E-mail Robin Contributions (excerpts):
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Philippe de Spoelberch (December 2006) - Belgium:
"The Magnolia biondii from Henan acquired through the MSI are interesting but really not worth growing. They do flower very early. Unfortunately they are mixed up as some have sepaloid tepals and others do not."
"We had a good new hybrid flowering for a first-time on 8 April 2006: Magnolia cylindrica 'Bjuv' x 'Purple Breeze' dark compact flowers with 12 tepals on a vigorous upright tree."
"We also had the first flowering of wild collected Magnolia kobus var. borealis from Shikotsu Lake, Hokkaido (1992). These four plants are big trees and have maintained a single leader. On most such trees in the trade, one ends up with a shrub public plant. The leaves here are typical large and bullate. Unfortunately as is often the case with wild collected material, the flowers are really poorly shaped and inconspicuous."
"We would notice these exceptional colours on many Magnolia through the autumn. The darkest colors are on Magnolia fraseri and in particular, this hybrid M. fraseri x pyramidata beat them all. This is a good plant born from MSI seed 1988"
Koen Camelbeke (January 2007) - Belgium:
"'Big Dude' should really be recommended for fruit display as I find this character equally spectacular as the early spring flower show."
"It was interesting to note that M.fraseri did not cross with anything else than fraseri or pyramidata."
"We had three young plants of M.sieboldii 'Colossus' but two already dead! So, it may also be a rather weak selection?"
"I noted also that Magnolia rostrata did not seem to like the hot and dry July as many leaves got burned and fell off the plant."
"These are the crosses that were successful last spring in the Arboretum:
'Butterbowl' selfed
'Butterbowl' x 'Maxine Merrill'
'Daphne' selfed
'Daphne x 'Maxine Merrill'
fraseri selfed
fraseri subsp. pyramidata x fraseri
'Gold Star' selfed
'Sybille' selfed
'Sybille x ('David Clulow' x 'Leda')"
Maurice Foster (February 2007) - England:
"Like Koen I am exercised by the large number of cultivars coming on to the market, some of them seemingly not indicating any really significant improvement over existing plants. With space limited hard choices have to be made by the gardener, sometimes on the basis of promise, rather than evidence, of superiority. The current system of registration is I suppose of necessity a mere descriptive rather than an appraisal process with only the registrant offering an opinion on improvements over what has gone before. Formally trialling magnolias is not a practicable proposition for obvious reasons; but I wonder if, as a regular feature, members other than the raiser who grow newly registered varieties could be invited to report on them in the Journal and offer a brief and candid appraisal with particular regard to improvements on similar existing varieties plus any unique qualities. It would be so useful to have some value consensus built up along these lines. And a reliable picture would quite soon emerge to give good guidance to planters always looking for the best forms and cultivars. Maybe a spread could be said beside as a regular slot under some title such as "The best of what's new". Or perhaps, one-off peace inviting members with big collections to pick their top-five from varieties registered in the last five years. It could even create a bit of controversy, always a positive step forward, even bearing in mind different views in different geographic conditions."
"I find fraseri difficult, sullen, and uncooperative. I'm giving up on it after three tries unless someone can advise me how to please the recalcitrant beast."
" Philippe -- Your 'Bjuv x Purple Breeze,' he looks promising especially if it has picked up the almost black polish based of the former. Incidentally I note you denote 'Bjuv' as a cylindrica form. I think you know I have a seedling from the same 1984 Shanghai distribution which looks identical to yours and the fruits, copiously produced, are generally quite cylindrical."
"Our 'Big Dude' was so heavy with seed a couple of branches broke."
"I have a nice plant of M. maccleurei in the greenhouse as it is native to Guangxi and Guangdong at lowish altitude, I suspect there is little chance of its being hardy. Do you have any experience of it in the open? I normally starve and age these doubtful plans to toughen them up a bit to get them onto some hard would so that in the event of the freeze they may resist enough to survive for another day, but I suspect this is a plant too far."
"I think whatever you use (we use keep based seed compost mixed 50-50 with the coarser grade of vermiculite) the key is plenty of air (oxygen) around the root system. Our mix if left to dry a little falls away readily from the root system on transplanting without breaking the smallest root, leaving it absolutely intact and it seems to move in this quasi bare-rooted condition into liner pots without check."
"Lennarth, I read somewhere that lab analysis showed officinalis and biloba to be totally distinct plants, but in Sichuan, in planted populations (I think the farmers get a subsidy to plant them) I saw both types randomly occurring. Perhaps they have mixed for many generations. Closer examination might show many intermediates?"
Lennarth Jonsson (February 2007) - Sweden:
"Last time I said I was not much impressed by M. sieboldii 'Colossus'. Some time ago a friend of mine told me that he has by his contacts with plant genetics got 'Colossus's' polyploidy examine and the result is that it is a plain diploid we have in our gardens. He got his plant from scion wood sent by the late Augie Kehr. We believe that Augie's original plant must have had mixed ploidy and that the diploid cells have taken over?.... I have asked Patrick McCracken about his experiences as he was close to Augie. His response: "This info on 'Colossus' is not a surprise to me. North Carolina State University also has checked the ploidy on 'Colossus' and said it was NOT a hex. I'm not sure if they said it was diploid or not??? The idea of the original plant being a mixed ploidy is what many of us think was the case. It is very common that a diploid will outgrow the higher ploidy level on the same plant. I suspect (not confirmed) that I may actually have TRUE hex's in my collection here. The climate here's too hot to grow sieboldii easily (only in deep shade). My 'Colossus' stock block is in FULL sun. I have planted (and replanted the block) 3-4 times now since most of the plants have died. I have planted out approximately 600 in this block over the past five years. I ONLY propagate from the plants that have survived in the field and now I have maybe only 10 plants alive in the field. They are growing EXTREMELY well, have very large leaves and flowers. My guess is that the higher ploidy plants survived and the diploids did not. Again, no confirmation on this." "
"It is known that the giga cells of polyploidy forms are slow to develop and a number of cell divisions are fewer in a season than in the original diploid form. Consequently it takes a longer time to establish a polyploid form."
Mark Haimes (February 2007) - Colorado, USA:
"Although clearly generalizations can be made about hardiness, there is so much individual plant variability that it is often times hard to reach conclusions with identical micro climates."
"My virginiana 'Moon Glow' which looked so promising in the past, has been devastated by the cold, snow, and wind this winter."
"I have read that sometimes polyploid inducing agents may only affect the outer layer of cells. This could be an explanation for the "mixed polyploid" that she discussed in relation to 'Colossus'. The use of DMSO (Dimthyl Sulfoxide) may help induce polyploidy in ALL layers as it functions as a vehicle taking the polyploid agent INTO the tissue, rather than just surface contact. I also agree that chromosome analysis is the only accurate way of determining polyploidy. Phenotypic expression is too variable even in a given plant."
"I use Styrofoam cups in part because of the ease of repotting seedlings. The easy way to transfer from a Styrofoam cup to these plastic pots is as follows: Put in empty cup in an empty plastic pot and fill the pot around the cup with [your seedling mixed]. Remove a Styrofoam container -- leaving an empty spot. Make two vertical cuts with a knife on opposite sides of the Styrofoam container from top to bottom. While holding the two halves together, cut the bottom of the Styrofoam cup off.
[The seedling mix stays in if moist]. Then lower the Styrofoam bottomless cup into the prepared spot and remove each side of the cup, one at a time, by just lifting up slowly."
Dick Figlar (November 2006) - South Carolina, USA:
"Our M. foveolata 'Shibumichi' produced one beautiful bloom in early April (blooming at the same time as M. dianica). These two sect. Michelia spp. offer the greatest hope for breeders to produce a hybrid of the ornamental caliber of Magnolia
maudiae and M. doltsopa but blooming later in the spring. Crossing these with the later-blooming M. foveolata, which also has fairly large flowers, could achieve that objective."
"... I added copious amounts of "Nature's Nog". This stuff is a growth stimulator (mostly for root growth) in which the primary ingredients are seaweed extract and humates. Even the sulky, still containered, M. delavayi rebounded rapidly from stunted yellowing-leaved plants to vigorous dark green leaved plants in just two to three weeks."
"Philippe, I think the best way to separate zenii, biondii, and cylindrica is:
M. biondii -- blooms very early (like zenii), has six tepals, and three sepaloid tepals. If introgressed (as many are) you will often find only one or two or zero sepaloid tepals, even on the same plant
M. zenii -- blooms very early (like biondii), has seven to nine tepals -- never any sepaloid tepals.
M. cylindrica -- blooms later than the other two, about same time as M. denudata -- has three very small sepaloid tepals and six regular tepals. Hybrids such as 'Pegasus' will have one or two to mostly zero sepaloid tepals (my observations).
All three have varying degrees of pink-purple pigment running up from the base of the tepals."