Lorax7 Azalea ’Karen’ #1 progression

Lorax7

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Brought it home from Home Starting to recover and push new growth:
and immediately did a hard prune (2021):
AF2F1A3F-D7AD-4A6A-A951-74F25E692B01.jpeg

Starting to push new growth:
00231327-467D-463C-AD76-9DDEEE10AA28.jpeg
 

Lorax7

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Rough winter for this one. Still hanging on by a thread. Spring 2022:
089F35B4-A392-434B-A3BE-E36924951020.jpeg
 

Deep Sea Diver

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Whoa, sorry! That little guy sure took a hit.

Best
DSD sends
 

Lorax7

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Yeah, the bark separated from parts of the trunk.
 

Glaucus

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Hard prune in spring, or the latest just as the flowers peak. Especially in colder climates, there is not enough time for the new growth to harden off and mature.
I believe pruning late can inhibit dormancy and therefore winter hardiness.

This one is still alive, but a lot of dieback, it seems.
 

shinmai

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I agree with Glaucus. In the upper Midwest, I have found it useful when working with landscape-type azaleas, to pay attention to the solar calendar. For example, I try to get repotting done before the Vernal Equinox, and hard-prune no later than the summer solstice. I’m still experimenting with this, and there are always exceptional situations like emergency re-pots, but my rationale is that repotting before the onset of spring allows plenty of growing season for the roots to recover. It seems that if I hard-prune any later, the new growth will form few if any flower buds by fall. For my deciduous azaleas, I wait until the Autumnal equinox to do branch cutback for ramification in the following spring.

in my experience, if you have freeze-induced bark separation there is little likelihood of that trunk surviving, and worse, you’ll get dieback all the way into the related portion of the root mass. I have not had this problem since I went to using a small greenhouse kept at 37 degrees—cold enough for dormancy, but warm enough to prevent cold injury.
 

shinmai

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Tell me about it! I have three on my front porch—fortunately the blooming kind. Seriously, if you find nursery stock with a nice trunk and decent nebari, they make wonderful shohin projects, and the magenta blossoms are beautiful and not too big for the leaves.
 
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