I have a coner of my front garden that currently contains a
mature much over grown and over pruned magnolia tree. Sadly it
has to come down as it is pushing against the wall and I spend
a lot of time in the summer cutting back new shoots that spread
acrosss the pavement and into the road!

I want to replace it with something less vigorous, but still
attractive. The corner is basically south facing with a roughly
1 meter high brick wall to the west and north. It gets a little
sun early in the morning, and then is shaded by the house until
early afternoon.

I think I'd like something that will grow reasonably quickly to
about 1.5 meters and spread similarly. There are a couple of
small azelea's near by that do well, but a camelia is
suffering.

What would folks suggest please, nothing too exotic or
timeconsuming, age is getting the better of me

Many Thanks


--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

In article ,
says...

On Tue, 7 May 2019 17:13:26 +0100, Roger Tonkin
wrote:

I have a coner of my front garden that currently contains a
mature much over grown and over pruned magnolia tree. Sadly it
has to come down as it is pushing against the wall and I spend
a lot of time in the summer cutting back new shoots that spread
acrosss the pavement and into the road!

I want to replace it with something less vigorous, but still
attractive. The corner is basically south facing with a roughly
1 meter high brick wall to the west and north. It gets a little
sun early in the morning, and then is shaded by the house until
early afternoon.

I think I'd like something that will grow reasonably quickly to
about 1.5 meters and spread similarly. There are a couple of
small azelea's near by that do well, but a camelia is
suffering.

What would folks suggest please, nothing too exotic or
timeconsuming, age is getting the better of me

Many Thanks

What was the magnolia, do you know? I had a M. Soulangeana that spread
like that, but you can get narrower, upright-growing ones.

If you have azaleas nearby, and the magnolia grew well, it suggests an
acid soil. Azaleas, magnolias, rhododendrons and camellias all like
the same soil conditions (acid), but why then is the camellia not
doing well? Is it chlorotic, i.e. are the leaves yellowing?

Plenty of shrubs to choose from, here
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=842

No idea what the magnolia was, it was there well before we
moved in.

The camelia is varigated leaf one, with gree inside and yellow
outside. What happens is the leaves turn brown from the tip and
slowly round the edge and eventually fall off. It did flower
this year, just. I've added iron to the soil earlier and now
there are green shoots appearing at the end of the branches.
I'll keep my fingers crossed!

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

In article ,
says...
Before disposing of the magnolia completely, you could try cutting it
back really hard, to say a three-foot stump. If that kills it, you've
lost nothing as you were going to replace it anyway, but I reckon
it'll shoot from that stump and be OK for a few more years, when you
can repeat the drastic pruning.

--




Thank Chris, had thought of that, but the reason for taking it
down was that the gnarled twisted and merged lower trunks are
firmly agains the garden wall and I would have to cut it down
to about a foot to try that, and I do not think SWMBO would
appreciate that!

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

In article ,
Roger Tonkin wrote:
In article ,
says...
Before disposing of the magnolia completely, you could try cutting it
back really hard, to say a three-foot stump. If that kills it, you've
lost nothing as you were going to replace it anyway, but I reckon
it'll shoot from that stump and be OK for a few more years, when you
can repeat the drastic pruning.

Thank Chris, had thought of that, but the reason for taking it
down was that the gnarled twisted and merged lower trunks are
firmly agains the garden wall and I would have to cut it down
to about a foot to try that, and I do not think SWMBO would
appreciate that!

If an established woody plant resprouts from being cut right back,
most of the time it will produce huge shoots even in the first year.
If it doesn't, then it's generally not going to recover.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.