Big ol' azalea from a house remodel

[boonefrog]

This may or may not survive, but in response to a CL posting I made like this one, I got access to a house being gutted with this azalea and several other weird, unidentified trunks on the property (more on those in other posts). This post obviously concerns the former.

I think the azalea in question had already been pruned and abused prior to my finding it but the guy who invited me to collect it had no idea of the history. So I went with what I knew: try to preserve root ball, leave a few leaves, don't prune back too hard unless you're extra sure, etc. Here are some progress pics. I'll update as more come in...

 

[Underdog]

Good luck with it. Looks good for a rescue. They have been my favorites to play with in my short time at this.
I came across a beast I hope survives this spring.

 

[boonefrog]

Thanks! As I was going through photos for another post here, I ran across some others of this azalea a bit more pruned back maybe, Beer can for scale at least...

You can see a bit better here how weird the bends in and relationships between branches are. Curious if anyone has any advice for cuts or overall form?

 

[RobertB]

really nice

 

[CWTurner]

Curious if anyone has any advice for cuts or overall form?

Looks like you couldair-layer a pretty good cascade starter from the top in that 3rd pic.
CW

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Get it healthy and then start styling. See what lives and what dies back

 

[JudyB]

Very nice movement at the base. If this lives, it could be stunning. How fortunate that these backbud on old wood readily! Good luck with it.

 

[fh05]

These are very strong and have a lot of stored energy. 2-3 yrs ago I found a couple like theses on the curb on the street - was not sure how long they were there, had much fewer roots, I thought I would give it a try and brought them home. They came back real strong with buds all over the trunk. You got a lot of roots - definitely will come back, good score.

 

[boonefrog]

oof. Possibly sad update. Compared to my other azalea where I left some leaved branches on it, this one does not seem to be budding. Granted that was nursery stock and didn't have near as much of its photosynthetic capacity chopped but it feels ominous... Still holding out hope as some of my more stressed Hibiscus and Yew are only budding in the past 5-7 days but it doesn't look good for this amazing trunk