There are 3 of these trees growing at my work. The flowers are amazing!!! 12" big & smell like perfume! I found some of the strange thingys that are in the middle of the flowers on the ground and planted them in a flower pot. Will they sprout? Are they seeds? They are about 3" and very strange looking. I hope I get lucky and grow a tree. Or am I totally clueless? I am on the PA/MD line, my work is in Laurel MD and their Southern Magnolia trees are huge &healthy!

Magnolia seed pods are very distinct, the pod itself is around 3 to 4" long, and is studded with bright, red hard shiny seeds, at about one quarter to one half inch long. Due to the hardness of the seed. I would think to germinate it would require some sort of stratification, to make the seed softer.
There are quite a few shrub and tree seeds that germinate by passing through a birds digestive system, don't know if magnolia is one.
You could try scarification on the individual seeds, accomplished by strafing the surface with a file.

HI,
The pine cone like things?
I think they are empty now if you found them this spring. They would have red 'berries' coming out of them in fall and that's what you'd plant. Good luck! Beautiful trees when you have room for them.
https://www.scottarboretum.org...

Thanks, Sally for the info! Yes, the seed pods do look similar to pine cones. We use them here to make little facsimiles of hogs, the mascot of the U of A, Razorbacks. You just glue a curly pipe stem on the end for the tail, glue dolls eyes to the other end, the stem end, and use toothpicks for the legs. These used to be sold all over the Ozarks in gift shops.

Hi & welcome! One need not look farther than the plant database on this site to find many pics of M. grandiflora.

This pic is dated 12/4/21 from Acworth, GA.


This pic says it was taken August 1, location unknown.


Sept. 20, Goldthwaite, TX:


As far as being a yard tree for one's own yard, I'm not a fan. The roots come up out of the ground, making it very tricky to walk around under one, and nothing will grow in the 100% shade. The enormous leaves don't go under the mower, so raking them is necessary and they are thick and tough leaves that take so long to decompose, they make a poor mulch. Those seed things are also too big to be pulverized by mowing, so those must be raked too, and present a tripping hazard similar to walnuts. You can keep it limbed-up so you can walk around under (being careful to not trip on the roots) it but it is still going to have an enormous girth at the bottom, at head level, unlike other trees that are bigger at the top than at the bottom.

Agree, best in a BIG yard where you can let it branch to the ground.

I forgot I'd put a pic in the database 10 yrs ago, when the tree was 35-ish years old. This tree is SO much BIGGER now. It is constantly needing to be trimmed away from the roof (to the right), the power lines, and all of the shrubs that were near/under it are dead and the whole area under it is just loose sand, big roots, lots of dropped leaves, and seed bombs. Even Vinca major won't grow under there.

I live a couple of blocks from the old cemetery here in town, and there are 2 magnolias there that must be at least 100 years old! Plenty of room for them. There are graves dating back to the 1830s there, I don't think Arkansas was even a state then.

Wow! If you get a chance to take some pics, I, for one, would love to see those trees! I see a lot of big ones sticking up among other trees when driving, but there's no way to get to them, or anyone to ask about their age.

I sure can get pics! One of the trees is lop sided, someone, for reasons unknown, removed all the branches on one side. I don't know why, there are no power lines anywhere near. My beef? Utilities that use tree services to murder trees in the way of power lines. I would rather they take out the trees altogether rather than mangle them and then those trees suffer and die.

Great, I look forward to that!

Speaking of SM trees and mangled trees, there's a spot right along the sidewalk and under some power lines where somebody planted a short row of SM trees some unknown long time ago. They are constantly being mangled, pollarded, and have the strangest shapes imaginable. I'll try to get some pics of those.

I have a Little Gem magnolia now planted 30 years ago. (Too close to the house, what a goof) Anyway, it's lost a couple big branches in last heavy snows, causing some holes and oddness. I feel they are brittle. And talk about fire hazard! Throw some leaves in the fire, they blaze up and crackle like mad. Really bad to plant too close to a house. But MIL used to sit on the sofa and remark on the flowers she could see out the picture window. and the scent!

Wo! Thanks for all the answers! Yes I am talking about those things that are in the middle of the flower. They are kind of like pine cones. I have about 5 of them. I also took a knife and got a cutting and it is in water. I have an acre. Front of house is sunny back of house is somewhat shady. I will have to think where I want to plant the tree I kind of have an idea, I want to be able to smell those huge 12" flowers!!! Thanks again for all the responses. I am going to post here and be a regular!!!

Wow! Thanks for all the answers! Yes I am talking about those things that are in the middle of the flower. They are kind of like pine cones. I have about 5 of them. I also took a knife and got a cutting and it is in water. I have an acre. Front of house is sunny back of house is somewhat shady. I will have to think where I want to plant the tree I kind of have an idea, I want to be able to smell those huge 12" flowers!!! Thanks again for all the responses. I am going to post here and be a regular!!!

These Things ?





the top most structures are the female carpels

immediately below are the male stamens

after the flower fades & falls off -
if fertilization succeeded - the cone like seedpod forms on the same stem as the flower

Southern Magnolias look good in other peoples yards .... as mentioned; nothing grows under a magnolia ....leaves are hard to mow ....mowing a seed pod over is hard on the mower blades and can send it through a window ...or someones face...
picking up leaves and seedpods is just easier and safer - but that adds time + labor to any lawn maintenance

when leaves fall they are often cup shaped and are prone to hold water making them breading grounds for mosquitos

Yay!
All good feedback here... plant it way out in the open away from the house and walk over when you want to smell it. With the large scale of all the parts, it's good from a distance.

Dlriz, if your "cones" don't have red seeds inside, the seeds aren't ripe yet, or that cone didn't get pollinated. You may need to look for seeds in the fall. I wish you the best on eventually getting/growing a tree for your yard. An acre is definitely a big enough lot for a giant tree. If you have a dog who likes to nap on a hot afternoon, he/she will probably like to nap under your tree when it gets big enough.

Using the zone finder on this site, it says you are in zone 7a, which is the edge of hardiness (where this plant can survive winter) for southern magnolia, so it's a realistic desire.
https://garden.org/nga/zipzone...

I don't want to be debbie downer, but I've never sniffed anything from this kind of bloom without removing the bloom from the tree and getting closer to it. I've never detected the scent wafting from the tree to my nose. Maybe it does for some people. The blooms I've sniffed smell exactly like Lemon Pledge furniture cleaner. Most of the blooms would require a giant ladder to reach. There are definite differences in what people smell or not, and whether or not they like what they are smelling, so maybe my experience is less common, IDK. Just offering some food for thought because if you decide after a few years that you don't like a tree, they don't come out as easily as they go in.

WilsonBros online is a great source for all Southern flowers, shrubs, vines and trees. Now I'm not advocating for ordering from them, but they are an excellent source of info about all kinds of plants; how much sun and shade, how much water, where they can be grown, the size they obtain, and the ph level required.

You could just let it branch to the ground, or close, and let the leaves and pods build up as mulch.

CPPgardener said: You could just let it branch to the ground, or close, and let the leaves and pods build up as mulch.

Best advice.
Leaves collecting in flowerbed



My little magnolia