen in a lawn, consider species such as Chiliad. × soulangeana, M. denudata and M. × loebneri.

  • For growing confronting a large wall, consider an evergreen magnolia, such as M. grandiflora.

Soil type

How and what to buy

Magnolias are available in garden centres, tree nurseries and from online suppliers, including RHS Plants. For the widest option of cultivars, try a specialist tree supplier.

Plants are sold at a range of sizes, depending on price. Smaller plants tend to institute more quickly, merely may take a few years to blossom.

For tips on choosing a healthy specimen, see our video guide to tree ownership.

Where to get ideas and advice


To explore your potential planting choices, yous tin:

  • Visit gardens that characteristic lots of magnolias and run into which you similar best. Many Cornish gardens are renowned for their magnolias, merely you'll too observe them in gardens and arboreta across the state, including RHS Gardens.

  • Ask at local garden centres, which should offering a range of magnolias that do well in your local conditions.

  • Go to RHS Discover a Plant. Search for 'magnolia' to browse the photos and plant descriptions, and find out where to buy them.

  • Visit a specialist tree nursery, in person or online.

Where to plant

Magnolias are usually grown in the ground, simply the compact forms tin also be grown successfully in containers.

Nigh magnolias prefer:

  • full sun
  • fertile, moist, well-drained soil
  • ​slightly acidic or neutral conditions
  • a sheltered position

Even if yous don't accept these ideal conditions, you may withal be able to grow selected magnolias. For instance:

  • Dry out, element of group i soil – tryMagnolia grandiflora orThou. delavayi.

  • Moist, alkaline soil – considerM. kobus, M. × loebneri, M. sieboldii, M. stellata and M. wilsonii.

  • Moisture soil – Thousand. grandiflora and Thou. virginiana may exist suitable.

  • Light/dappled shade – cull from some of the later-flowering deciduous species, such every bit M. wilsonii and G. sieboldii.

A  very cold or exposed site isn't ideal for many magnolias, peculiarly the evergreens:

  • Frost can damage magnolia buds and flowers in spring and evergreen foliage in autumn.

  • For shelter and protection, evergreen magnolias are often grown confronting a warm wall. See our guide to growing wall shrubs.

  • Evergreen M. grandiflora and M. delavayi may non survive where the temperature drops beneath -v°C (23°F).

  • M. grandiflora may need staking when planted in open footing, even when quite mature. Come across our guide to staking trees.

  • If you're considering planting confronting a wall, it's worth noting that reports of damage to buildings past magnolias are uncommon.

See our guide to assessing your microclimate.

Always consider the ultimate size of a tree earlier buying, to make certain it's suitable for your garden. Some magnolia species can abound extremely large and demand lots of space. Notwithstanding, there are plenty of more compact options that grow to only about 2m (six½ft), for less spacious sites. See our guide to magnolias for pocket-size gardens.

When to found


Magnolias are bachelor to buy all year round, just are best planted between fall and spring, whenever the ground isn't frozen.

How to found


Magnolias are easy to plant – see our guide to planting trees and shrubs.

Magnolias need niggling attention once they've settled in, as long every bit they're growing in suitable conditions. However, when grown in containers, they demand regular watering and feeding during the growing season.

Watering

Newly planted magnolias should exist watered regularly for the kickoff few years. In one case well established, they may yet need watering during dry out spells or when growing in light, gratis-draining soil.

Magnolias growing against a wall may need additional watering, every bit they may exist sheltered from rainfall.

If planted in a lawn, go along a circle of bare soil, at least 1.2m (4ft) in bore, effectually the constitute for at least the first few years. This helps rainwater to reach the roots, rather than existence absorbed by the grass.

Plants in containers can dry out chop-chop, so should be watered regularly during the growing flavour.

Feeding

Newly planted magnolias are best fed annually for the first few years, to get them off to a good starting time. In late winter, scatter a general fertiliser effectually the base, at the charge per unit recommended on the packet

Afterwards that, they more often than not don't need feeding, unless the soil is very poor or growth and flowering need a boost.  see our guide to feeding plants.

Plants in containers take fiddling access to nutrients, so need feeding regularly during the growing season. It is also best to topdress in bound – scrape off the top 5cm (2in) of compost and supervene upon with fresh compost and a fiddling slow-release fertiliser, such as Vitax Q4 or blood, fish and os.

See our guide to container maintenance and growing copse in containers.

Mulching

Mulch the root zone with a thick layer of organic affair such as garden compost every spring or fall. This helps to agree moisture in the soil, so is especially of import in a well-drained site.

Leave a 10cm (4in) collar free of mulch effectually the base of the stem, to avert the gamble of rotting the bawl.

Caring for older plants

Magnolias can be long-lived trees, simply may eventually commencement to pass up – see our guide to looking after older trees.

If trees get too large or become lopsided, you tin effort renovative pruning – see Pruning and training beneath.

Deciduous magnolias

With magnolias that lose their leaves over wintertime, pruning is seldom required.

However, it may be necessary in a few circumstances:

  • To go on trees healthy – remove any dead, damaged or diseased forest. Encounter our guide to light pruning.

  • To reduce a tree'due south size – aim to maintain an open, balanced crown by thinning out stems to the trunk or to a sideshoot. Stage the pruning over several years to avoid stressing the tree.

  • To renovate an overgrown or misshapen tree – spread the pruning over two or three years. Trees may exist slow to recover, and if they send upward watershoots (vigorous vertical shoots) or stems die back after heavy pruning, remove these too.

  • To shape trees afterwards planting – remove weak and badly placed stems and shorten any long shoots.

Prune only betwixt mid-summer and early autumn – cuts are liable to bleed sap if made in late winter or early spring. Always cut back to a natural fork, to avoid leaving unsightly stubs.

See our guide to pruning trees and shrubs.

Evergreen magnolias

With magnolias that keep their leaves all year circular, little pruning is usually needed. It is only appropriate:

  • To go along copse healthy – remove any dead, damaged or diseased forest. See our guide to light pruning.

  • To shape young trees subsequently planting – just shorten whatsoever lengthy young branches and, if you want a bare stalk at the base, removal the lower boughs.

  • To renovate misshapen or overgrown trees or to repair storm impairment – hard pruning may be necessary. Cut dorsum to the chief framework or fifty-fifty beyond. It is safest to spread this piece of work over several years.

Wall-grooming magnolias

Some evergreen magnolias, such as One thousand. grandiflora, blossom and grow particularly well if trained confronting a warm, sunny wall. To practise this:

  • Adhere supports to the wall – such every bit a serial of horizontal wires or trellis. Initially necktie in the branches at a 45-degree angle, then lower to horizontal the following season. This encourages flowering and helps to spread the plant beyond the wall.

  • In summer, remove whatsoever shoots growing towards the wall, and shorten outward-growing shoots to ane or two leaves.

Y'all can use several methods to raise new magnolias from your original plant – layering is the easiest selection, sowing seeds is fairly straightforward but quite tiresome, and taking cuttings can be a challenge:

  • Layer shoots that are near ground level.

  • Seeds – collect when the cones brainstorm to split. The shiny black seeds have an orange-red fleshy roofing. Launder this off, then place the seeds in a polythene bag of moist sand or vermiculite and refrigerate for 2 to four months. Sow into pots or trays of seed compost indoors. They should be ready to found out in two or three years, merely may not flower for 10 or more.

  • Softwood and greenwood cuttings from deciduous magnolias – take in jump. Success rates can exist low and artificial lite may be needed from summer until leaf autumn to ensure the cuttings have developed enough to survive the first winter. Apply liquid feed once rooted, and keep frost free over winter.

  • Semi-ripe cuttings from evergreen magnolias – take in late summertime or early on autumn.

If planted in a sheltered spot, most magnolias abound and bloom well with few problems. However, harsh weather and poor growing conditions can bear upon flowering and appearance. Look for:

  • Lack of flowers – newly planted copse tin take several years to settle in before they showtime flowering. Location can likewise affect flowering – K. grandiflora, for example, needs warm, sunny conditions. Hard pruning tin also inhibit flowering.

  • Blackened flowers or buds – frost damage often affects early on-flowering magnolias.

  • Yellow leaves – young leaves of many magnolias are naturally pale, but yellowing of more mature foliage may be caused past excessive alkalinity. See our guide to testing your soil.

  • Brown leaves – may be caused by drought.

  • Leafage loss – the leaves of evergreen magnolias are long lasting but are shed after several years, leading to harmless, if alarming, leaf autumn episodes in early summer.


Several fungal diseases and rots can affect magnolias, including:

  • bracket fungi

  • dearest fungus

  • Phytophthora root rot

While nosotros recall all this information will be helpful to you, we ever recommend to read the pedagogy labels on your plants.

Discover magnolias

Discover magnolias

Everything yous demand to know about choosing the right magnolia for you lot.

Discover magnolias

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Source: https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/magnolia/growing-guide