This 45 gallon tree, from Bill Bownds Nursery, was planted in January 2014. I decided to acquire this tree due to the fact that the Magnolia we already possessed (the "Bracken Brown Beauty") is a cultivar and quite different from the native Southern Magnolia - the native Southern Magnolia has larger leaves whose undersides are much less brown and hairy.
This tree had a reasonable 2014, and in 2015 I removed the stakes. However in the winter of 2015/2016, there was some moderate wind and the tree began to lean. The tree was still swiveling in the ground like a ball-and-socket joint - obviously it had not rooted out very well (reminiscent of the now defunct 30 gallon Tulip Tree), so I re-staked it. Inspection of the ground outside the original planting hole revealed a few wet-spaghetti-like roots which would obviously not provide any strength - at least it was trying to penetrate the clay beyond the planting hole. Around this region there are quite a few Southern Magnolias in people's backyards and most of them look pretty healthy, but this one has always looked chlorotic. In 2014, 15 and 16, it produced a few fragrant flowers and "cones" but not nearly as many as the Bracken Brown Beauty beside it. Both Magnolias are not really thriving in my yard, the 30 gallon Tulip tree never rooted out in three years, and the two mail-order Cucumber Magnolias I planted on two separate occasions never leafed out - I get the impression that the fleshy roots of Magnolias find it hard to penetrate the hard clay soil outside their planting holes. On September 24th 2017, the Southern Magnolia had several cones in various stages of development. The cones and seeds of Magnolia trees are beautiful. In 2018 and 2019 the Southern Magnolia struggled through, but was still not looking any better established.
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Southern Magnolia (late June 2021)
Southern Magnolia (early July 2020)
Southern Magnolia (end of June 2019)
Southern Magnolia (July 2018)
Southern Magnolia (July 2017)
Southern Magnolia (July 2016)
Southern Magnolia (July 2016)
Southern Magnolia (2014)
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