Azalea japonica is a meaningless term. It is only used in Belgium, where I don't live, to refer to non-greenhouse forced azalea. (note: partial joke since I noticed you can't tell jokes from facts because you are so out of touch with facts) And those are usually kurume/kirishima/kaempferi/kiusianum derived hybrids. First of all, on the face 'Sir Robert' looks like a satsuki. It looks like the wavy flowering round leaved types. It has the shibori and the sports. Secondly, the parentage comes down to 87.5% satsuki genes. That's a lot more than some satsuki in Japanese satsuki dictionaries. And those 12.5% come from 'Malveticum'. Well, those genes were either selected against and are no longer present because selecting the hybrids skewers the genes deliberately. Or they are completely recessive. I would actually guess it is mostly the first case and genetic analysis will find much less than the expected 12.5% of the genes contributed by the 12.5% kurume type azalea it has as a great-grandparent.
Let me ask it this way. What looks more like 'Kaho', to us an archtype satsuki?
This one?
Or this one?
Guess which one is the Robin Hill hybrid and which one the satuski hybrid? That you think 'Sir Robert' can't be a satsuki because it is western proves exactly my explanation about use of the terms in Japan and in the west.
Also, guess which ones flowers earlier.
About akadama vs kanuma soil. Kanuma soil in Japan is always used for potted plants. When plants are grown in field, I am not sure what they are in. Ill ask next time. But I know one nursery owner believes that kanuma soil is good for branch development and akadama is better for fattening the trunk. Not sure if this is just his opinion or consensus and not sure if they use something else with the akadama to lower ph. I would guess they do. It's not in the ideal range hard ph numbers-wise.
Azalea like a moist rootball, but in Japan 100% kanuma soil substrate is often ideal because it prevents root rot during the insane rains seen in some rainy seasons which happen at the peak of summer.
But outside of Japan, depending on the climate, pure kanuma can cause problems by drying out too fast during peak summer. Especially true in climates with low humidity during these very hot sunny days. That's basically all of Cal I think. You probably need to water a lot of times each day on those peak summer days. I know in Japan they often water 2 times a day with their humidity during peak summer.
Also, in colder climates, kanuma soil doesn't insulate very well and the temperatures inside the rool ball drop lower than they would with other soil mixes. So going 100% kanuma soil isn't always the best way to go. Especially if you also take price in consideration since kanuma soil costs 20x outside of Japan what it costs inside Japan.
Smoke, indeeed this is not the karaoke bar. You ought to have learned there that you only enter a debate when you are sure you have the facts right. You got trashed there. Now you come here and pick a fight out of spite and grudge and the same thing happens again. Yet here we aren't posting with Klytus and Greer as the bystanders. Rather we have people who actually hope to learn something and who are asking questions.
I don't remember all the insults and critisism I got and from who, which just goes to speak on how well I guard my sanity, but weren't you one of those people that complained I didn't contribute enough to the other sides to the forum? I only comment on things I know I know something about. I know something about politics, science and economics. I know something about azalea. I am careful and wait patiently for a topic I can provide a meaningful contribution to. I don't know a lot about bonsai so I keep quiet about that. Maybe to you this is insanity, but to me this seems to be wisdom.
I can't tell if you know something about bonsai or not. But certainly you now have a track record that should make you shut up about both politics and azalea.
Maybe your assumption that if I know nothing about politics and thus I also know nothing about azalea should now be corrected and applied reflexive. Maybe I was right every step of the way about poltiics and you were just dead wrong. Just maybe.
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Wow somehow my message got cut off every early. But I seems I have perfected my subconscious reflex of always ctrl+a into ctrl+c'ing just before I click the post button. Even that I get right, lol.
.... (103 at 2AM ???? ... wtf is wrong with you people!!!! )
