Leaving a 4’ stump w/o any branches about 5 years ago. I figured it would slowly decay & I didn’t care since it was in a spot in the yard that didn’t matter on a rental property. Surprisingly that stump now looks like a healthy bush of about 8’ the last I noticed it. You’ve reminded me that I should take a closer look the next time I go over there.

However, I have another Magnolia tree that was almost 3 times the size of single story house in my own back yard that apparently my backyard neighbors, who I’ve never met, didn’t like so they shaved their side of the tree. Since the tree was growing only a foot on my side of the property line almost half the branches were on their side. I knew it was within their right to cut the branches although I would’ve appreciated a heads ups before they put a ladder in my yard & climbed the tree to shave most of the branches on their side at 7:30 on a Saturday morning with a chainsaw. They couldn’t reach the very top but from my perspective the tree almost looked the same. I never said anything and life went on for about 7 years but in the last couple of years I noticed a few branches were dropping their leaves a little more than usual. Not all of them but it was looking a little thinner than normal. Than in a big wind storm we had last summer the trees root ball snapped off & the whole tree fell over onto my neighbors house. It felt kind of like the tree’s karma getting back at the neighbor years later. I’m sure that trim job on the tree exposed it to something that harmed the tree because there are a few other similar sized magnolias in my other neighbors backyards that are still thriving.