Magnolia

[trizzy]

I have two young magnolia's (trees' i thought) in the garden that i brought here with me from the UK.  They are both about 4 years old.  One of them has just flowered whilst the other is still in bud, but neither of them have any leaves.  People across the road have a magnolia with leaves but no flowers.  There are plenty i've seen around here that have both but I have no idea if this is normal in a young plant (tree)?..........do i need to do something to the soil, or change its position or just give up completely with this thing that just looks like a twig at all other times of the year.

Thanks

[Pads]

Lots of Magnolia have the flowers first then the leaves. One of the ones I have does this . I think as they get older this will change. 

[Russethouse]

Perhaps the people across the road have a different variety ?

[trizzy]

well I guess i'll wait to see what happens and then review later on what I should do, thank u

[Gardengirl]

Probably down to variety. I planted the one in the front garden about 25 years ago; it's still fairly small & neat (I do prune a little each year to keep the shape); it's a magnolia stellata, & the flowers are looking lovely just now, but the leaves appear later. We have a uni hall of residence near us, & at this time of year we have Japanese students taking photos of  the lovely blossoms. In the back garden we have another variety - not sure what. It's about the same age, but bigger, with deep pink flowers; again the leaves appear after the flowers.

Near us there are many magnolias; some are in leaf & some in flower; there are even some evergreen eg m. grandiflora. Let us know what happens with yours - hope it gives you many years of pleasure!

Jo