Specialty Gardening: Fragrant wish list, 1 by wallaby1

wallaby1 wrote:
Thanks Ivy1, now I have to get my 'magnolia' brain in gear, I have so many plants I forget about some of them!

Your daughter only 5 and liking striped roses? that's great, she will be a gardener when she grows up, I couldn't believe the flower myself, I saw it only the once at my local garden centre, it didn't have a flower but I was suitably impressed by the picture, and I AM glad I bought it. They are Pennels nursery, the same Pennel that bred many clematis, they do have lots of polytunnels but I don't think they grow much now, perhaps clematis, but get a lot of good plants in from the Co-operative growers in Holland, and other growers here, they do seem to get the best selection of roses, some from David Austin, but i bought mine direct bare root, you can choose and think you are getting the best but not always.
Which English Garden magazine is that? I have thought of trying card companies with some, I have 2 folders full in My Pictures of what I think are suitable. I stopped buying magazines long ago, they tend to repeat themselves, and I can get so much more from the internet. Some payment would be nice, my spending habits can be high!

Magnolias, yes I have wanted practically every one I have seen, but again have to stop some where, they can get big. There was a soulangeana here when we bought, but it had stopped growing, was stunted and poor. I dug it up and move it, still no good, so put it in a large pot in good composty stuff, left in a shady spot, pruned where I could which was difficult because you cant really prune into old wood. It started to grow nicely, and I put it in the same bed with Just Joey, 2002 it had 32 flowers, which late frosts damaged, a year off then last year it had quite a few on. I also bought Susan as a plug plant in spring 1999, it grew quickly and went in the previous bed I did in 2001, the one with the Crazy For You, it has grown really well, has lovely large dk green wavy leaves, and has lots of flowers. I also bought Betty, which has an AGM, as a plug a year later, it is a bit slower, buried in a pot along my 'above ground border' somewhere! It is a cross between soulangeana and stellata if my memory serves me right. Also bought Elizabeth from the same people, it is getting quite big and I have it in a large pot, it needs to go in the ground that should have been prepared last year! It had 2 flowers on in 2003, none last year it needed a repot, did that and it looks to have several flower buds on now. It is a very pale yellow, almost cream, with a lovely scent and a red centre. I have tried growing Charles Raffil, a campbellii selection, from seed, it is still good after I think 4 years but no germination yet, they can take a long time BUT!!!! I wish I had bought the young plant now, they can take 15 years to flower, Oh well... I also bought a m. sieboldii from Bodnant Gardens here a few years back, it struggled and died after 3/4 years, I think it was the peat they grew it in, the roots don't make properly and give up. i put in some m. sieboldii seed last year, here's hoping!!!!

A pic of m. Susan last year, it has put on a lot of growth since and 'filled' the spot, a really robust plant