Azalea styling help

Jgaston36

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Hi everyone, long time lurker, first time poster. I bought a pleasant white evergreen azalea from a nursery recently. This will be the first azalea I attempt to bonsai and I was looking for some styling pointersPXL_20220601_204858275.jpgI'm thinking that this will eventually be the front. My first question I guess is should I be worried about repotting this summer? I know that it's pretty late to do it but am I doing more harm than good leaving it in the pine bark mix from the nursery? Thanks in advance!
 

Jgaston36

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That's true, I didn't think about that. So while I am waiting to repot, how should I approach pruning? Can anyone see a specific style that I should lean towards? I am kind of at a loss and don't want to end up with an ugly stick in a pot when I'm finished
 

penumbra

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I'm not sure your azalea is healthy enough to do any pruning other than removing dead branches and twigs. Picture does not seem to show a happy plant.
 

Jgaston36

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Before I had a chance to snap pictures a storm rolled through today and blew it off of my porch, I hope that's why it looks so disheveled.
 

Bonsai Nut

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I agree with @penumbra in terms of the plant looking sad. Never style a weak tree. Get it strong and healthy first, and then style it, when it will be much more able to respond to the rigors of pruning and wiring.

First step will be to get it out of that nursery pot and into good soil. However the first step is going to be a killer if you aren't extremely careful. I assume when you lift that plant out of the pot you will find a block of fine hair-like roots. You will want to be very gentle because if you eliminate all those fine roots you will likely kill the plant.

It is the wrong time of year to repot azaleas, so I would focus on keeping the plant healthy until next spring.
 

Jgaston36

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I was worried about over watering because of the nursery soil but now I'm guessing I'm under watering. It has been rather hot this week
 

Jgaston36

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And yes @Bonsai Nut in the container is a solid root mass. Could it be not getting enough water into the root ball?
 

Srt8madness

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You could set the pot in water to let it soak for a bit.

Also, carefully remove all dead flowers and the reproductive parts in the middle of each rosette of leaves.

Your tree just flowered which means it expended a lot of energy. It is about to push more growth too.

Idk about your zone but down here I try to give as much sun as possible morning thru noon then afternoon shade cloth (plastic in my case). You'll want to make sure you introduce sun gradually if it's been on that shaded porch.
 

sorce

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I agree, the nursery waters without jamming a finger in all the pots, and they tend to err in the side of alive, which isn't dry.

Welcome to Crazy!

I think it depends though, on how close you are to the Lakes.

I haven't done really extensive specific research, but I've traveled my area AF, and have searched Tree Nurseries deeply, can't recall any Azalea specific nurseries near the lake.

Matters cuz I can't keep one alive over winter in nursery soil. Reckon the freeze thaws are too much for the surface roots/low trunk bark.

Plus the recorded 60 degree difference between the outside of a nursery pot (80°), and the still snowy inside (20°) is not exactly a natural environment for any tree, let alone an azalea.

At least be sure to keep the surface clean.

I think selection of keeper subtrunks should take place now, with the hopes of having health enough to cut to them soon.

Nice trunk.

Sorce
 

Bonsai Nut

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And yes @Bonsai Nut in the container is a solid root mass. Could it be not getting enough water into the root ball?
That is most likely. When a plant is rootbound in a plastic nursery pot it is sometimes difficult to water effectively - the surface of the soil is so tight that water tends to roll off the top versus sink in. You can try perforating the top of the soil with a chop stick - poking holes about half way down into the pot. This will allow oxygen and water to enter the soil and should help.

You can also soak the root ball, but be careful because it is easy to overwater this way. Get a bucket of water, submerge the rootball until bubbles stop rising from the soil, then remove it from the water and let it drain completely. If you go this route, make sure the soil almost dries out before you submerge it again - you cannot let the interior of the rootball become waterlogged and anaerobic.
 

Pitoon

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Azaleas don't like their roots dried out, nor do they like their roots overly saturated. You have to find the balance in between. Azaleas for the nursery trade are typically potted up with a mix of peat and bark. This mixture allows for fast drainage while still keeping moist. The downside is that once the azalea becomes rootbound their roots form a dense mat in this mixture and water does not pass through easily.
 

Jgaston36

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Unfortunately the porch it is on get only afternoon sun so I will try to find a new place to sit it. I am going to try the chopstick idea as well as give it a soak tonight to try to get it to rehydrate.
@sorce I'm about an hour from lake Erie, i am planning on having some sort of hoop house for overwintering this year. Last year I had a casualty to the cold as well as one to bunnies.
 

Deep Sea Diver

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Wintering over in a peat/bark media is tough, I’ve done it successfully in a cold frame and a greenhouse to multiple azaleas. It’s always hard for me to gauge when to water and not.

If the azalea gets direct sun in the afternoon…and that’s your best location, you could get a shadecloth to use to filter sunlight. I’m thinking 50%, it may be less depending on your actual exposure time and if the porch top and tree help shade the area.

Just a thought…. about removing all the flowering parts including the base of each flower and immerse the pot in water as suggested earlier…. then remove any of the obviously dead inner twigging… wait a couple days and then post a couple decent images of the azalea from the sides on a good background… and while you are at it, the rootball?

cheers
DSD sends
 
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Jgaston36

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It was a very small apple seedling. So yeah it may not have just been the cold, but it did get buried in snow and pot froze to the ground
 

Bob Hunter

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This year I would thin it out take off all the dead flowers, cut off branches that cross over other branches and reduce to no more then 2 branches at any intersection.
Early spring Next year cut half the root ball off bare root the rest and chop it like this!IMG_7637.jpg
Watch some Peter Warren videos
 

Deep Sea Diver

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Early spring Next year cut half the root ball off bare root the rest and chop it like this!

The abocpve method will yield somewhat of a ‘lollipop’ clump shape. This is perhaps the quickest and easiest style for azalea bonsai. Maybe 4-6 years to acceptable form, given the flowers are smaller sized. It helps the plant the trunk on a bit of an angle.

Alternately you could a primary line and a couple branches and develop alternative informal styles. This takes about 5 years to a decent bonsai and perhaps 10 for a good one, depending on the cultivar’s growth, leaf and flower size. Bigger flowers and/or leaf sizes call for a larger, more spaced out design, irregardless of the design.

Here’s a couple satsuki in ‘basic’ training with the primary structure defined. Both have been completely rootwashed out of the nursery media and repotted in a 90/10 Kanuma/pumice media.
857EF287-4DFA-4B9E-90BA-BF836ADD34A5.jpeg 409A7A3A-4380-470A-8181-C0974D019F11.jpeg

cheers
DSD sends
 

Jgaston36

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PXL_20220603_232743927.jpgin my completely unprofessional opinion, it looks a lot perkier today. I chop sticked the root ball, soak it in water for quite some time and picked off all of the flowers.
There was only a few limbs inside that were fully dead, so I did trim them off. I also found quite a few ants when I soaked the root ball, so I probably need to get something to spray for those
 
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