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When should I prune my magnolia?
Q We have a large Magnolia stellata. It is beautiful when it flowers but I don’t know how to prune it. What should I do?
Sheila Hoggerty (via email)
A Magnolia pruning is best kept to a minimum, except to remove damaged or dead wood.
It should be done during midsummer when the magnolia is in full leaf rather than during spring or autumn when the wounds will bleed, or during the dormant season as the result is likely to be dieback in branches that have been cut.
It is possible to renovate badly shaped or overgrown magnolias by hard pruning, over two-three years. However, Magnolia stellata is slow to recover from hard pruning, avoid this if you can.
If you do need to remove some substantial branches it would be worth either removing just part of each per year, or removing just one or two
