Tree choosing advice, please

The Continental Op

 quite apart from the potential size.

I've had them to 60 ft those would have been big specimens and I've no idea how old they were. Trunks weren't that thick maybe a around a foot.

bored_newbie

I made a mistake when planting a magnolia tree.

It is only small but I planted a weigela about a metre away from it and a climbing rose about half a metre away.

I realise now those are too close for comfort and the recommendation is to give them lots of space.

Any thoughts? Will I get away with it if I keep the rose pruned away from the tree?

looksee

Move the weigela and the rose, both will be more accepting of being moved than the magnolia. Dig them up with maximum soil and rootball (though the rose will really not mind being moved with or without soil) and drop into their new places immediately, firm in and cover with a good layer of woodchip or similar mulch.

The Continental Op

You sometimes have to accept the lose of one plant as another grows.

I always suggest planting specimen plants that you will keep like you magnolia at good spacing so they will hardly if at all interfere with each other. Then you can infill with cheaper possibly faster growing plants that are "expendable".

bored_newbie

Thanks for the replies. The climbing rose is one of a dozen I grew from cutting so I’d class it as expendable. When planting, I think I was relying on the rose to give the colour for the next few years as I read it can take the magnolia a while to get going with flowering.

Likewise the weigela is from cutting and I have others. If leaving them doesn’t negatively affect the magnolia I might just leave them. The ground was so difficult that I really don’t want to dig them up.

galaxy12

Amalancier wil be good choice and may be easy to control at least initially.you may be able to get a semi mature amalancier at this time of the year in curragh or in tullys at a decent price.

An orange variety which you are after may be dogwood or cornus alba .

Another option would be rhus typhina which are stunning multistema with orange leaves in autumn but it's a suckering tree so may be difficult to control depending on the space in the front .

Kaybaykwah

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119728542#Comment_119728542

Yes, I love rhus typhina, the vinegar tree. It is native to my part of the world. I snatched some near a railway ditch years ago and replanted in my backyard, near a patio, which made a superb sunshade. It is highly invasive though, as you say. It will grow far from the original planting.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119668245#Comment_119668245

Leave the branches for up to 5 years. They help the stem to thicken. You can prune after that.