I bought a Magnolia "Jane" from Wayside gardens last year and I'm getting
more stems coming out of the root ball. I was wondering if this was the
natural way that this Magnolia looks or if I should I cut these to force the
tree to have one central trunk?

Thanks In Advance.

According to Dirr:

"THE LITTLE GIRL HYBRIDS...
This is a group of hybrids that resulted from crosses between M.
LILIIFLORA 'Nigra' and M. STELLATA 'Rosea' or the reciprocal. The
original crosses were made in 1955 and 1956 at the U.S. National Arboretum.
The idea was to produce a group with good floral characteristics that would
flower later than the star magnolia and thus avoid frost damage... They are
all rather erect, shrubby growers and will probably mature between 10 to
15'... The girls' names are 'Ann', 'Betty', 'Jane', 'Judy', 'Pinkie',
'Randy', 'Ricki', and 'Susan'... They are terribly confused in the trade
and it is anybody's guess as to what is being offered, regardless of name.
(Uh-oh!) 'Jane'---Reddish purple outside and white inside."

So, you have (hopefully) an erect, multistemmed ('shrubby') tree.

Dave


"Craig Toth" ctothATsofthomeDOTcom wrote in message
...
I bought a Magnolia "Jane" from Wayside gardens last year and I'm getting
more stems coming out of the root ball. I was wondering if this was the
natural way that this Magnolia looks or if I should I cut these to force
the
tree to have one central trunk?

Thanks In Advance.

To my eye, the 'little girl' magnolia hybrids look best as multi-trunk shrubs.
I have 'Ann' , limited to three stems and at 10 years old it looks terrific.
The trunks are gnarly and great looking in winter.

By the way, magnolias layer quite easily. Instead of pruning off unwanted stems
immediately, try layering them to make more plants.

--beeky

Craig Toth wrote:

I bought a Magnolia "Jane" from Wayside gardens last year and I'm getting
more stems coming out of the root ball. I was wondering if this was the
natural way that this Magnolia looks or if I should I cut these to force the
tree to have one central trunk?

Thanks In Advance.