Shirley, the damage to your Franklinia may be a blessing in disguise. About thirty years ago or so I planted a then small Franklinia here in the garden. It was about the height of the one you have, with three short branches. Shortly after I planted it, something gnawed the trunk about six or eight inched above ground so much that the top of the plant fell over. It was however still attached by a band of bark. Determined to save the plant and not knowing what else to do, I put soil over the upper part of the plant (which was then just about flat on the ground) leaving the tips of each of the three branches exposed. Now fast forward about thirty years. The Franklinia is a multi-trunked giant. Even experienced gardeners who know this plant often ask me what it is. Or they ask what kind of magnolia it is. It's probably about thirty feet high and across its widest dimension, maybe forty or fifty wide. It's a glorious sight from the time it begins to bloom in late June or early July right through the fall of the last waxy scarlet leaves in November. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where a copy of Miss Martin's painting of the Franklinia from the volume of Audubon's original water colors published by American Heritage years ago hangs in the kitchen in plain view of the tree itself. The Franklinia was not painted by Audubon himself, but rather by a Miss Martin, a sister of the Bachman for whom the warbler illustrated with the Franklinia is named. The likelihood of getting a Bachman's warbler here is about zero, so we pretend the birds are goldfinches, which we have in seasonal abundance.