I noticed a few flowers on my magnolia yesterday and thought it was only supposed to flower in spring, which it did. It put on a beautiful display this year, and I am hoping for the same next year, but now I am a little worried.
— Rachel Blumenthal, Chicago
I also saw a magnolia at the Garden this week with a couple of open flowers. This tree had also put on a good show of flowers in spring. Considering magnolia is a spring-flowering tree, the flowers caught my attention even though there were only a few of them. There’s nothing for you to be concerned about with your magnolia putting out a few flowers this summer; some magnolias will do so every year.
Magnolias flower in spring and then form flower buds that mostly remain dormant until the next spring. Since there are only a few flowers on your magnolia, you should still get a very good flower display next year if the weather cooperates — early warm spells that cause early flowering followed up by a hard freeze can ruin the flowers.
Be careful when pruning magnolias at this time of year, as you can prune off flower buds that tend to be at the ends of branches. Gentle thinning of a magnolia will remove a few flowers, while cutting back all the branches to reduce its size can remove many of the flower buds, resulting in fewer flowers next spring.
Other spring-flowering trees and shrubs will occasionally repeat flower, so the flowers on your magnolia are not so unusual. One lilac that I like using is marketed for its reblooming quality: Bloomerang lilac, a dwarf lilac that blooms heavily in late April and May, with reblooming into August.
For more plant advice, contact the Plant Information Service at the Chicago Botanic Garden at plantinfo@chicagobotanic.org. Tim Johnson is senior director of horticulture at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
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