[chrissie B]

was in the garden centre today and saw some magnolias they were lovley and smelt great are there any experts for these plants i would love one but i dont know if the weather here in the north would suit are they good in conservatorys
chrissie b

[Debz]

My mum has a couple of magnolias in the garden and we are in Glasgow so a bit further north than you.  They like an acid soil so if you have rhododendrons, azaleas or camelias growing well then magnolias will be fine too.  I don't think they should be inside but someone else will correct me if I am wrong about that.

[chrissie B]

thanks , i have arhodadendron but its a bit on the sad side at the mo but looks like its picking up , we get a cross wind right across all the gardens so maybe not the best place , imtrying not to go mad plantingall over the place as the garden is quite ordered i dont want to spoil it but i want to put my stamp on it so to speak .
chrissie b

[Trillium]

I wouldn't do magnolias inside either. They're a spreader and many varieties get quite tall.  Not only that, my neighbor is totally fed up with the way the masses of spring flowers shed over his lawns and turn mushy before he can rake them all up.

There are a few small varieties of magnolias but you'll pay dearly for them if you really want them. I'd be satisfied to merely visit an estate that has magnolia displays and let someone else do all the work.

[Yorkie]

When choosing a site, avoid one where it would get the morning sun.  This can damage  the flowers / buds so you don't get a display.

[tosca100]

Don't know what our soil is, but our magnolia seems ok. It coped with temperatures down to -13 last winter, and has come through ok. We just cut off what we don't want.




The stellata types are the smelliest I think, the ones with the starry white flowers, and it is possible to keep them smaller. If you read the labels it should give you an idea.

[chrissie B]

that looks lovley bet it smeells great , thanks for the help i will give it some thought before i get one they looked a bit pricy as were all the plants i the garden center
chrissie b

[bashful_badger]

I got a magnolia stellata from jparkers about 6 weeks ago, it was only £2.49 but it was really quite small and I'd heard they are slow growing but it's about doubled in size since I got it!  I wanted it for a pot anyway so didn't want a big one.  I put it in ericaceous compost as ours soil isn't acid, hence why I wanted a pot!  Thought I'd give it a go as it was so cheap, all the ones I've seen elsewhere were quite expensive, although they were bigger.

I'm hoping I have a bigger house with acid soil by the time it get really big ;o)