Tim, it looks dead.

I was out inspecting my magnolia edith bogue today and noticed it looked rotten in some areas. Well, most the "flexible" buds broke right off and everything was brown/mushy inside. I did some research on how to find live material on woody plants, and I guess if you scrape the bark and it's green underneath it's alive ... I did that and cut it back to live tissue. It now looks like this.

You can see some green underneath here.

However, even though you see green in the previous pic, there is bark/wood death below that on the main stem.

Closeup.

The bottom 18-24" of the tree looks fine without any of the black bark. However, if I cut it that far down, I don't know if it will even resprout?? I've never had this tree before so I don't know if you can hack it way back like some bushes. If it does need to be hacked back, I guess it should be done before it spends too much energy trying to leaf out on diseased parts ...

I'd have to make the cut at the red arrow. The wood below the red arrow is alive... above has a mixture of alive and those black dead marks ...

Main stem looked fine in March ... what the heck???

wxman, I saw these pics on the bigger board too. With the green colour under the bark, you should have a good shot. Hopefully once it's cut back, it can re-grow. If it does well through the summer, maybe you should give it a bit of a helping hand (more protection) during the first few winters!

Your Mag is not doing well. I'm not sure what to expect. You should see swelling buds in the next couple of weeks.

Wxman, if you want a magnolia, try Magnolia Tripitala, Magnolia Kobus (a few variaties), Magnolia Stelatta, or Magnolia Virginiana (sp). THey are hardy to roughly -30C (says literature), BUT they arent the evergreen souther types. You should have WAY better luck with them.

If I can propagate my EB I'll send you a cutting

My BBB looks like that Mag. now. It's supposed to be hardier to (according to the Magnolia group anyway). I'm going to try the evergreen forms of virginiana instead...

Can someone please cross the most northerly forms of virginiana with the hardiest selections of grandiflora?

Thanks all. I ordered another one and will put it under heavy winter protection like I do my trachy. Let it get some size and then turn it loose.

I will pot this one up and see what it does ...

Can someone please cross the most northerly forms of virginiana with the hardiest selections of grandiflora?

I thought that was your job Paul? 😀

Tim,

my EB Mag is busting loose now. First leaves are coming fast. Any life on yours??

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Nope! I think it's toast! Dug it up tonight and put it in the greenhouse.

That blows! I hope you get new growth! 😕

spotted the first EB magnolia flower this morning.

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I had a similar thing happen with one of the Sequoias,
the roots froze and this eventually killed the top although it looked
like it was still alive....once it's in 3 years it will be fine.

I protected mine the first 2 years.

Mine about to flower, Edith Bogue

<a href=" http://www.flickr.com/photos/seedscanada/7483824342/" title="Lincoln-20120701-00866 by seedscanada, on Flickr"><img src=" " width="477" height="640" alt="Lincoln-20120701-00866"></a>