Deciduous Azalea Techniques

henrykiser

Yamadori
Messages
56
Reaction score
53
Location
Asheville, North Carolina
USDA Zone
7a
This looks beautiful! Did you gradually reduce this native azalea over years or buy it as a small shrub? I feel like this warrants your input for the purpose of this thread 😬
I’ve got lots of native azalea on our lot here in western North Carolina including flame azalea and what looks like rhododendron maximum with white flowers. I lightly pruned Them last year and cut some Crowding trees which should provide them a little more dappled sunlight. They seem to have backbudded well but are still long and leggy so I am going to try to prune more aggressively this year after spring flush and see how they do...I just love them, trying to make them focal point of back yard path... thanks!
 

0soyoung

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
7,496
Reaction score
12,832
Location
Anacortes, WA (AHS heat zone 1)
USDA Zone
8b
Did you gradually reduce this native azalea over years or buy it as a small shrub?
Yes, gradually. But after some fairly aggressive pruning to reduce the stems to about 30% of what they were when I started.
I did lose a stem or two in the process --> one of several instances from which I learned my lesson.

After that it has been gradual = 'chasing the green' on the stems I wanted to keep.

I am sure one can chop them to start over with its design, but it will be hit or miss which 'original' stems you'll still have and which ones you won't. Not so with working it back, but this has the possible problem that one will have straight-line/thicker stems that suddenly are thinner and moving this way and that It is apparent with this one of mine, but I basically like it. I just work to to draw the visual attention away from this fault (which becomes less and less of an issue as the years go by anyway).
 

Forsoothe!

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
6,878
Reaction score
9,248
Location
Michigan
USDA Zone
6b
If there's one guy to whom you really shouldn't mouth off that way, it's Leo. I really hope you were shitfaced when you typed that--it would at least be an excuse.
Stone cold sober with a generic reply to an inappropriate suggestion that he is the Field Judge making the rules of conversation. Read my post again and tell me exactly what is not pertinent to learning if anyone has ever reduced the internodes on North American Azalea by asking for pictures? Who says I am not now or never have tried working on one? I hate bullies, and I fight back. Go ahead, -knock that chip off my shoulder.
 

Underdog

Masterpiece
Messages
2,677
Reaction score
6,873
Location
Ohio
USDA Zone
6
And please, refrain from responding if you are not actually growing a deciduous azalea. No "internet or top of your hat" speculation. If you have not grown a Northern Lights or Exbury or species deciduous azalea from North America sit back and watch.
It is a simple request to keep this thread from going the way of most others. Quit being a dick.

My flower buds are starting to swell already. I'm going to Florida for most of February and am taking a number of trees with me to work on/repot. I wasn't planning on taking this one but I don't want to miss the show either. Crap pics with the phone in the dark.
If I only knew what our weather was going to be like while away.
IMG_20200131_071116708.jpg
 
Last edited:

0soyoung

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
7,496
Reaction score
12,832
Location
Anacortes, WA (AHS heat zone 1)
USDA Zone
8b
In my experience, buds get set in late-summer/fall and not during the winter or spring. They are always the terminal end or apical bud on the stem. Buds lower down on the stem are inevitably vegetative (i.e., leaf buds). Some varieties of deciduous azalea, such as Gibraltar, present very fat flower buds by the time of leaf drop.

I think this deciduous in my landscape is a Gibraltar'
Inked2020-01-31 12.35.49_LI.jpg

One thing I failed to mention before is that the 'eyes' one can see in the bark are aged leaf scars. There is an axillary bud at the base of every true leaf (sort of circular as this is the definition of a leaf as opposed to a compound leaf). The distance from one leaf to the next is the minimum internode length.

With many azaleas the flower buds don't swell until spring/late-winter, even though the metamorphic switch that made the terminal vegetative bud into a flower bud was thrown in late-summer/fall. It is my belief that these (regardless of whether truly deciduous or not) always retain a trio of leaves at the base of the flower bud. These leaves sense lengthening day-light hours and trigger the development/fattening of the flower bud. Without those leaves the bud dies.

This azalea of mine looks like this in winter. I think it to be a deciduous variety (versus the evergreen azalea in the upper left background).

2020-01-31 12.31.05.jpg

See the leaf trio at the stem tips? There will be a flower at these tips, come spring. There will not be a flower at a tip without a trio.
 

shinmai

Chumono
Messages
886
Reaction score
1,992
Location
Milwaukee WI
USDA Zone
5b
Leo started the thread, and was clear about where he wanted the conversation to focus. Entirely appropriate for him to redirect. For someone who hates bullies, you’re sure acting like one. Leo is my friend, and as far from a bully as you can get.
And, oh, I don’t know, maybe the ’go to hell’ part is not appropriate. And who really gives a shit about the chip on your shoulder anyway? It’s easy to be a tough talker behind a user ID and a keyboard.
 

Carol 83

Flower Girl
Messages
11,120
Reaction score
27,117
Location
IL
Theory, my ass. I invite you to go straight to Hell. You don't own or control thought or thoughtful commentary. Here in 2020, after 400 years of Japanese bonsai you should be able to show that a species is a dead horse, or not. My intent was to have someone show that it can be done so that the how to's and wherefore's could be discussed. If that's too much for you to handle, tough. Go pound sand.
Could you please clarify who this is directed toward, Oso or Leo? I try to stay out of the fray of these scuffles, but there is probably no one here that goes out of his way more to help people, and who is as knowledgeable as Leo. He has been a great help to me personally and is an all around good guy. @Osoyoung is also very knowledgeable and helpful. Either way, no need for all the hostility. My apologies @Leo in N E Illinois for mucking up your thread even more.
 

Carol 83

Flower Girl
Messages
11,120
Reaction score
27,117
Location
IL
Could you please clarify who this is directed toward, Oso or Leo? I try to stay out of the fray of these scuffles, but there is probably no one here that goes out of his way more to help people, and who is as knowledgeable as Leo. He has been a great help to me personally and is an all around good guy. @Osoyoung is also very knowledgeable and helpful. Either way, no need for all the hostility. My apologies @Leo in N E Illinois for mucking up your thread even more.
I tried to edit this, but ran out of time. Leo is about as big a bully as a teddy bear, and fight back against what @Forsoothe! , him trying to keep his thread on track, and politely asking it to stick to the subject intended?
 

Forsoothe!

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
6,878
Reaction score
9,248
Location
Michigan
USDA Zone
6b
My argument is with Leo. You, and others, either see my point or won't be swayed by additional words.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
Messages
11,337
Reaction score
23,254
Location
on the IL-WI border, a mile from ''da Lake''
USDA Zone
5b
I just followed the link, my phone did not make much contrast between the plain text and hyperlink. .

I love R vicosum, sweet flowers and heavenly fragrance. I like the relatively short internodes and even sequence of branches. Looks good.
 

Underdog

Masterpiece
Messages
2,677
Reaction score
6,873
Location
Ohio
USDA Zone
6
I noticed in the first image I posted in #25 that there is 6 buds w/in my three fingers.
OSOs looks to have smaller leaves.
 
Messages
145
Reaction score
238
Location
Michigan
USDA Zone
6a
Repot and trim. Using kanuma med and large also sphagnum moss. Trimmed branches back to previous branch starts and left 2-3 thin branches. Left under side of root ball alone and just trimmed off some of the edge roots to fit in the bottle.
20200202_162546.jpg20200202_162009.jpg
Wrapped a piece of wire around top of root ball to keep shape and keep the roots pointed down.
20200202_161927.jpg20200202_163026.jpg20200202_163400.jpg
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
Messages
11,337
Reaction score
23,254
Location
on the IL-WI border, a mile from ''da Lake''
USDA Zone
5b
My 'White Lights' is barely starting to wake up. I think the fat ones are flowers, but considering yours, maybe not. We will see. The deciduous can be pretty late blooming, but I would still expect to see buds right away in spring. I think this week or next might be time to repot. Or I can wait until after bloom, or after the middle of June. Don't know how much time I'll have.

IMG_20200323_173527126.jpg IMG_20200323_173537986.jpg
 

Djtommy

Omono
Messages
1,551
Reaction score
5,367
Location
Tokyo
Not sure if this is qualified as a deciduous azalea but I have rhododendron dauricum. It looses most of its leaves in winter. Also very winter hardy. growing at places where it gets -30celcius easily, although they are normally covered by snow by that time.
the leaves that don’t fall off get a really dark colour, somewhere between dark red and black.
very good species for bonsai, leaves and flowers are quit small. not a fast grower so internodes are also small.

20F8CBE7-5857-4EEB-9D96-A73F584901AA.jpeg
 

Underdog

Masterpiece
Messages
2,677
Reaction score
6,873
Location
Ohio
USDA Zone
6
The deciduous can be pretty late blooming, but I would still expect to see buds right away in spring.
To be clear I had this in Sarasota FL for a month in Feb-March. Now I'm 2 steppin it as payback.
>> I think this week or next might be time to repot.
This one is good in this pot for a couple years but now to figure out these 4 trunks.
 
Last edited:
Messages
130
Reaction score
141
Location
Dubuque, Iowa
USDA Zone
5a
I've been wanting to get some Azaleas going on the roster. Picked up these 2 from Lowes today and stumbled onto this thread.

Should I repot right away? I dont have any kanuma which I read is a bonus, also my communities water is really hard.
 

Attachments

  • Azaleas day one.jpg
    Azaleas day one.jpg
    336.6 KB · Views: 55
Top Bottom