Confessions of Urban Yamadori Azalea Addict

[Rivka]

I have now decided that digging up old landscape azaleas and only finding out what you really have once your home and hose 20 years of decayed duff off the nebari, is one of the more awesome hobbies I have.
So addicted, it’s like panning for gold, but even muddier.

Thought I would keep a thread for some of my finds. Share & Enjoy!

 

[Rivka]

Got two more today, i will never understand why folks tear these out of their yards, but who am I to look a gift azalea in the mouth?
Just finished blooming, stunning bright ruby red flowers and once i removed 8 in of duff, what initial looked like just a bunch of trunks, becomes nebari as far as the eye can see…

 

[Rivka]

And the big girl, no way she was fitting in a puny Anderson flat!

 

[Rivka]

It was a good long day, hopefully getting to go back for two more tomorrow

 

[Shibui]

I have now decided that digging up old landscape azaleas and only finding out what you really have once your home and hose 20 years of decayed duff off the nebari, is one of the more awesome hobbies I have.
So addicted, it’s like panning for gold, but even muddier.

Welcome to the azalea collector's club.

I'll also admit to being a closet azalea digger. You never know exactly what you've got until you clean the roots and start pruning excess trunks but every one is so much better than the piddly stems from the nursery.
Azaleas are so resilient. Does not seem to matter what time of year I dig here. Trunks can be pruned down to old, bare wood and still sprout loads of new shoots. Some can be split into several great clumps. A few have even survived a weekend out of the ground before I got them and still grew well after.

Have fun with these great specimens.

 

[bunjin]

Do you not find that the roots have mostly fused into one big solid mass under the trunk on these old azaleas? The ones I have dug up were neither suitable for bonsai nor easily manipulated back to a healthy garden azalea due to this issue. I now try to dig up my older garden azaleas and replant them in fresh soil after root pruning and it really does prolong their life.

 

[Rivka]

Do you not find that the roots have mostly fused into one big solid mass under the trunk on these old azaleas?

A handful I have been working certainly have a lot of fused trunk and roots, though its what makes them amazing to me. In each of my cases i have raised them out of the ground considerably, revealing the tumbling fluid form.

Think of it like lowering the soil level to reveal a established Root Over Rock.

I know azaleas are traditionally forcused on their flowering, This is a way for them to be so much more than “just a pretty face”.

 

[Rivka]

Here is one i got as a curb score last june, it had nearly no roots left, and was cut down to not a single leaf left.

now a year later its on its second flush of leaves and is still back budding more each month, there is just no stopping it.
When I repotted it in early spring it had an impressive spread of fine roots. It’s my entry into the current azalea contest, you can see it’s progression thread, the links in my signature

 

[Rivka]

I don’t have a problem,
I can stop whenever I want to….

 

[Colorado]

Good lord! Nice finds! How to you find these soon-to-be-discarded azaleas? Do you advertise on Craigslist? Maybe I need new neighbors, but on my street there usually isn’t magnificent “urban yamadori” just sitting on the curb

 

[Jcmmaple]

Wow those are amazing, I to have had an azalea problem. Been looking for people throwing theirs out, love the pink one.

 

[Rivka]

I have a regular search on facebook marketplace and the NextDoor app for shrubs folks “just want gone”. And then yeah in late winter i do tend to make a post on nextdoor usally asking for “Ugly Ducklings” before the dormant window ends.
Some of them are listed for sale for small amounts, though i usually talk them down, explaining the amount of work it takes to dig, and the free labor they are getting

 

[Rivka]

Honestly, i also keep a solid metal shovel/prybar, trashbags, and tarp in my car and a wad of $10 bills handy, it’s scored me a great crazy nice juniper once, and western hemlock a few weeks ago.

 

[ponderingsage]

I have similar photos of a giant shrub taking over my car. Ditto on the digging gear and ad on craigslist...it sure is nice to be in good company!

 

[birchman]

These look great. I got three 40 year old stumps back in Winter 2019 plus a heap of smaller potted azaleas from a nursery closing down and a couple urban digs. The thing is - none survived the next summer! I keep hearing about how tough they are so I mustve done something wrong. I'm in Perth Western Australia so summers are quite hot and dry but plenty of gardens around here grow them no worries. I just bought a house with loads of azalea in the garden beds so I'll nurse them back to health before collecting.
Those nebari and tachiagari look awesome. Knotted like the ones I had. Keep us updated.

 

[Rivka]

! I keep hearing about how tough they are so I mustve done something wrong.

I lost the first one I dug, no idea why. Around here they thrive best in the understory of conifers. Loving the dappled sun and acidic soil produce by the dropped needles.
Best rhododendron gardens around here are under towering Douglas Fir trees.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Make sure you cut those stubs off flush to the trunk - and chisel them down so they are concave to the trunk surface. Then seal the wound edges. Do that, and the wounds will heal and not leave a nasty scar.

 

[Rivka]

Make sure you cut those stubs off flush to the trunk - and chisel them down so they are concave to the trunk surface. Then seal the wound edges. Do that, and the wounds will heal and not leave a nasty scar.

I thought I remember reading somewhere to not cut azalea concave? Do you have more accurate info??

I have been doing flush if I want the branch gone and leaving extra bit of length on chopped back branches that I want to back bud, with the plan to maybe go back into them later if they need contouring.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Yep, flush. Concave cutters can penetrate into the outer part of the trunk... causing a hard to heal scar.

A good resource would be Japanese Satsuki bonsai by Watanabe. You can get it at Bonsai Tonight for 18.00. Good stuff there, a bit hard to read due to the translation. Yet definitely a must have for an azalea bonsai person.

In the book Watanabe shows the use of multiple chisels to carve branch stubs off flush with the trunk, yet following the contours of the surface of the trunk. This means using up to three sizes of concave chisels if the surface of the trunk undulates like many older trees of Japanese origin. Branch wounds cut this way heal faster and smoother.

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

….btw I forgot to add the following…. Prime time for pruning is Mar - mid April ish when callous forms easily. If you prune June - Sep healing is delayed and a navel like scar can develop. So leave a stub if you miss the early window and remove Mar - April in the following year. (Nakayama, Satsuki Bonsai)

cheers