Gardening & Landscaping
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Pruning my Magnolia?
I'm not a gardener by any means, but I moved into a new house with a beautiful and very large southern magnolia tree. I have been told by neighbors on every side of my house that this tree is amazing (and a few threats to never cut it down) but this year it hasn't bloom as much as previous years. I'm not worried about it too much because I know that in my area (southern PA) we had an odd winter and spring. One neighbor however told them that isn't the reason and to prune back and cut off any dead branches. After extensive research (i.e. I googled it) I've found mixed results. So do any of you have experience with Southern Mag.s? I doubt I should prune it in summer, if at all, but would it hurt if I took off some of the dead branches?
Re: Pruning my Magnolia?
Southern Magnolias should be pruned only to remove dead wood, diseased wood, or deformities. You should remove dead wood at once. If it is necessary to remove live wood, you should do so in the winter (Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb) to limit the spread of insects and pathogens. However, because the tree blooms on old wood, winter pruning will remove flower buds and result is fewer summer blooms. So, therein lies the conundrum and the two opposing schools of thought.
My personal opinion is I'd rather preserve the health of the plant at the expense of a few flowers. Plus, Magnolia foliage makes fantastic Christmas arrangements, so I usually take some cuttings indoors in December. But it's a decision you need to make for yourself.
It's easy to understand your neighbors' protectiveness. If any of them ever does a landscape project that involves digging or trenching, you should tell them that Southern Magnolias have root systems that extend four times the width of the canopy, which makes them very difficult to save on contruction sites.