AusBonsai

Just wondering if any of you had experience with growing magnolia as bonsai. There are dozens at a local nursery with amazing trunks and great taper, quite large would need to be cut back hard. Do they reduce at all?
Thanks in advance guys

Hi mason
You will need one with small flowers, port wine perhaps?

Regards
Mick

Try Magnolia Stellata if they have it, it is a japanese one with large flowers though...

This year I have planted some in the ground to get some large trunks to match the big flowers but don't make the out of proportions stop you, Magnolias make really cool bonsai!

All of the magnolia's will shoot back well after a hard prune as long as its done just before the growth spurt in spring (they only have one real growth spurt per year). While some leaf reduction will occur they will still remain relatively large, the flowers do not reduce, so aim for a bigger tree.

All of mine are still in the ground growing on, a pink form of stellata that has small flowers (2-3") & leaves (3-4") which should reduce well enough to be convincing in a smaller tree(say 12"). I also have 2 types of Michelia figo(Port wine) and the hybrid 'Coco', these like other magnolia only have one growth spurt of about 6wks in spring so work needs to be timed accordingly.

In general Magnolia bonsai are grown for the appreciation of their flowers, the lack of proportion & coarse growth habit accepted for the few weeks a year of flowering. Michelia are treated a little differently style wise as they are an evergreen. I have just set some layers on Coco & will be doing the same on the stellata later in spring so if your interested in a piece let me know.

MattA and Mason, I'm heading down Masons way end of November if you think they might be ready by then and i have room happy to transit hoping to take a few other little things down with me any way just got to convince the wife.....

Parents have okayed me to use my future bloke as a ground grew patch though everything will be left to its own devices 12months at a time.....


cheers

J

Hi Mason,

Magnolia are a good Bonsai specimen, I have several in pots or boxes and they develop nice ramification/branching with simple bud pinching.
The varieties stellata, loebneri, waterlilly and and even some of the soulangeana varieties will make good specimens, yes the flowers are large and the growth can be coarse but the growth can be controlled. Large foliage can be reduced by defoliating in early/mid summer every second year to avoid weakening the tree.
Re potting can be done in early spring after flowering and before leaf.

Is the Nursery in the Melbourne area?

Have fun with them

Thanks man sounds like I will be purchasing a few of these fellas in the near future and no. Unfortunately for you, the nursery us nowhere near Melbourne
All sounds good Jas

You should try to find the parentage of the magnolias, many of the new hybrids are bred with magnolia campbellii which has large leaves and long internodes. Looking through my kokufu albums In noticed that M. kobus seems to be the species of choice in Japan, I think its the parent of many of the stellata hybrids.
Craigw

I don't think that Magnolia kobus is available in Australia, you may have to settle for the variety Waterlilly or one of the varieties available at Yamina ( but they are sold out at present )

Just for a little bit of trivia, the species name kobus comes from the Japanese word for fist, Kobushi

G'day . Does anyone have expierance pruning magnolias for next season flowers. Any advice would be muchly appreciated.
Thanks Craig.

If you want flowers next spring, let them run without pinching, and fertilize with a flowering fertilizer from January.

They set flowers at the end of the previous year's growth, which can make things look lanky. One way seems to be - cut the shoots back through the early growing season to get ramification one year, then let the many, shorter branchlets run the next year for the flowers.

Hope this helps,

Gavin

Thanks Gavin . That helps . I might try selectively pruning a third of the longest shoots hard each year to try keep some shape. I'll post a picture next season hopefully with flower.
Cheers Craig.

I dont know if some varieties are frost hardy but mine could not tolerate hard frosts at -4 and died.