Saucer Magnolia Tree Winter Buds - February 2022

Late February and Early March is usually the time when I start to get a little garden-stir-crazy and begin to get back out to examine the winter damage and build up my hopes for the coming growing season.  It is when the tree and shrub buds begin to swell and we can start to see what is going to pop.  It is also a sloppy, wet and muddy time of year.  Or, a frozen-solid, snow-covered time of year.  This past week, it was a mix of both.  We had some warming temperatures with snow melting and some rains which made the ground soggy and saturated.  They say you're supposed to stay out of your garden beds during the wet season of Spring to keep the ground from compacting too much, so I've mostly tooled around the lawn this week.  

It is a good time to document in the [tree diary] and [garden diary] the state of some of the buds that are beef'ing up and getting ready to put on a show.  I'll start where I have typically started before:  with our Saucer Magnolia.  Below, you can see the furry, partially-cracked open flower bud that is one of many set on the tips of the upright and almost vase-shaped young tree. 

This Saucer Magnolia has grown quite a bit since we planted it in the Summer of 2017.  That's five growing seasons in total - with this year being the sixth.  It has reached a height where I can't get anywhere close to in terms of reaching - and it started about six-feet tall in total.  

However, this tree had some sort of infestation last Summer, so I applied a dose of treatment (same stuff I used on the Aphid problem I had with the Greenspire Lindens) in the Fall. 

The tree looks good in terms of buds and feels like it is in a similar spot growth-wise to last year when I posted a similar photo. 

Here's the first Winter photo I have of the tree - from February 2018 (four years ago).  

I posted a photo in September of 2019 of the buds being set before dormancy. 

The next time that I posted Winter bud photos was in January of 2020.  

And another post that same month when I wired part of the Magnolia tree up.