jane magnolia dead already?

Hi!

Early in the season I bought a jane magnolia from Home Depot. It had four flowers on it and lots of budding leaves. I was so excited and had visions of a lovely flowering tree, especially after spending many years in the South. I looked it up and it said it was good to zone 4. I am right on the edge of zone 4A and 3B-- it kind of breaks here and we do get days of 40 or more below.

I bought it, with some misgivings.

The first night something came and ate the flowers-- I suspect it was a deer becasue the tree was about 4 feet tall. I was bummed. But some of the leaf buds looked like they were gone too.

I have watered it every day. I have said a little prayer over it every time.

But now it is completely bare. There are no leaf buds at all. The twigs are still flexible.

What happened to my tree? Is there hope? Thanks!

It's possible that whoever's been munching it got all the leaves and buds and it will need a little time to make more--if that's the case then you might put up some wire fencing around it to protect it for a little while. But if the leaves fell off vs being munched off, I wonder if it could be too much water? Have you been checking if it actually needed water before you watered it every day? I suspect it's not that warm in MN yet so unless you have really fast draining soil it's possible that was too much. I'd do the finger test--stick your finger down a couple inches into the soil and see how it feels. If it's really wet, then you've been watering too much. Depending on how long it's been overwatered for it may nor may not come back, but it wouldn't hurt to let it dry out and give it a chance. (wouldn't hurt to check the watering even if you think a critter munched the leaves...especially if it doesn't have any leaves now it's not going to go through water that fast)

Thanks! We are officially in a drought here, which is why I was watering it. We are currently at 61 degrees, so it is still prettty cool. Hmm. But we also have a lot of deer-- I see tracks in the yard (they come at night.)

I will watch the watering and keep saying the little prayer. Thanks.

Only thing that being in a drought means is that you can't rely on rainfall and you'll have to do some supplemental watering (and newly planted things would frequently need some supplemental watering anyway even if you weren't in a drought). It doesn't mean that you need to necessarily water every day, in fact unless you have really sandy soil I doubt if it needs that much. I'd definitely try the finger test--if you have been watering too much it's better to catch it now, the sooner you fix it the faster the plant can recover. I'd also put some fencing around it if you can until the tree has a chance to recover--won't help it any if deer are coming in and munching at it every night.

I should add, in case it doesn't make it Home Depot does have a 1 yr guarantee on their plants, so if you kept your receipt you can take it back and get your money back.