Magnolias need moist soil to thrive and with climate change becoming a real concern, are there more appropriate drought tolerant trees native to the mediterranean you can plant? i lived in Italy for a while (but unfortunately was not able to garden) so understand the climate, but i think you should seriously reconsider.

Magnolias do grow well in Tuscany. https://bagnidilucca.blog/2021/03/14/magnolias-and-lucca/

However, I was on the Tuscany Umbria border a couple of weeks ago and even the Rose of Sharon looked thirsty. They had had no rain for three months, the local streams were dry and our hosts were worrying about their well running dry. Even if you have irrigation there’s no guarantee there will be sufficient water in the future to use it.

So, your Magnolias might not grow to their potential size but I think they would still need plenty of space for their roots to seek water without competition. Cypresses would also need a good root run, so I’d make a wild guess you‘d need to leave at least 7 x 10m between them and any non drought resistant shrubs.

Thank you both. This summer has been one of the WORST EVER in many respects, and here in Tuscany we have recieved almost no rain,so, yes, the magnolias are challenging. The thing is that I already have Leonard M growing out there; it's definitely been challenged severely; it's in a bad, bad spot with too much sun and the soil is not deep, so I was thinking to move it. I'm not overly optimistic, but the fact that it has survived for several years makes me think it might deserve a better spot. I already have Susan in a pot. I certainly don't plan on getting any more of these trees; I can see that they will be needing supplemental water, at least for the first years. But the fact that Leonard has survived this long with mostly only rainfall-no REGULAR supplemental waterings-in it's appalling spot makes me think it might be worth while to at least give them a chance.

Floral, just to be sure I understand: you mean 7x10 meters between a cypress and a magnolia?

Sorry. That was meant to be 7 - 10 metres. Keyboard reverted to alphabet and I didn’t notice.

Here in California we have no summer rainfall, typically 5-7 months with no water falling from the sky whatsoever.

Despite this, I planted two Magnolia stellata (star magonlia) in my irrigated front garden just because they are so pretty. Although they were indeed beautiful in the spring, they suffered badly in the summers even with weekly watering. The edges and tips of the leaves and eventually the entire leaves turned brown, and many fell off altogether. My soil tends to be somewhat alkaline, and that may have been a contributing factor. In the end, and with regret, I removed them.

Now this is California, not Tuscany, and our version of the Mediterranean climate is more extreme than yours is. But is sounds to me as though your climate may be tending in this direction, at least some years.

On another note, I also removed a dwarf Italian cypress 'Tiny Tower'. It seemed to be healthy, but it was only about 15 feet from the house, and Italian cypress is one of the high fire risk plants in a wildfire potential zone. I do not know if that is a concern for you in your location, but it is for me. Most conifers present this problem, junipers possibly being the worst.

You all more familiar with the climate and soil seem to have covered tge viability of the trees.

I will toss in, sometimes the secret to what spacing is in what look you want or what equipment needs to make it through.

I will second rosefolly's comments about Italian cypress. Here, at least, they are on top of the Fire Dept's list of plants which explode in and spread a fire - in my town (same general area as rosefolly) they have even made them actually illegal!

Jackie

Tuscany without Italian Cypresses is unimaginable. They’re integral to the landscape and they are native.

Regarding the comparison with California, I don’t think it’s quite the same. In ’normal’ years they do have some summer rainfall. And they do have definite winters. You see road signs warning of ice and, in some places, signs encouraging the use of snow chains. The native vegetation, ie what is winter hardy there, is not wildly dissimilar to England.