Trimming Azaleas, Post Bloom

[RobertB]

great progress shots by the way. I will be marking this thread for future reference and am excited about the forthcoming BLOG post.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

I see you like Lynn August also!

Oh yes! She is my favorite. Sam Miller, too.

 

[baron]

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.

By all the downward and the straight upward growth I'm assuming you mean the branches that have backbudded onto the old wood?
When you shorten/prune the whorls of new growth on the tips do you also keep the ones going sideways?

I recently got a tree which I assume has had some health problems so I did an emergency repot and removed all the flower pots in March.
However I must have a missed a few as it produced some lovely flowers which have all (but one) faded now so I pruned and wired it.
But I was afraid to prune back further. Should I?



My other one was pruned /wired about a week ago and is now pushing new growth again.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

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?

Robert, I would have to say yes. Once you have established a trunk line that you like, select some branches that you want to keep. If it ends up that you don't like them, you can always remove them. I have been trying to show that if you don't have a really thick trunk, you can still have a nice azalea bonsai. Take the waka above, it is maybe an inch, inch and a quarter, if you get the right branching, it will look nice. For it to get 2-3 inches, I am looking at 10 - 15 years at least. I am 52, time is not on my side. I have been experimenting with sacrifice branches at the base, but it will be a while before I share here. You are welcome to come by and see what I have cooking.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

By all the downward and the straight upward growth I'm assuming you mean the branches that have backbudded onto the old wood?
When you shorten/prune the whorls of new growth on the tips do you also keep the ones going sideways?

I recently got a tree which I assume has had some health problems so I did an emergency repot and removed all the flower pots in March.
However I must have a missed a few as it produced some lovely flowers which have all (but one) faded now so I pruned and wired it.
But I was afraid to prune back further. Should I?

View attachment 195377View attachment 195378View attachment 195379View attachment 195380

My other one was pruned /wired about a week ago and is now pushing new growth again.

View attachment 195381View attachment 195382

Baron, nice tree, it looks healthy to me. The downward growth should always be trimmed off. The upward growth that I remove is last years growth. You actually want to keep the current years growth, it is what fills your frame out. And if you let it flower, fills the branches with flowers every year, but if you don't remove it. it will keep thickening and spoil your frame.

On the whorls, yes, I keep the ones going side ways, like this:





That one only had four at the whorl, but sometimes it can have six or even nine, just reduce it to two that are growing in the direction you want.

I would not have any problem with pruning the first one, it looks healthy.

 

[RobertB]

John, I would love to come by again. Most if not all the cuttings you gave me are still alive. I did kill the two snow azealas I purchased earlier this year. Apparently they don't like full sun and that is basically all I have in my bonsai area. It was sad. I was wanting to give you one.

 

[RobertB]

My place looks like a Japanese black pine nursery. You want one of two? Or hell a flat of seedlings?

 

[Mellow Mullet]

My place looks like a Japanese black pine nursery. You want one of two? Or hell a flat of seedlings?

Thanks for the offer, but I am running out of room for trees so I will have to pass. I will be off this weekend, give me a call if you want to stop by.

 

[just.wing.it]

Great stuff MM!
Love seeing this kind of work.

 

[shinmai]

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

Grimmy

I had to come back to this thread and share something I ran across today. While doing some reading on Satsuki genetics, I discovered an article that ran in Nature magazine in September of 1991. It's title...."The War of the Whorls: Genetic Interactions Controlling Flower Development".

 

[0soyoung]

I had to come back to this thread and share something I ran across today. While doing some reading on Satsuki genetics, I discovered an article that ran in Nature magazine in September of 1991. It's title...."The War of the Whorls: Genetic Interactions Controlling Flower Development".

But you are supposed to read and digest it for us!!!!!!!! WTF?
Seriously, thanks for the citation.

 

[shinmai]

The joke was the whole ‘whorl’ thing, which also leads to all kinds of musical references:

1. Don’t they know, it’s the end of the whorl?
2. I’m sittin’ on top of the whorl.
3. I won’t stay in a whorl without love.
4. I got the whorl on a string...
5. What a wonderful whorl....and so on.

 

[0soyoung]

 

[shinmai]

Yeah, people frequently react that way.