I love my 2 Saucer Magnolia tress. The early Spring flowers are gorgeous. But they walk a dangerous line with the weather. One cold night, and all the emerging flowers die! If I had it to do again, I would have planted Star Magnolias. They open their flowers a week later. So, they bloom more reliably.
They are lesser in showy flowers but more reliable. But I chose the Saucer Magnolia because there was a small park across the street from my office and I was awed by their beauty. And the trees have pleasingly twisted branchs and nice green leaves the rest of the year. But they were in the center of Washington DC and city-centers are warmer.
This year seemed promising. Lots of buds, and the weather forecast was for wees of above-freeze temperatures. Alas, a 22F night snuck in and killed are the blooms.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and sometimes you get frozen blooms! At least the cold temps don't kill the tree. And I have some backups for the future. 2 years ago, I planted 2 korean dogwoods and 2 Sourwoods in the far backyard. The Dogwoods will bloom a couple weeks later in Spring and the Sourwoods don't exactly bloom, but the leaves turn bright red in Fall.
It has actually been a hard couple of years for trees here. The drought 2 years ago was harsh. A Beech tree in the front yard died outright. I have 2 Golden Rain trees at the street on either side of my driveway. I died and the other is barely alive (just several small branches with leaves emerging). I may try to clip some small shoots and root them.
A huge Sweetgum tree has been falling apart slowly for years. I don't really mind that (it shades the garden). But the trunk is going to fall on my fence eventually. And it has shady siblings. I hope they die too (I can use the light). I can't have them cut down because they are actually (barely) on the neighbor's property and they don't care about my garden. But I can hope they die natural deaths like the falling one.
When I moved here, the backyard was filled with junky trees. I cut down some and a couple fell over on their own. Wild blackberries and English Ivy took over. They are hard to remove. My hope is that the 4 new specimen trees (2 Dogwoods and 2 Sourwoods) will shade them out between chainsaw and brush-cutting efforts, but it will take a few years.
I'll get the backyard cleaned of problem-plants eventually (and as the new trees grow). Then I can try to remake the 10' pond and get the place looking as good as it did 10 years ago!
