Back from the dead Magnolias!?

[GardenerX]

Hello everyone, as I'm sure you all know by now I recently moved into a new house and with it came a decent yard and many surprises. One of those surprises was about 12 Magnolia trees, I'm pretty sure they are Magnolia grandiflora or Southern Magnolias. I for one love Magnolias witch is why I was alarmed to see some of them suddenly look dead, the leafs fell off, the flowers died the branches and trunks turned lifeless. When I finally decided to just deal with the fact that the magnificent Magnolias were dead they started showing signs of life again. I'm not sure if that is normal for Magnolias but its got me baffled, does anyone know whats going on? I would love to know what I can do to keep these trees alive and healthy. Also I found a few seed pods on the ground I was wondering what I should do with them, should I just leave them and watch nature take its course? Or should I harvest the seeds and plant them myself? Any advice is much appreciated.

In the pictures below you can see some of the remaining dead looking areas.

[rainbowgardener]

Don't know what is happening with your trees. But if you want magnolia seedlings, pick up some seeds and plant them. My experience with my black walnut tree is that even though it drops hundreds of walnuts, NONE of them sprout unless they are planted - which the squirrels kindly do for me.