An Interesting Observation About Kobai

Mellow Mullet

Masterpiece
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Mobile, Alabama-The Heart of Dixie
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Several years ago, I purchased a satsuki Kobai at the botanical gardens sale. When I cut it back, I struck a lot of cuttings, more on that later. I was checking them and the rest of the azalea cutting section out this week to see who needed to up-size their accommodations and I noticed that all of the Kobai had really impressive nebari for being just cuttings (2-3 years old). Here is one example:

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Nothing fancy, just a rooted cutting. But look at the roots:

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Pretty impressive for just a cutting. All of the kobai cuttings are like this, the other varieties that I have are just mediocre. I planted this one in a larger flat dish to see what will happen:

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Oh, about the cuttings. I bought this one after the bloom and trimmed it up, unfortunately it had many different variations of flower. The mother plant just now has red flowers with the white dots. The cuttings have all kinds of variation, so the lesson here is wait until you see it bloom before a cut back to keep the variation.
 

pweifan

Shohin
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Cleveland, OH
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John, I'm soooo glad you posted this. :) The only azalea I have that didn't come from you is a Kobai. It's not in the greatest of health right now, but I'm hoping to nurse it back to health so I can take some cuttings. I made the mistake of overwintering it in my basement and it's sulking. Next year I should be in NC, so that should make overwintering it a lot easier. Thanks for posting your observations!
 
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