Among the most spectacular of all the garden aristocrats, the magnolias, will soon burst into bloom and there are many magnificent specimens growing in gardens in northern Tasmania.
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These show-stopping plants have flowers that vary in shape from dramatic flat, saucer-like types to stunning narrow goblets in shades of white, yellow, pink, purple and cream. Their height range is three metres to 24 metres.
This is a good time to view them and select the varieties you admire most. Being precocious plants they often flower in the nursery container making your selection easy. As most are deciduous in late winter, just before the spring weather arrives, is the ideal time to plant them.
Named after the French botanist Pierre Magnol, magnolias are ancient plants with fossilised remains of Magnolia acuminate dating back some 20 million years.
Magnolias are at their greatest when carefully positioned and used as feature trees to enhance the garden, while the smaller types such as Magnolia ‘Teddy Bear’ make great hedges.
Most magnolias originate in Eastern Asia and the Himalayas so they need good, rich, friable soil with a regular covering of mulch to keep their roots cool in the summer months.
Before planting incorporate plenty of aged compost thoroughly into the soil. Apart from a little blood and bone scattered in the base of the planting hole no further fertilising should be necessary until just before the new growth begins the following year. A complete fertiliser high in potash can then be applied.
Choose an open sunny position that gives protection from frosts and winds in well-drained soil that is slightly acidic with a pH of around 6 to 6.5. They will grow in shade but at the expense of flowers. When grown in containers they may start flowering in one or two years but, in the open garden they often grow vigorously, producing few flowers for several years until they settle into a regular flowering pattern. Be patient.
Magnolia stellata, the ‘Star Magnolia’, is a beautiful Japanese shrub among the very first to flower each year. From late July, this compact, rounded shrub will produce a profusion of fragrant, white, sometimes flushed pink, star-shaped flowers.
Magnolia x soulangiana is probably the most popular species. This deciduous, large tree has stunning tulip-shaped flowers in white, pink, mauve or purple that appear in spring on bare branches before the leaves. A large tree can produce thousands of flowers.
Although a hybrid itself, there are many fine varieties deriving from Magnolia x soulangiana. The most popular include Magnolia x soulangiana ‘Alba Superba’ with large white flowers and Magnolia x soulangiana ‘Lennei’ with lovely, rather roundish flowers with incurved petals, rosy-purple outside and white inside. Magnolia x soulangiana ‘Nigra’ has exquisite, deep-wine flowers that are almost black with white inside.
Another stunning variety that lives up to its name is Magnolia grandiflora with large, creamy white, saucer-shaped fragrant flowers in summer.
With careful selection of varieties, it’s possible to have a continuity of flowers from late winter to autumn.
DIARY
August 15: The Australian Plant Society meets at the Max Fry Hall on Gorge Rd, Trevallyn at 7.30pm. Visitors welcome. For more information visit www.apstasnorth.org
August 16: The Launceston Horticultural Society meets at Windmill Hill Hall, High Street, Launceston at 8pm. Visitors welcome. Supper is provided.
August 17: The Launceston Orchid Society meets at the Newnham Uniting Church Hall, George Town Road, Launceston at 7pm. New members welcome.