Woocash’s 2020-2025 Azalea contest entry

[Woocash]

I had been messing around with a few little azaleas which I got in the spring time with the intention of using one as my entry, but I had a trip to a little nursery yesterday and found this in the “Covid-19 Reductions” section. Azalea Japonica ‘Santa Maria’. It has an actual trunk! If only an inch diameter. Every inch counts though right?



It took me 2 and a half hours to bare root the thing all for these piddly few roots. They nebari is fairly radial so I’m happy enough.



So much plant to so little. If I hadn’t been encouraged by the way my previous hack jobs have come back this year I’d be terrified at removing so much material, but I’m happy with the general shape now and there are plenty of options for the future. I’m not entirely sure of the future front yet. Does anyone have any thoughts?

 

[Clorgan]

No advice I'm afraid - but I actually just did the same thing on my way home from work, got an azalea santa maria too, big reduction! Got it for the competition, posting mine shortly

Good luck with it, can't wait to see updates!

 

[Harunobu]

I like Santa Maria. Nothing is known about it, but it is a nice almost-red.

 

[Clorgan]

I like Santa Maria. Nothing is known about it, but it is a nice red.

Yeah I couldn't find much info, but the flowers twisted my arm!

(edit - and it was a fiver!)

 

[Woocash]

No advice I'm afraid - but I actually just did the same thing on my way home from work, got an azalea santa maria too, big reduction! Got it for the competition, posting mine shortly

Good luck with it, can't wait to see updates!

Ta very much, great minds eh? Now we can compare notes! The flowers look great, I was hoping for a nice red or orange so glad I found this one. Should be a good fun project too, they don’t seem too fussy and back bud all over so lots of options on the table hopefully.

 

[Clorgan]

Ta very much, great minds eh? Now we can compare notes! The flowers look great, I was hoping for a nice red or orange so glad I found this one. Should be a good fun project too, they don’t seem too fussy and back bud all over so lots of options on the table hopefully.

I'd been eyeing up orange, this one was the only azalea in the place so I definitely got lucky! Yeah when I was looking at everyone's entries I was surprised at how much work you can seem to get away with doing with them, azaleas in general I mean

 

[Pitoon]

Nice pick up, I would be really happy with that one for sure. I like the line that you have chosen. The size looks good and the roots look good too.

My opinion...….I would trim down those branches you left maybe halfway on each and seal them, seal all cuts to help keep from drying out. Leave the leaves up top to keep the sap flow going.

 

[Woocash]

Nice pick up, I would be really happy with that one for sure. I like the line that you have chosen. The size looks good and the roots look good too.

My opinion...….I would trim down those branches you left maybe halfway on each and seal them, seal all cuts to help keep from drying out. Leave the leaves up top to keep the sap flow going.

Cheers mate. I did think about sealing the wounds, but I still haven’t got round to buying any cut paste yet. I’ll stick it on the list.

When you say cut branches in half and leaving leaves at the top do you mean only leaving the leaves at the apex and removing all the rest? Or only cutting bare branches in half? I left them long to encourage a good selection of buds to cut back to when leaves begin to appear and to allow more photosynthesis for recovery.

 

[Harunobu]

One reason would be the apical shoot. If you don't prune those, they will elongate. And the additional energy of the recovery could be invested to elongate those more. If you remove the apical tip, it will no longer elongate and it will no longer inhibit dormant buds. One reason to prune back hard to to generate backbudding. By removing all apical tips on the plant, you achieve minimal dormant bud inhibition.

The second reason would be to prune back those shoots to get backbudding on those shoots as well. If you remove just the tip, you get new growth at the base of the tip. If you prune back to the first leaves, you will get new buds there. For a final design, you want the internodes to become smaller and smaller, as you go from the base of the trunk up to the tree.

A reason to keep these shoots is because you want them to elongate as much as possible because you want to direct growth in those two branches because you want them to fatten up a lot more compared to the branches you pruned. Or because you want them to be taller and serve as a future apex of a design taller than what you now have. With azalea, it is often a good idea to grow and acheive the apex first. Then fatten up the trunk. Then grow the branches for the final design.

 

[Pitoon]

Cheers mate. I did think about sealing the wounds, but I still haven’t got round to buying any cut paste yet. I’ll stick it on the list.

When you say cut branches in half and leaving leaves at the top do you mean only leaving the leaves at the apex and removing all the rest? Or only cutting bare branches in half? I left them long to encourage a good selection of buds to cut back to when leaves begin to appear and to allow more photosynthesis for recovery.

Have a look at my thread so you can understand what I mean.

 

[Woocash]

One reason would be the apical shoot. If you don't prune those, they will elongate. And the additional energy of the recovery could be invested to elongate those more. If you remove the apical tip, it will no longer elongate and it will no longer inhibit dormant buds. One reason to prune back hard to to generate backbudding. By removing all apical tips on the plant, you achieve minimal dormant bud inhibition.

The second reason would be to prune back those shoots to get backbudding on those shoots as well. If you remove just the tip, you get new growth at the base of the tip. If you prune back to the first leaves, you will get new buds there. For a final design, you want the internodes to become smaller and smaller, as you go from the base of the trunk up to the tree.

A reason to keep these shoots is because you want them to elongate as much as possible because you want to direct growth in those two branches because you want them to fatten up a lot more compared to the branches you pruned. Or because you want them to be taller and serve as a future apex of a design taller than what you now have. With azalea, it is often a good idea to grow and acheive the apex first. Then fatten up the trunk. Then grow the branches for the final design.

Thank you very much for this. Sorry for the late reply! This has explained a lot to me.

 

[Woocash]

Have a look at my thread so you can understand what I mean.

Thanks, a nice insight there. I should be checking all the threads more really to understand better care. I keep forgetting to compare and contrast!

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Hi @Woocash .
If you haven’t had a chance to yet, please to fill out the azalea media (substrate) poll.
My thanks and please disregard this note if you’ve already polled.
Cheers!
DSD sends

 

[Woocash]

Hi @Woocash .
If you haven’t had a chance to yet, please to fill out the azalea media (substrate) poll.
My thanks and please disregard this note if you’ve already polled.
Cheers!
DSD sends

Nice idea. Done.

 

[Pitoon]

Spring is here and your azalea could be blooming (depending on your location) or starting to leaf out with this season’s flush……it’s time for updates!

I would also like to add at this time we have 3 prizes to award. Many thanks to @Forsoothe! and @Deep Sea Diver for donating. I am also donating a prize as well.

If you are no longer interested in continuing in the Azalea Contest, please let me know so we can close your thread, thanks.