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Brown magnolia flowers
matthewbramley
Posts: 11
After potting my new magnolia stellata yesterday I noticed the leaves are brown today. Does it need more water / less water? I have put it in eracaceous compost with a few handfuls of slow release eracaceous feed. There hasn't been any frost. Any help would be welcome as I'm very new to this gardening stuff (but already love it)
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which are brown, the flowers or the leaves?
Flowers don't last long and go brown when their time is over
Brown leaves is more serious
In the sticks near Peterborough
Ah yes sorry I meant the flowers thano you for your reply. The flowers have only been in bloom for a day. Is that normal? Sorry for all the questions I'm very new to gardening!
Actually I've just checked it and all the flowers are browning and looking shrivelled, even the ones that have freshly appeared. I don't understand what has happened...
How many handfuls of ericaceous feed is a few? I would have thought that one handful per container would be enough ... depending of course on the size of your hand ...........
Last edited: 03 April 2017 19:24:06
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
When you planted it, did you soak the root ball in a bucket of water first and did you water it well afterwards?
It may just be very thirsty and sacrificing flowers to save the leaves which are its food factory. Look on your other thread for the correct link now.
My stellata is very very well established and been in flower for a couple of weeks. My soil isn't eracaceous though. Or at least I've never fed it with anything eracaceous. However I bought another new small magnolia which has never flowered or greened up really. My partner too with a different variety. I reckon they're very temperamental!
Thanks Obelixx, I didn't soak the root ball before planting no. As I said I'm very new to this so didn't know that was a thing. The soil feels quite moist and I'm a bit conscious of over-watering... To be honest I don't actually know what over-watering or underwatering looks like
I think I may have over-fed dovefromabove. I will try and remove some of the feed from the top.
How long is it since you bought and planted it? If it's just a couple of weeks I reckon you could de-pot it, soak the root ball till no air bubble appear then tease out the roots and re-plant. Make sure there are crocks in the bottom of the pot to stop the drainage holes being blocked.
Plant it at the same depth it was at before and add a small amount of feed to the compost you use to fill the pot so it is well spread and not concentrated anywhere. Water well and then mulch with some gravel or chipped bark or expanded clay pellets as you prefer. This will stop moisture evaporation on hot or windy days.
If the drainage holes are kept free and you stand it on pot feet or bricks, it will be hard to over water. You can tell when it needs watering by poking in a finger. If the compost feels dry, water.
I bought and re-potted Saturday so I will definitely try this. Thank you so much for your help!