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Patio magnolia
I've come across a special offer for a magnolia "Red Lucky". It's from one of the huge mail order companies that I usually avoid like the plague, but I'm willing to risk losing a tenner plus postage this once. Has anyone grown this magnolia? Does it really stay small? Is it happy in a pot long-term?
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One of its parents is M. soulangeana, which is the one that used to be everywhere in front gardens in London, 20ft across with those lovely white petals, pink flushed at the base. It's a large shrub, so, potentially can be grown in a good sized container. I would use terracotta, not too big to start with or it'll be waterlogged in winter and slowly work up in size as the shrub grows. It'll take several years to become a bit large to move around in its pot, so, why not? Go for it! You'll want some good garden soil mixed in with a JI compost.
H-C
Thanks, Hortum-cretae! I'll give it a try.
My magnolia arrived today. It's bare-root, so I plonked it into a bucket of water. Is it OK to leave it in the bucket till tomorrow afternoon? I could pot it into MPC now, but I'd have to repot it tomorrow anyway when I get some ericaceous compost, so I'd prefer the bucket-of-water-overnight option. Thoughts? Is it going to survive that?
While magnolias prefer a slightly acid soil, they grow perfectly well in neutral soil and I would go with H-C's suggestion of a mix of garden soil and a loam-based ericaceous like a John Innes. It'll actually appreciate being in a bucket of water for that sort of length of time.
Excellent, thanks! Nice to see that my inertia is beneficial for once!
P.S. I didn't mean to ignore H-C's advice, I just didn't read through the thread again before I posted.
Last edited: 31 March 2017 19:58:19
I have two of these Aster (similar offer about 3 years ago). Mine are still in pots (inertia here too
)......but doing well and flowers every year so far
That's great to hear, chicky! Mine will have to stay in a pot. How big have yours grown?
I'll take some pics tomorrow - they are still in quite small pots ....planning on liberating them soon ....honest
Here you go Aster - as you can see, quite small pots, but growing nicely. I have a spot for them now, so they are going in the ground this year