Leo's "azalea 2020 -2025" contest entry

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Update,
Whip bought in 2019 from David Kreutz. I lost the tag, so don't know which cultivar it is. (this irritates me, I hate loosing the pedigree of good stock).
This is the whip I submitted when @Pitoon first announced the contest.
Took it out of the well house 2 weeks ago, added some wire to bring down the thicker branches. I need to wire some movement into the trunk, it is too straight.

I'm thinking doing as tall an azalea as I can, with branches to form "platforms" on which to display the flowers. Trained more for flower display than for tree-ness. I have not seen it bloom yet. I do have a couple flowers coming at the apex.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

The pot is a Ching-wen Chen pot, I really like the color and texture.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Update,
Whip bought in 2019 from David Kreutz. I lost the tag, so don't know which cultivar it is. (this irritates me, I hate loosing the pedigree of good stock).
This is the whip I submitted when @Pitoon first announced the contest.
Took it out of the well house 2 weeks ago, added some wire to bring down the thicker branches. I need to wire some movement into the trunk, it is too straight.

I'm thinking doing as tall an azalea as I can, with branches to form "platforms" on which to display the flowers. Trained more for flower display than for tree-ness. I have not seen it bloom yet. I do have a couple flowers coming at the apex.

View attachment 303708 View attachment 303709 View attachment 303710 View attachment 303711

That sounds like a great plan... built for color display... I’m quite excited to watch it’s progression.

 

[Pitoon]

@Leo in N E Illinois how tall is that whip and how old do you think it is? I was planning to grow last years cuttings to whips. I'm super curious on what you can do with that whip. It will definitely give me some ideas.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I have not measured the whip, I think it is currently 36 to 40 inches tall, a meter, give or take a little. Diameter is still less than pencil thick. I bought it in May 2019 from David Kreutz, if I understood him it was imported from Japan sometime in 2017. It had to sit in quarantine for a year, so he probably got it in 2018, when I bought it, it was one of the last left from that batch of whips. Given warmth & humidity, meaning daytime highs in the 80's F, and nights above 65 F. these azalea can grow very fast. They are grown in southern Japan, or if in the north, low elevation Japan. I would imagine it was between 3 and 6 years old when it left Japan in 2017. So that means it is probably 6 to 9 years old from cutting as of May 2020. I would be surprised if it was older than 9 or 10 years, and surprised if it was younger than 6 years.

In Japan the cuttings are set up in such a way that light is mainly from the top. Encouraging the cutting to grow up. I don't know if they use dark plastic sleeves, or just cram a bunch of cuttings next to each other or what, but the way these are started is a little different than the way we normally do it here. The whip is putting out more and more side branches.

I need to wire in some curves to the trunk.

I don't know the final height, I do plan on letting side branches develop, and then at some point I will prune down to the final height. By letting lower branches get long, I can build taper without relying on drastic "chops'', or if I get lazy, I can just do a drastic chop. Right now I'm thinking of using as much of the height as I can.

 

[Pitoon]

I have not measured the whip, I think it is currently 36 to 40 inches tall, a meter, give or take a little. Diameter is still less than pencil thick. I bought it in May 2019 from David Kreutz, if I understood him it was imported from Japan sometime in 2017. It had to sit in quarantine for a year, so he probably got it in 2018, when I bought it, it was one of the last left from that batch of whips. Given warmth & humidity, meaning daytime highs in the 80's F, and nights above 65 F. these azalea can grow very fast. They are grown in southern Japan, or if in the north, low elevation Japan. I would imagine it was between 3 and 6 years old when it left Japan in 2017. So that means it is probably 6 to 9 years old from cutting as of May 2020. I would be surprised if it was older than 9 or 10 years, and surprised if it was younger than 6 years.

In Japan the cuttings are set up in such a way that light is mainly from the top. Encouraging the cutting to grow up. I don't know if they use dark plastic sleeves, or just cram a bunch of cuttings next to each other or what, but the way these are started is a little different than the way we normally do it here. The whip is putting out more and more side branches.

I need to wire in some curves to the trunk.

I don't know the final height, I do plan on letting side branches develop, and then at some point I will prune down to the final height. By letting lower branches get long, I can build taper without relying on drastic "chops'', or if I get lazy, I can just do a drastic chop. Right now I'm thinking of using as much of the height as I can.

Good info there. Couldn't you get in contact with David to try and get the cultivar name? Looks as if I got quite some time to get my cuttings that long.

Is this your first azalea whip in training? Looking forward to seeing what you can do with that whip.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Got a second whip the exact same age. The two are my first time dealing with whips. When the one with no label blooms I'll send a photo to David to see if he knows which cultivar it is. He might, he might not recognize it. Don't know if the label got lost in his custody, or while in transit between Japan-quarantine, or in the back of my car on the way home from the workshop I bought it at.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Update - remants of Hurricane Cristobal are passing through, so humid my lens kept fogging up.
In bloom

 

[Pitoon]

Update - remants of Hurricane Cristobal are passing through, so humid my lens kept fogging up.
In bloom
View attachment 307915

View attachment 307917

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Those are really nice!

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

As got a better look yesterday, the majority of flowers have a pink marking or two. As this matures, it should be quite colorful, with the random stripes and marks everywhere. The markings are a lovely pink with purple undertones, rather than orange-ish undertones. I love it.

 

[Pitoon]

The random pink looks fantastic!

 

[Yamabudoudanshi]

Very cool flowers. Almost looks like they were painted.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

According to @Harunobu , this azalea looks like it is either progeny from a seed cross with 'Asuka' or it might be a sport from 'Asuka'. When I contact David Kreutz for help in figuring out what it is, hopefully this information will help sorting the identity out.

 

[Pitoon]

According to @Harunobu , this azalea looks like it is either progeny from a seed cross with 'Asuka' or it might be a sport from 'Asuka'. When I contact David Kreutz for help in figuring out what it is, hopefully this information will help sorting the identity out.

I really like those flowers. If you ever want to trade some cuttings I have some azalea cuttings potted up, several Girards and Robin Hill cultivars, just let me know.

 

[Harunobu]

If you want to compare yourself:

明日香(2) - 皐月の花・専科

築地で火災の報道に一瞬放火かなどと思いましたが、市場に隣接する場外市場でした。でもこれがきっかけで移転が早まるかも・かも・。小池さんもびっくりですかね。8月になって涼しい日が続きフル回転のエアコンがお休みです。台風は大きく右に旋回する予報で梅干しはどうなるのでしょうか。最近のお天気は全く読めませんね。・・・・・・・・・・掲載品種の一覧（５０音別に品種の記事をリンクしています。）あ～さはこちらた～わはこちら品種の月別一覧は・・・こちら（月別にまとめてリンクしています）・・・・・・・・・・明日香あすか（月桂冠×春翠）大輪（７ｃｍ～１０ｃｍ未満）剣弁の５～６弁咲き、大葉、早咲き。白地に桃柴紅色...

blog.goo.ne.jp

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

If you want to compare yourself:

明日香(2) - 皐月の花・専科

築地で火災の報道に一瞬放火かなどと思いましたが、市場に隣接する場外市場でした。でもこれがきっかけで移転が早まるかも・かも・。小池さんもびっくりですかね。8月になって涼しい日が続きフル回転のエアコンがお休みです。台風は大きく右に旋回する予報で梅干しはどうなるのでしょうか。最近のお天気は全く読めませんね。・・・・・・・・・・掲載品種の一覧（５０音別に品種の記事をリンクしています。）あ～さはこちらた～わはこちら品種の月別一覧は・・・こちら（月別にまとめてリンクしています）・・・・・・・・・・明日香あすか（月桂冠×春翠）大輪（７ｃｍ～１０ｃｍ未満）剣弁の５～６弁咲き、大葉、早咲き。白地に桃柴紅色...

blog.goo.ne.jp

Thank you, the Google translator makes a mish-mash hash of Japanese language, but it could make some sense of the written description. The photos are wonderful. The photos convinced me it is worth tracking down a verified, or "bona fide" plant of 'Asuko'. It is certainly a beautiful cultivar.

 

[Harunobu]

It translate 'large and small peach-red shibori' to 'A large and small peach shiba crimson squeezer'. With shibori meaning the streaks of colour. The colour kanji are hard to understand. I already have problems following colour descriptions in English. But what is 'peach firewood deep red' for a colour?

If you know the flower shape and sport kanji, and some of the colour kanji, it is pretty straightforward to read. And google translate is able to grasp the simple grammar of these description sentences. And the last part where according to Google translates it says: "It is a legendary flower that has become a legend of Satsuki world by producing a number of varieties as mating parents and branches of Asuka and Asuka Nishiki.", that is pretty apt. Asuka is like the new Juko or Suisen now. It is what has been in fashion the last decade. But fashion is always changing, and so are cultivar.

By the way, there are many more cultivar descriptions on that blog. If you click on the Japanese alphabet links on the top of the page,
あ～さ　はこちら た～わ　はこちら
There are two lists, 'a to sa' and 'ta to wa'.

The problem is, it is all in kanji so usually useless to us who want to search using romanized names. So then you use this:

Satsuki Manyoen （さつき万葉苑）

Satsuki Man-yo-en was used as an exhibition place, however this function has been lost. We established a Satsuki Manyoen and reconstructed an old Japanese tea house a part of the 40th anniversary. It is for tradition of Satsuki cultural to preserve the cultivars of the Satsuki. We call this...

kaboku.jimdofree.com

Or if you read hiragana (or use a tool to go to hiragana), you can use this:

さつき大図鑑掲載品種一覧｜栃の葉書房

「さつき大図鑑」に掲載しているサツキの品種一覧をごらんいただけます。

www.tochinoha-shobo.com

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Both links are beyond my language capacity to use. But thank you for the effort.

 

[Pitoon]

@Leo in N E Illinois How's the whip doing? Any new growth?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Growing like crazy, need to get photos. I'm in Michigan today, azalea is in Illinois.