Right now would be a great time to plant your Magnolia. Although personally, I'd avoid a Saucer Magnolia (Magnolia x soulangeana) because they will have their blooms frost/freeze killed about 3 out of every 5 years here in the middle part of the country. One of the newer later flowering cultivars would be a much superior and overall hardier tree. To name a few, M. 'Daybreak', M.'Rose Marie', M. 'Pink Charm', M. 'Pink Royalty', M. 'Pink Surprise', M. 'Red Baron', or some yellows like M. 'Sun Spire', M. 'Sunsation', and M. 'Yellow Bird' or an odd one like M.'Woodsman'. All of these cultivars flower significantly later than Saucer Magnolias and all are more winter hardy(zone 4 hardy vs. zone 5) and with consistent moisture will grow in just about any exposure for you. You can find most all of these via mail order at places like Rare Find Nursery, Fairweather Gardens, Song Sparrow Nursery, Gossler Farms, or Greer Gardens. You probably won't find them at a local nursery though. They're mostly too new or just not in wholesale production, even though they are vastly superior to most Saucer Magnolias.

That is different than what I do up north here. Many of us find it is better to move the tree, shrub, perennial, in early Sept, before the leaves or foliage dies back. With foliage on, whatever you move, had leaves to make food until it gets cold. Leaves on is supposed to be more helpful to the roots by feeding them, and the roots will continue to grow until the ground freezes. That is usually late Nov or so. Sometimes freezes much later, near Christmas. We make sure the moved item is watered regular, but the rainy season usually starts in late Sept, so they often need no extra watering. Mulch around it, a good layer, but keep the mulch off the stems. Often a newly moved plant, bush, shrub, will lose leaves a little earlier than others like it, without that being a problem. Mine leaf out fine in spring and we go from there. I have the best luck moving things, putting in new things, in Sept thru early Oct. Plants seem to like it, do well the next year. I do feel silly sometimes out watering in Nov, if we aren't getting much rain. Spring transplants can do well, I usually just have too many other things going then. I would agree with being careful around the roots, they break easy. Get some help moving a big rootball, they get really heavy, and you are trying to be careful, turns job into hard work.

Dear DallasGarden; Thanks for the helpful words. I am renting this home, and should I leave, I don't want to leave my plant behind, so I leave it is its enormous pot. It seems to have lots of room to grow. Thanks for that idea. I'm happy for you with your Magnolia Jane. I started seeing browning leaves a couple of months or so ago. Do you think I can leave it in the pot on my patio, and bring it in for the winter? Thanks.

It doesn't look grafted at all, was probably grown from a cutting. The usual interest in sucker removal is to prevent rootstock sprouts from replacing the variety grafted on top. Or when a specimen is bought as a standard and sprouts below the top of the lollipop - whether from a rootstock or interstem, or actually from the same plant that makes up the ball head - would eliminate the lollipop shape. (Standards can be produced by either training up a single stem of a rootstock or interstock and then grafting a scion on top or by training up a single stem of the same variety that would otherwise be such a scion, letting it branch at the desired height). Especially if you are not a pruning and training wizard your plant is really too advanced at this point to try and develop it into a single-trunked specimen with an elevated head. If that is what you want it would be better to start over with a small (as in one gallon pot size or even smaller) example that has not forked into several more or less equivalently sized main stems, tie the biggest one to a secure stake, - that will last the required number of years - and develop that into a dominant main trunk. Or choose another of the many magnolia cultivars on the market that tends to produce a tree shape, is often sold with a single trunk already having formed on its own or having been developed by a grower. 'Galaxy' is a single-stemmed, tree-form magnolia with ascending branches, the perfect shape for narrow planting sites Here is a link that might be useful: The National Arboretum presents Magnolia 'Galaxy', unique in form and flower among cultivated magnolias This post was edited by bboy on Mon, Dec 22, 14 at 13:10