Growing Magnolias From Seed

Table of Contents and IntroductionAfrican Violets: the Doyen of House PlantsAgapanthusAlstroemeriasAmerican SagebrushesAmerican WildflowersAndean Nymph - a pink mimulusAquilegias (Columbines)AuriculasAustralian AnnualsBellis Perennis (Daisies)Black-Eyed SusanBlue African LiliesBreeding DelphiniumsBreeding Fuchsias: Part 1: From SeedBreeding Fuchsias: Part 2: HybridisationBromeliads from SeedButterflies in Soy SauceCacti RaisingCampanulasChilean Bell FlowerChilly Treatment for Peruvian LiliesCollecting SeedConserving Annuals and BiennialsCosmosCucumbersCycads: Living FossilsCyclamen for IndoorsDahlias from SeedDamping OffErythroniumsF1 Hybrid - What Is it?F2 and Open Pollinated VarietiesFrom Obscurity to the Height of FashionGentiansGeraniumsGermination to Pricking OutGolden Impatiens - The StoryGrowing Alpines From Seed: Part 1Growing Alpines From Seed: Part 2Growing Bananas From SeedGrowing Cyclamen From SeedGrowing Eucalyptus From SeedGrowing Ferns from SporesGrowing Foxgloves From SeedGrowing Fritillarias From SeedGrowing From Seed: From Packet to SoilGrowing Hardy Ferns from SporesGrowing Hardy Geraniums From SeedGrowing Lewisias From SeedGrowing Magnolias From SeedGrowing Meconopsis From SeedGrowing Proteas and Related Genera from SeedHandling Small SeedsHardy Annuals: Part 1Hardy Annuals: Part 2Hardy CyclamenHardy SpurgesHelleboresIncreasing your Violas and ViolettasKeeping Records of Seed SowingLettuce - the Vital Part of any SaladLord Anson's PeaMagnolias - the Root of the ProblemMimulus from Seed to Seed in Sixty DaysNew Guinea ImpatiensOld-fashioned Sweet PeasOnions with EverythingPansies are not Difficult to Grow from SeedParsleyPerennials for American GardensPetuniasPhygelius - their cultivation and propagationPinks: Evocation of the PastPlants That Flower OncePrickly but NicePropagatorsRadishesRaising PalmsRaising PrimulasSalad Leaves - a lot to be desiredShow Stoppers Twice OverSowing SeedsSowing in Open GroundSowing to Feed our FriendsSturt's Desert PeaSweet Peas - Autumn SownSweet Peas - Sowing and GerminatingTall and HandsomeTechniques with Tiny SeedTexas BluebellThe Effect of Light on Germination and SeedlingsThe Nervous PeaThe Scarlet Welsh PoppyThe Search for the Yellow Sweet PeaToad LiliesTomatoesTreasure Hunt for TasteUnderstanding Latin NamesUnique Poppy (Mother of Pearl)Viability of VegetablesWeaning SeedlingsWill the Real Mimosa Please Stand Up

Unfortunately there's no quick way to raise magnolias to flowering. But at least growing them from seed is reasonably economic. John Kelly explains how to go about it.

It would take a hard heart indeed to resist the beauty of a magnolia. Even the least conspicuous. Magnolia acuminata, has flowers that would be considered very fine on almost any other tree that can be grown in cool-temperate regions, while its foliage is as characteristically noble as in most other species. Even the name - magnolia - has a hint of the lushly exotic about it. It has a warm, mellifluous sound that suggests richly-hung woodlands and still moisture.

To a certain extent such connotations are justified. Two American species, M. grandiflora and M. virginiana, play major parts in the jungle-like vegetation that rears up from the banks of rivers and creeks in Florida, while the magnificent M. campbellii flaunts its great white or pink saucers among huge evergreen oaks and tree rhododendrons in the steamy valleys of the lower Himalayas.

To a certain extent such connotations are justified. Two American species, M. grandiflora and M. virginiana, play major parts in the jungle-like vegetation that rears up from the banks of rivers and creeks in Florida, while the magnificent M. campbellii flaunts its great white or pink saucers among huge evergreen oaks and tree rhododendrons in the steamy valleys of the lower Himalayas.

Problems

Magnolias are extremely resentful of root disturbance. They have soft, plump storage roots which rot very readily if they are harmed while the trees are dormant. Deciduous magnolias, particularly, need the most careful handling if any operation is carried out where root injury might occur. If it is at all likely, such movement should be done in May (in the Northern Hemisphere) when the roots are active and will heal over and be renewed straight away.

To all intents and purposes, a magnolia once planted cannot be moved again. Skilful nurserymen are quite capable of growing them in fields for a year or two and then lifting them for containerisation without damage, but not all nurserymen are skilful. Many a fine-looking young magnolia has been responsible for a large gap in its owner's finances, only to go backwards in development for a few painful years before finally perishing.

They are indeed costly plants. Good specimens are worth every penny of their high cost, but there is a great temptation to try to grow them from seed in an attempt to avoid the expense and to keep a close eye on the plant as is passes through its early stages.

This ambition, excellent though it is, is doomed to partial fulfillment at the very best. Growing magnolias from seed is chancy and difficult and it is by no means every species that will set seed in cultivation. Of those that are generous in this respect, several will refrain from flowering until they are a score of years old or more, while plants raised from cuttings or by grafting deign to produce blooms at a very much younger age.

To participate in other pastimes, such a catalogue of disadvantages would be enough to make them give up. When an angler, for instance, is told that the water is too high and too dirty for fishing to be productive, he goes home like a sensible chap. The gardener, though, when presented with a wide range of difficulties, sees it as a challenge and dons his most obstinate mien.

To grow these mighty glories of the plant world from seed is indeed a challenge. What fires the seed-raiser to attempt it is his experience. This tells him that such an achievement will be a jewel in the crown of his horticultural life and that the patience and skill that will be needed will be as chaff alongside the warmth that will engulf him when the first flower opens. Needless to say, he whose attention span is limited to the germination period of the bedding dahlia might as well stop reading this right now.

Species to grow

Magnolia campbellii, the queen of magnolias, grows to be a tree something in excess of 65 feet (20m) tall in cultivation. Those from the first introduction of 1864 are now of that height, although there are a few which are lower but which have a much wider spread. They took from between twenty and forty years to flower from their sowing. Usually, however, fifteen to twenty years will pass before the first flowers appear, but that is enough.

Although M. campbellii is mainly white-flowered in the wild, pink forms predominate in cultivation. Unfortunately, although the trees are hardy and will tolerate severe, sustained frost, their flowers will be lost. This is even more sad when it is realised that the species flowers very early-some-times in February - and that its six-week-long flowering period, remarkable by any standards for a flowering tree, will be witnessed in the mildest areas perhaps twice in a decade. Too warm a climate will be an anathema to it and it will not thrive at all.

M. campbellii var. mollicomata is thought a variety of doubtful standing by botanists, but any gardener could assure them that it is very distinctive indeed in its behaviour. For one thing, it flowers much earlier in life - at about ten - and for another, it flowers later in the season and thus avoids a proportion of the chance of frost. Its flowers lack the pure rose pink of the best forms of the species, but are very large indeed, about 10 inches (25cm) across, and are of a shaded lilac-pink that reminds one of giant water-lilies.

Both these magnolias have orange seeds, bright, vibrant orange in var. mollicomata; rich blood-orange in the species. When they ripen they peep from slits on the warty excescences on the sausage-like seed pods. The warts are the carpels of the flower, and the sausage is the central taurus, upon which they are spirally arranged. Just before they fall, the seeds emerge from the carpels and hang from threads of mucus that may extend to 2 inches (5cm) or more.

Many species will occasionally produce a few seeds and they should be guarded with one's life. The two mentioned above will usually rain seed so collecting a couple of hundred is not very difficult, but some others, such as the delicious M. dawsoniana, sets its orange seeds only rarely unless a deliberate policy of pollination is taken up. One or two dedicated and brilliant plantsmen have produced improved forms of species such as this by judicious use of the camel-hair brush, but the rest of us had better aspire to that of which we are capable.

M x soulangiana is a frequent setter of seed, although not a prolific one. It is not as easy to spot, as its taurus does not turn bright red as so many others do, but goes a sort of dull red-purple that is more usually associated with the noses of those to whom the bottle has become an essential accessory. I suppose it is worth sowing, although I have seldom summoned up the enthusiasm to do so, and when I have it has failed to germinate. I am, therefore, unable to comment further, as it would be illogical for me to state that it does or does not come up and make plants whose flowers are worth the wait.

M. wilsonii, on the other hand, is a prolific seeder, a good germinator, and it has passed these characteristics on to its fertile hybrid, M. x highdownenses. M. wilsonii is a very fine magnolia indeed, suitable for gardens that are quite small (it is only about 25 feet (75m) high at most) and it flowers in very late spring or early summer when all chances of a destructive frost has passed. It grows magnificently at Wakehurst Place, although it is not a success at Kew, and it appears to crave shelter and part shade. Although its flowers appear with the leaves, its beauty is in no way lessened. It is not only the bare-stem bloomers that are in the first rank of the genus.

Seed raising technique

Magnolia seed is oily and if it is stored too long or allowed to become too dry it will lose its viability. It is also possessed of dormancy mechanisms that are almost unshakable, so germination is something that happens in the long term. Sometimes a seedling or two will emerge within a few weeks of sowing, and the temptation is to suppose that that is all you are going to get. This is a mistake, as it is a very common thing for this to happen, to be followed by every single seed of the rest of the batch deciding to germinate on the same day three years later.

Freshly collected seed may be dried in the sun until the orange or red outer coats turn dull and start to split. If this happens, it will assist germination if the outer coats are then removed, and it will obviate the presence of large amounts of moulds around the seeds. Unfortunately, as the seed is set in the autumn, it is often the case that there is no sun.

All is not lost, however, as the seed should be sown anyway and the moulds will not proliferate as they would if a heated frame were used in the spring, although spring sowing in some form is essential if that is when you receive your seeds from an outside source. A peat-based compost is best, well firmed-down, and the seeds can be sown in rows in a tray and then covered with compost to a depth no greater than that of the width of the seeds.

The tray can then be placed in a cold frame where no heating will be allowed to interfere with the influence of cold, but which can be opened from time to time to allow rain to fall and assist in the leaching away of dormancy-related substances. Every precaution must be taken against mice and other rodents whose idea of a scrumptious breakfast is as many magnolia seeds as they can deal with before they scatter the rest to the four winds.

Patience is the next requirement. It is a matter of waiting and of topping up with a little fresh compost if necessary until the magic day arrives when the real work starts and you face guiding your charges through those tricky few years that will, upon a lapse in your vigilance, result in no flowers at all for all your efforts.

If you want to help late-arrived seed along, you can mix it with moist peat in a plastic bag and put it in the salad part of the refrigerator for thirty days, after which it should be sown in heat. Also, you may have more confidence if you sow each seed in a pot of its own so that you can do no damage to the roots when pricking out. I believe this to be an unnecessary refinement and one that takes up too much space, but then there is nothing that can be too much trouble in the cause of growing these, the royalty among hardy trees.