Magnolia Muncher?

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ericabelle West Plains, MO(Zone 6b) Mar 22, 2010

Hello! I have a Tulip Magnolia, 3rd year in the ground, whose buds get massacred every spring. They brown and die, and some of them look like half of the top has been bitten off. Hopefully you can see this in the photo. Is this some sort of pest, or are the low temps doing this? Right now, we are having lows in the 30's and probably won't be frost-free until mid-April. Oh, and I also need to mention that this just happened in the last couple of weeks. Any advice would be much appreciated - I was really hoping to have several different kinds of magnolias on our property.

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granitegneiss Norridgewock, ME(Zone 5a) Mar 22, 2010

I can't imagine the cold would do that, it is normal. Have you considered deer?

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ericabelle West Plains, MO(Zone 6b) Mar 22, 2010

No deer in this yard - we are in the middle of a subdivision and we have a fenced in yard. We have a lot of squirrels - would they do that?

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Eclipse Norwalk, IA(Zone 5b) Mar 31, 2010

If your fence isn't at LEAST 8 ft tall you can still have deer at night in any subdivision.The deer eat the buds off the magnolias at work here in Des Moines at the cemetery. Every winter...they also strip the buds off the lilacs in the spring season. Look for deer tracks around your tree. May be something else but not likely. :-)

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ericabelle West Plains, MO(Zone 6b) Apr 01, 2010

Yes the deer could definitely jump our fence, but if they do, they don't touch any other plant in the yard, or even all the buds on that tree; so I thought it unlikely. I did notice that three buds survived, so at least we will have a few blooms on the magnolia this year.

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wormfood Lecanto, FL(Zone 9a) Apr 05, 2010

I would give it systemic insecticide. At the end of the season so whatever is in there gets killed before it hatches with the spring budding.

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duck_toller Middleton, WI(Zone 4b) Apr 06, 2010

I've seen rabbits climb my magnolia. Kind of funny if it didn't make me so mad. However they eat the bud entirely off not just nibble the end.

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ericabelle West Plains, MO(Zone 6b) Apr 07, 2010

Wormfood - good idea - it does look like something just hatched out of the tip, ruining the bud. I will put that on my gardening calendar!
And, duck_toller, rabbits climbing your magnolia! That is a hoot! You need to get a photo of that.

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