This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Magnolia Stellata
MS-D
Posts: 3
I have a Magnolia Stellata in a pot and 4 Magnolia standards of which 1 is in a pot and the other 3 are in the ground. Is it possible to put all of them into the garden now? I have read that they should not be moved until the leaves are just starting to move - they are all in full leaf at present. Some help would be gratefully appreciated.
0
Posts
This may not follow the correct advice but we moved a Stellata from a pot to the ground when it was in full leaf in May. They have fleshy roots, so the priority should be to disturb the rootball as little as possible. Even though summer is over I'd also recommend keeping it well watered during warm or dry spells till next Spring. Ours has shown no signs of stress from the move.
Thank you so much for your help. I'm rather nervous re-planting as it has been many many years that I wanted these shrubs (the cost being the main reason). Now that I have managed to buy them I would hate to loose them. So - I'll plant one of the standards now and see how that adjusts and wait until Jan/Feb 2017 before attempting to plant the rest of them. Thanks again.
You can plant potted specimens any time of year. The secret is to soak the rootball thoroughly first by dunking the pot in a bucket of water till no more air bubbles appear and then planting at the right depth in a well prepared hole with good soil and a handful of blood, fish and bone mixed in. Firm well, stake if necessary and water thoroughly.
Mulch with something like chipped bark or garden compost to reduce water evaporation and combat any weeds that will compete with it.
Keep watered - but not drowning - until the autumn rains become regular enough to do that for you.
Remember they don't like alkalinity so make sure your soil is neutral to acid and add ericaceous soil conditioner and feed if needs be. Do not water with hard tap water. Use rain water.
Thanks for the advice. Will do as you have suggested - assumed they were a difficult shrub which made me hesitate planting them. Can't collect rain water in enough quantity so tap water will have to do. I expect/hope that plenty of ericaceous soil will help.
Thanks again.
They're not difficult if they have the right soil conditions and enough water. If you do have to use hard tap water, you can correct it by adding some liquid sequestered iron or Miracid. Alkalinity locks up iron and makes it unavailable to ericaceous plants which then get anaemic. These products will fix that but you need to use them regularly.
Yellowing leaves can also be a sign that they are chlorotic, or short of magnesium, and you can fix that with a foliar spray made up of 1 tbs of Epsom salts dissolved in 5 litres of water.