On 27/3/08 10:08, in article ,
"Jeff Layman" wrote:

Sacha wrote:

At a guess, rain, wind and cold, if you've been getting all those.
Magnolias don't like cold wind on the developing buds. Two years ago
we lost all the buds on our M. campbellii to frost.

What a shame! It's not exactly the magnolia most keen to get into flowering
mode, either. How many years have you had it?

This M. Campbellii was quite keen to get going, in fact. Ray planted it
about 16 years ago (he thinks) and this is its third or fourth year of
flowering, including the one when it lost all the buds. He planted it in
the churchyard next to us as his own 'memorial' and did wonder if he'd ever
see it flower himself. Well, he has and a real picture it is, too.
But he heard a sorry story of an old man who had planted one and waited
years and years for it to flower. When it did finally, it was the wrong
colour. Dolefully, the old man went to the nursery he'd bought it from all
those years before and chastised them for it. When they offered him another
he said, very sadly, "what's the point - I'm 84"!
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'