Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Pruning Wuss
I admit it: I'm a softy... When Liz tells me there's a large bug in the house, I don't grab a rolled up newspaper; I instead grab a tissue and capture the critter and take it outside... even wasps and spiders. I used to do the same thing when my office nurse, Eileen, pointed out spiders in our medical office. Of course we were on the fifth floor, so I'd take the spider down in the elevator to put it outside. There I'd be with a wad of tissue paper held gently in my hands, on the elevator, and some older lady would look at it quizically, and I'd smile and say "spider". Well, they often bustled off on the third floor! I'm not much better in the garden; it pains me to whack living plants back to stubs. Over the years I've gotten better, but for some reason I still just hate pruning magnolias. Perhaps it's because they are such ancient plants; among the oldest flowering plants, with fossilized magnolias dating back 100 million years. Or, perhaps it's the richly resinous smell magnolias give off when you cut in to them... or maybe it's just because they are such elegant, slow growing plants. At least the brush pile makes a nice place for spiders.
// posted by IBOY @ 6:13 PM 
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If you don't like to prune your magnolias, you could layer them instead. It looks even messier than not pruning at all but after a year, you have a whole new magnolia plant that you can give to somebody OR plant down in that ravine. Rationale for doing that; you're not killing the magnolia branch by cutting it off, you are making new plants and by planting it down your ravine you are makign it pretty and preventing errosion. You could also take the new magnolia plants to the plant sale where a lucky person will get to buy it after not believing their luck to find such a fab-o plant there.
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