Anything to do with frost bitten azalea? (Deciduous)

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One of my deciduous azalea had a growth spurt in September that never really hardened off. Got caught in the deep freeze and the leaves got frostbite. Anything to do besides just leave it be for now? Pics to show the status of new growth.
 

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Messages
349
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Eastern MA, USA
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Yeah I figured. The growth spurt was induced by me trimming it back when I received it from a nursery after the dry spurt this summer. I may have fertilized it too long or something as well - I stopped in September I believe. Do you think it should be factored into my spring planning? I had considered repotting with minimal handling in spring or after blooming later on but had also been unsure of that since it only went into the training pot in August. The bonsai pot of choice isn’t much smaller than that though and the soil is good already so it doesn’t need to be replaced (mountain moss and kanuma blend).
 

penumbra

Imperial Masterpiece
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If it was re-potted in August, I would not re-pot in spring of 2023. I would wait at least a year from re-pot and preferably until late winter/early spring of 2024.
 

Glaucus

Chumono
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It ought to have gone dormant and dropped all leaves around the time where the first below 0C temperatures hit.
Was it very mild followed by a deep freeze?

This could be a risk of protecting a plant from low non-freezing to barely below 0C temperatures. If you do that, you may not trigger dormancy.

Looks like this one was completely not ready, so it likely has severe damage. Not sure what you can do. Especially since you are in zone 5 and winter just started.
Even if it is not completely dead, I wonder if it will be able to be ready for the frost wave.]

What about the branches that did shed their leaves? The ones with the flower buds? Maybe it was just the new immature growth that started growing in September and didn't harden off? And the rest of the plant is ok?
Because all those buds likely developed in September as well.
 
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Yeah it was just the new immature growth that hadn’t hardened off. All the older growth had experienced leaf drop weeks ago
 
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Yeah mild to really cold without much in between for the season. Everything else had dropped leaves fully but this azalea had put on new growth shortly before leaf drop of the older growth.
 
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I hope it’s not as dire as you’ve made it out to be @Glaucus but it definitely hadn’t gone smoothly into dormancy. I was very confused about why it was still growing shoots well into October and only hardening end of November. It certainly was connected to me cutting it back in August when it was received. It may have also been connected to my use of inorganic fertilizers into September. I’ll have to learn more about it.
 
Messages
349
Reaction score
415
Location
Eastern MA, USA
USDA Zone
5B
I hope it’s not as dire as you’ve made it out to be @Glaucus but it definitely hadn’t gone smoothly into dormancy. I was very confused about why it was still growing shoots well into October and only hardening end of November. It certainly was connected to me cutting it back in August when it was received. It may have also been connected to my use of inorganic fertilizers into September. I’ll have to learn more about it.
I say it was connected because all the new shoots were close to points I had cut back.
 
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