Azalea collection advice

Joe Dupre'

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My sister called today and wants to get rid of 3 big azaleas in her front yard. I think they are 15-20 years old and probably just clumps of trunks. All leafed out, I remember them being 3.5 to 4 feet in diameter. I'll dig them regardless, but how should I handle them? Prune back to 12" stubs?? Leave a certain percentage of top growth?? Prune away most of the trunks, leaving just a few?? I never tackled any this big.
 

Maloghurst

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I have an old azalea in my yard that was overgrown. I pruned it back fairly hard and some branches that were pruned back to bare wood died. Just my experience. I hope to learn from the experts on the one because I have an azalea to collect next door as well.
 

sorce

Nonsense Rascal
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You have to seal cuts.
Need a good saw or 2 so you don't have to sharpen during, and a third for the roots.

I would try and style of as much as possible in the ground, as in , sawing things off before it's out the ground.

Shake it up!

Sorce
 

Joe Dupre'

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Well, that was a bust. :(

I found out the azaleas were more like 30 + years old. The trunk was 12-14" across and made up of 30-40 pinky sized to 1" stems packed in like sardines. I made a valiant effort for 30 minutes to get some movement of the trunk to no avail. Tapping on the trunk gave this resonance that let me know it had a fantastic hold on the earth. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
 

Brian Van Fleet

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Usually azaleas have small, shallow root systems and are pretty easy to collect. Unfortunately, they also tend to stool up and they may not always have something that passes for a good trunk. I’d prune them back until you can excavate around the bases to see if they have anything useful for bonsai. If so, they should be easy to collect and likely to survive collection this time of year.
 

Joe Dupre'

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I just think it’s a no go. Maybe with a backhoe, but not with a shovel.
 

Joe Dupre'

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Possible, but not practical.......at least for me. From what I saw, I would be left with a basketball sized porcupine. Not really appealing to me.
 

KLSbonsai

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Azaleas are easy to dig and collect the roots rarely grow deeper than 6 inches. We dig them all the time at work. You want a shallow pancake shaped rootball. If you do give it a try you always put them in the ground or pot and air or ground layer them into single trunks. I dug 25 from a house two seasons ago, I am air layering them into triple that over the next two years. They are 30-40 years old and will yield many 1 to 1 1/4 inch trunks wakaebusi azaleas.
 

Joe Dupre'

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KLSbonsai, you might have missed the fact that these trunks were 12" to 14" in diameter..... all fused together into a solid trunk. When struck with the shovel handle, they sounded the same as any 12" diameter tree. I dug down one standard shovel blade depth and cut roots all the way around and still absolutely no movement. Not saying it couldn't be done, just won't be done by me.
 

KLSbonsai

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Just trying to push you into the extra effort. For work I dig all sizes of plant material. This one is a purple ghost Japanese maple we dug and moved last Tuesday.20200316_122327.jpg
 

Joe Dupre'

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Nice. Four guys, a backhoe and a flat bed , I presume. Send 'em over. I'll spring for soft drinks. ;)
 

KLSbonsai

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My company specializes in moving specimen trees.
 

KLSbonsai

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@Brian Van Fleet yeah it is quite a change. But the horticulture is still relative. Some changes for the containerized environment but still relative.
 
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