Magnolia Trees

When you’re planting a Magnolia tree, you’re going to dig the hole about six inches big or bigger all the way around. The circular hole should be bigger than the pot that the plant is in. You’re going to mix half of that dirt with 50% sweet pea and a scoop or two of all season fertilizer. That’s what you’ll blend together and fill back in around the plant, and that’ll give it its best chance for survival. Initially when planting it, you want to make sure you really soak the soil where that plant’s going to give it the best chance for taking off.

You know, you know magnolia trees do really well down south, but is it going to make it to our cold? It depends on the species. There are many, many varieties of hardy magnolias that do live here, I’ve got one at my house called the Ann magnolia. It’s one of the smaller varieties there are, and it’s been in the ground for 22 years. There is one variety called Bracken’s Brown Beauty that is a southern magnolia, but it is hardy here.

The largest ones with softer magnolia that’s hardy and it can get upwards of 30 feet tall, and then there’s the Jane magnolia that’s going to stay in that 10-foot range. There’s an Ann magnolia that went to six to eight foot tall. Lots of options in the pink variety. They stay a little compact, not everybody’s got 30-foot range to put a Saucer magnolia out there. When the Saucers get old and mature, if they have enough room to get to that full 30 foot, they are absolutely gorgeous.

You definitely have to figure out what your space is. If you’re placing an 18-inch version, it doesn’t mean it’s always going to stay that small. If it’s one of the ones that gets 30-foot. Putting that plant in a space where it can get 30 foot very important. If it’s one that only gets six to eight foot tall Well, then, you know, you don’t want to put that out in the middle of the yard necessarily either. That’s more of a plant we’d use up around the home somewhere.

You know ten years ago there was four varieties of dogwood we carried, and now there’s 26 species of dogwood and 32 species of redbud. There’s just so many more options now than were available just ten years ago.

If you want to take a picture of your tree, bring it in, sometimes we can identify it by the leaves. We can also tell you how large it’s going to get. The magnolias may get 30 feet tall, some only to six to eight feet tall. Give us a chance and we’ll be able to help educate you on what you’ve got and how to best take care of it.

Questions? Email us at [email protected] or call one of our two locations: Portage (330-499-0101) or Everhard (330-492-1243).