Trimming Azaleas, Post Bloom

Mellow Mullet

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I have been trimming azaleas for the past few days, getting them ready for the next season. I really have too many, I need to downsize, or not, lol. Anyway, I thought I would share, showing how far I cut them back after flowering. What do you think?

First, Momo no Haru, a satsuki. This one is prefect for cascade, it has a naturally low growth habit. It has actually had very little wire training.

Before

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The flower is kinda unremarkable, just a pinkish purple regular bloom, but it does bloom throughout the year

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After

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I hope to remove one of the bottom limbs next year, I am using them to heal a wound that was discovered after purchase

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Mellow Mullet

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Very nice!

Thanks!

Like it! good to see work being done to set up the future. Everybody shows azaleas in flower. Not hard pruned so much, not very pretty then. LOL.

Thanks, you are right, not much on post flowering. A lot of people don't realize how much work azaleas are when it comes to keeping them as bonsai, they are always wanting to be a bush and will become one in only a couple of seasons it you don't stay on top of it. I hope to post more tonight, working days this weekend, which means getting up at 3AM and not getting back home until 6:30PM. The sandman was hitting me hard last night while I was trying to edit photos/ post, I finally gave up.

John
 

Cadillactaste

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This one is for @Cadillactaste , it is a satsuki chinzan that I started as a negari style several years ago. I still need to clean the root area out to show off the "cage".

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Ignore the Gumpo Pink label, I reused the pot.
You speak a my language! ?I sort of remember this project...possibly. NICE! Thanks for the tag!
 

Carol 83

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So you prune the interior heavily, but leave some leaves on the very end of the branches?
 

Mellow Mullet

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So you prune the interior heavily, but leave some leaves on the very end of the branches?

Short answer, yes. The long answer is that there is a little more to it. I have an article that I have written for my website on how I do it that I hope to post this week. Work has been keeping busy this week.

On azaleas, with my nine- ten month growing season, if I don't cut and thin them hard each year, they will quickly grow back into a bush. This happens really quick, if allowed to grow freely, in season's time the design that you have chosen for it will barely be recognizable. They are beasts when it comes to growth.

I start by pruning out all of the downward growth and the straight upward growth. I then reduce the whorls of new growth that occurs around the flowers to two shoots and cut them (unless I need to lengthen the branch) back to one or two pairs of leaves. I then take a look at the branches and cut back to twos ( make sure all branch divisions have only two branches at a "fork", not three or four). After that, I wire things into position, if needed. The result of all of this is what you see here. I know that it looks harsh, but it will be completely filled in again by the end of the summer.

Like this one:

2-7-2018
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2-26-2018

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6-2-2018, filled back in and getting its first haircut of 2018

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It will get at least one or two more trims before I lay off for flowering. Last year I trimmed too late and had no buds form.
 

GrimLore

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Short answer, yes. The long answer is that there is a little more to it. I have an article that I have written for my website on how I do it that I hope to post this week. Work has been keeping busy this week.

Nice pictorials :) Looking forward to your article - you have no idea how much time it will save me explaining the process, especially "whorl control" on the phone here along with the rest of the process on the phone or in e-mails :p

Grimmy
 

RobertB

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John,

I know a lot of these have pretty good trunks already but the ones that are still being developed you still cut back soo much. I would think, and not knowing much about the topic, that you would want to let the tree bush out to add foliage after foliage in order to build girth in the trunk.

The response above about trimming upwards, downwards, trimming to twos, etc makes sense for I guess what I would consider ramification but do you still trim these this way even if you are trying to grow a tree and get some trunk girth?
 
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