Dwarf magnolia in a container?

Hi

My husband recently bought a small variety of magnolia online (George Henry Kern) which said it was suitable to plant in a container. It's currently small (a foot tall).

We have planted it at the weekend in a container that is 1m in diameter (a half barrel) in compost. Watering half to one watering can daily. It does not look happy. Very droopy.

We don't have anywhere suitable to replant in the ground.

Any advice?

Thanks

 

Any pictures?
Only water if the compost feel dry a couple of inches down.

 

Maybe we are over watering then.

 

Mmm, don't look good. Was it in a pot when it arrived and was it looking ok then
To be honest I'm not a fan of planting such a small plant in such a big container straight away, its better to work up the pot size slowly over a number of years.
You could be over watering, that is a possibility.
Easily done in such a large pot with lots of compost.

 

Thanks for your reply.

Yes was in a pot, seemed to look ok. We may have a smaller container we could switch it to for now. Any suggestions on size? Alternatively, if we leave it in the big pot, any advice on making sure we don't over water - approximate amounts etc?

Sorry for all the questions!

 

Personal thoughts but I would go for a container about 2inches bigger all round and couple of inches deeper than the one it came out of.

If you still want it "in the barrel effect" you could remove some of the compost and fill with some thing like pea shingle then set the smaller pot in the barrel.
This means you can use just a cheap plastic pot.
In a year or two, when it's growing well you could then plant it directly in the barrel with new compost around it.

 

Thank you. We have replanted in a smaller pot and will be more cautious when watering to see if it recovers. Finger crossed!