Magnolia dying?

[Anonymous]

We have a 6 year magnolia tree that has never looked 'great'. It is about 8 feet tall and has always just had a few leaves and an occasional flower. This year, about 4 leaves and some dead buds but no blooms.
Thoughts on if we are able to save this tree at all?? It has grown since we planted it, but not by a ton.

[Anonymous]

Ours is dying too and it is a mature tree. Magnolias can’t handle the cold winters we’ve had the last few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ours is dying too and it is a mature tree. Magnolias can’t handle the cold winters we’ve had the last few years.

+1... if these winters keep going like they've been the last 8-10 years, USDA will have to reclassify this area as a Zone 6.

So much for global warming.

[Anonymous]

Very interesting- we moved into our house 10 years ago and there was a mature magnolia in the backyard. It died this winter. Now I know why!!

[Anonymous]

Much of our area has traditionally been able to keep zone 8+ plants alive as long as the winters aren't too bad: Camelias, fig trees, Southern magnolia, daphne, etc. But when we get a series of bad winters they die. The harsh winters of the mid 1970s wiped out all but 15 of over 900 camelias in the National Arboretum collection. Always a gamble, but a delight when they stay.

[Anonymous]

SO many magnolias around here died this past winter. I've seen many cherry trees that didn't make it as well.

[Anonymous]

The magnolias dying was less the cold and more the mild fall and then drought conditions going into winter. The deep freeze we had for a week plus was the final stress. I am a landscape designer and for the first time I had my clients water in December. Many of my projects are irrigated but those systems were shut down by late October. In my own garden I put in 7 new magnolias late in the year and they are doing great but I know it was because I was the weird person watering around Christmas! There have been some people who have had their magnolias send up sprouts but 90% of these are goners. Trees need moisture before they go dormant - and magnolias can usually handle even lower temps than we had

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The magnolias dying was less the cold and more the mild fall and then drought conditions going into winter. The deep freeze we had for a week plus was the final stress. I am a landscape designer and for the first time I had my clients water in December. Many of my projects are irrigated but those systems were shut down by late October. In my own garden I put in 7 new magnolias late in the year and they are doing great but I know it was because I was the weird person watering around Christmas! There have been some people who have had their magnolias send up sprouts but 90% of these are goners. Trees need moisture before they go dormant - and magnolias can usually handle even lower temps than we had

Yep, people forget that plants need water in winter. Google "winter burn" folks. I'm sure the neighbors thought I was the nuts because I went out several times throughout the winter and moved the hose around to water my new plants and they're all doing fine. I didn't lose one new tree this winter and I have over a dozen new trees planted last year.

[Anonymous]

We had two magnolias, one giant one and one about 12 feet tall. This spring, we noticed that the leaves on the smaller one were turning brown. As it turned out, the browning got worse and the tree was clearly dead, so we cut it down. We have no idea why it died as we've certainly had very cold snaps in the recent winters. It's in a wetter part of the yard too so I doubt drought was the cause, but who knows. It was kind of messy anyway so I'm not that sad to see it go.