Tree following, my Magnolia soulangeana

I have decided to sign up to a new meme called ‘Tree following’ and in my postage stamp size garden I actually have a few trees, the tallest tree, the Red Cedar is just over 9 m (about 30 ft) tall! I also have a rather unusual lilac, and a little conifer that died and now the tree stump is working as an obelisk for an almost 4m tall Passionflower - and I have a tall mature camellia – so big that it is a tree and no longer a bush. I used to have a tall holly tree too, but it had to be taken down when my neighbour built their extension and I am not that sorry to see it go, it was absolutely enormous. But I am not going to ‘follow’ any of these trees in dept, apart from mentioning them perhaps. No, the tree I am going to follow is a magnolia.

I have always wanted a magnolia, but I thought that my tiny garden was way too small for one – where would I put yet another tree, and one that grows like magnolias do? OK, I know they are tiny when you buy them, but small magnolias eventually grow up...

....and become a big magnolia! Oh, isn’t it absolutely lovely? – And twice the size of my garden!

So guess what I did last spring. I bought a magnolia! Oh, don’t worry, I didn’t buy the one in this picture! The trouble with growing magnolias is that they usually grow as multi stemmed shrubs or trees and often end up just as wide as they are tall – very wide and very tall. I’ve always thought they would not be suitable for a postage stamp garden like mine

The thing is, like all plants, magnolias mature too, eventually. And they can get quite big. How big depends on type and variety - and where you look and who you ask. It seems to be quite a discrepancy about final size for the exact same magnolia from different websites. And also about when each magnolia will start to flower, a rather important point – will it flower at age 5 year or at 20 year? I have always heard that you plant a magnolia for your grandchildren, not for yourself, so I had given up the thought of having a magnolia in my own garden up until a few years ago.

It was therefore with great surprise and joy I discovered that it was possible to grow magnolias as single stemmed trees! My plan is that I will have the single stemmed magnolia in a container for the first 8-10 years on my patio, until the crown is tall enough to walk under, and then I will plant it in the ground in the garden, where all the space I will need will be what I need to dig out in order to plant it. My search started for a grower who could sell me a single stemmed magnolia of some size, as I realised if I was going to buy a small twig and prune it myself and grow it on, it really would be a project for the not-yet-arrived grandchildren to enjoy. I started spring 2 years ago, but found only one grower, with astronomical prises, and I half gave up. In January last year I gave it another go, during February and March I sent off emails to quite a few nurseries here in Britain asking for a mature, single stemmed magnolia, and finally, one of the nurseries had one for me!

And here it is! It is a Magnolia soulangeana 'Heaven Scent', according to the nursery it was supposed to be 150-200 cm tall, but the one I got was 250 cm tall including the 12 L pot. I paid £49.50 including the £8.29 postage, a very reasonable price for such a large tree I think. I got it from Ornamental Trees.

And just a few days after buying this one, before I had it delivered, I found another single stemmed magnolia online, I just had to have this one too! It comes from a different nursery, is called Magnolia soulangeana 'Red Lucky' and mine is now, one year later, about 150 cm tall, pot included. I might give some updates now and then about 'Red Lucky' too, but I will mainly  write about 'Heaven Scent' – as there is so much more to write about with this more mature tree, at least for now :-)

Here is information I have managed to find about both of them, but since I grow both as single stemmed, final width will be less:

MAGNOLIA x soulangeana 'Red Lucky' - a cultivar from Hong Yun, China, with reddish buds which fade as the very fragrant flowers develop. Flowers can appear 3 times a year in March, June and August. Rapid growth rate. Height and spread - 6m (20ft). Fully hardy - Plant can withstand temperatures down to -15°C (5°F). Synonym Magnolia x soulangeana 'Rubriflora'

MAGNOLIA x soulangeana 'Heaven Scent' - Gresham hybrid with goblet-shaped flowers pink outside and white inside. Strongly lavender scented. Deciduous - broadly elliptic, glossy, mid-green leaves up to 20cm (8in) long. Fully hardy - Plant can withstand temperatures down to -15°C (5°F). Height and Spread - 10m (30ft). Small to medium sized tree. Flowers appear April to May which are richly scented. Narrowly cup shaped flushed pale pink deeper at the base, magenta stripe on back.

And here is 'Heaven Scent' yesterday, on my patio. As my magnolia is a deciduous tree it is completely bare, but with lots of new leaf buds.

The magnolia is growing in this container, and I have surrounded it with same size containers to insulate it against the summer heat – well you never know, we might get another summer like last year! It keeps the roots cooler, and helps to avoid the container drying out.

The magnolia has lots of leaf buds, but more importantly, despite being only first week of March, there are flower buds ready to flower. I don’t think there can be more than days away from flowering, but I don’t really know, this is my first magnolia flowering – it is so exciting!

This is the first time I see my magnolia in flower as it didn’t come with flower buds last year. I have waited a whole year for this sight!

I can’t wait to see the first one fully unfurled, and more importantly, I can’t wait to sniff my magnolia for the first time :-)

This meme is running from the 7t every month so by the time we get to the 7th April I think the whole magnolia flowering will be over and done with. I only have 23 flower buds this first flowering year – I doubt they will last a whole month but anyway, I will post an update photo at the bottom here of the first flower when it’s ready.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my Magnolia soulangeana 'Heaven Scent', I am linking this post to Lucy at Loose and Leafy who’s hosting the ‘Tree following’ meme. If you head over to her you can see a lot of other trees of all sorts and shapes.

Next post about my Magnolia will be first week of April, and by then the tree will look very different. I hope you too will follow my tree, come back in April and have a look :-)

Until next time, take care.

UPDATE:
Here are the first photos of the flowers!
More photos tomorrow on my post for garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.