I planted a magnolia some years ago - maybe as long as 10 years ago -
but it has never flowered, though it looks very healthy
and I hope each year that this will be the year.

Is there anything I can do to encourage it to flower?


--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

"Timothy Murphy" wrote in message
...
I planted a magnolia some years ago - maybe as long as 10 years ago -
but it has never flowered, though it looks very healthy
and I hope each year that this will be the year.

Is there anything I can do to encourage it to flower?


--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

Be patient I am afraid, some start young but some can take a long time
Depends a lot on what sort you bought and planted.
--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

On 19/02/2014 23:28, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"Timothy Murphy" wrote in message
...
I planted a magnolia some years ago - maybe as long as 10 years ago -
but it has never flowered, though it looks very healthy
and I hope each year that this will be the year.

Is there anything I can do to encourage it to flower?


--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

Be patient I am afraid, some start young but some can take a long time
Depends a lot on what sort you bought and planted.

Let's hope that it's not M. campbellii!

--

Jeff

On 2014-02-20 08:12:19 +0000, Jeff Layman said:

On 19/02/2014 23:28, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"Timothy Murphy" wrote in message
...
I planted a magnolia some years ago - maybe as long as 10 years ago -
but it has never flowered, though it looks very healthy
and I hope each year that this will be the year.

Is there anything I can do to encourage it to flower?


--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

Be patient I am afraid, some start young but some can take a long time
Depends a lot on what sort you bought and planted.

Let's hope that it's not M. campbellii!

Reminds me of Ray's story about a gentleman who bought a Magnolia
campbellii and waited for the 25 years it took to flower, only to
discover it was the wrong colour! By then, he was too old to start
again. And no, it wasn't us!
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

Stop pruning it, just in case you were. You can prune them to control the size, for example I've taken out whole branches. But if you go around in the winter shortening things like you would for a rose, you'll be cutting next year's flowers off.

Many hybrid magnolias flower from small. Species magnolias can take decades. If it is M. campbellii, then you have something like another 20 years to wait, and it grows very big. And there are other well-known ones that take almost as long. If it's M. grandiflora, the popular evergreen summer-flowering magnolia, then you may be approaching flowering time by about now, though there are many varieties of it with different behaviours, and it won't reach its spectacular peak for another decade or so.

If you do have a hybrid that is supposed to flower from small, there may be a problem. Some magnolias are grafted, and it is possible there was a graft fail and you are growing root-stock rather than what you thought you were buying.