Mike's "Azalea 2020-2025" Entry

[coltranem]

I picked this guy up late fall. I believe it is an autumn moon azalea. The first pics are from when I got it. The second set are from today (it is in winter storage). No work has been done to this. My plan for 2020 is to repot (and separate the second plant). I will cut it back in 2021.

 

[coltranem]

Got 2 new @Soldano666 pots yesterday. Since there were two plants in the pot I left one to bloom and the other that was just waking up got the hard cut back.

 

[Pitoon]

I like that pot in the second pic. What do the feet look like?

 

[coltranem]

I like that pot in the second pic. What do the feet look like?

 

[Pitoon]

I really like that cascade pot.

 

[coltranem]

Yeah Brian does good work. He posts new stuff every week on various facebook auctions. This pot will not be this trees final home but I just got the pot and wanted to use it.

 

[coltranem]

Ok. So the good news is it survived the hard cut back. Now we wait.

 

[Pitoon]

Ok. So the good news is it survived the hard cut back. Now we wait.

View attachment 308856

Good vigorous growth is always a good sign! What design do you envision?

 

[coltranem]

Good vigorous growth is always a good sign! What design do you envision?

Not sure I need to see what options I get.

I haven't gotten anything sprouting on that fat branch so I might need to remove that.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Wow! That’s a seriously lot of whacking back - roots and stems! I hope you continue to get more budding in the next weeks. Azaleas are incredibly resilient and constantly surprise me!
I’ve done about the same and ended up regretting potting the cut down plant in a bonsai pot... as it really didn’t respond as well as I felt it should of.
For cut down azaleas, I‘ve simultaneously gotten very much better results in training pots in a kanuma/Sphagnum moss mix. However the very best results I’m getting right now are with azaleas in the ground in a mostly fine bark/peat mix. These guys are positively perky and growing very strongly compared to their potted counterparts!
Cheers
DSD sends

 

[coltranem]

Yes I went sort of aggressive here after watching John Geanangle's videos. We'll see how it continues.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

No worries.... That’s pretty funny as I did the same thing, after watching some of his videos, with one of my first Satsuki! It survived, but is only just forgiving me now.. I swear it’s flowers used to turn hot pink whenever I walked by! That said, John’s work is amazing!

Now, I’m a little bit more conservative and have found myself going to ground or bigger, porous plots to start with. I guess to me it’s more an effort to gain trunk and choices than anything.

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Pitoon]

Ok. So the good news is it survived the hard cut back. Now we wait.

View attachment 308856

How's it looking now? You should have some good growth by now.

 

[coltranem]

How's it looking now? You should have some good growth by now.

 

[Pitoon]

View attachment 313573

Looking good!

 

[coltranem]

Last week I reduced the shoot count at some locations and cut back some stronger shoots.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Nice! Maybe next year you will have the growth so you can take new shoots down to twos.
Cheers DSD sends

 

[coltranem]

Nice! Maybe next year you will have the growth so you can take new shoots down to twos.
Cheers DSD sends

That is the plan

 

[Pitoon]

Last week I reduced the shoot count at some locations and cut back some stronger shoots.

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Just to be clear, is this your entry or the one in the cascade pot.......you can enter only one.

That growth looks good!

 

[Harunobu]

Those new leaves look much healthier than the way the plant looked before you pruned. It was so brownish/grew, but maybe your entire photo had that colour? Was about to comment on the health of the plant when I saw that weeks ago. But in the very first picture, it looks proper and green. This is 'Shugetsu', right? Purple flowers with white centers.