Hi guys,
Just wanted to say a big thanks for the advice given regarding my dig yesterday. we dug up 6 azalea's of different sizes over the hour and will grab some more next week if they haven't been bulldozed
It was about an hour digging and 2-3 hours trimming roots and potting up. I took photos of everything except the dig itself because we were racing the light on Saturday afternoon.
Any ways below are my photo and explanations so hopefully what i learned can be shared and help other people in the future
The tools:
2 shovels, mattock, hedge clippers, saw, pick axe, seasol.
My dad & I used the shovels the most as Azalea's do not have too many think roots but a cluster of fine roots. When we were digging them up we mattocked around the tree and then used the shovels and drove them down at 45 degree angles under the trunk. Once we had dug right around the tree we used the shovels to leaver the tree out and break any roots heading south. There was some jumping on shovels at this point and a lot of rocking back and forth
Here is one of the Azalea's we pulled up that my dad will be planting straight into his garden. It was a massive cluster and has a nice pink flower. This was quite a battle to get out of the ground also! The following photos are the stages of getting this guy into a foam box special to recover before going into the garden.
Roots were cleared of as much old soil and given a tight army style hair cut to fit in the box. The soil i used was just an Azalea mix from bunnings. I figured it will do and didn't have the time of knowledge to make my own mix and at $9 a bag i wasn't complaining.
waiting for soil.
This was a little guy we pulled out and i thought it was a good picture to show how much of the root ball i kept. I found the Azalea roots to be very fine as i said above so we i was taking out existing soil i lost a fair bit of roots. Hopefully not too much but i guess we will wait and see.
The following 3 images are the trees that hopefully will survive and one day go from being a plant in a foam box to a bonsai!
This has stunning vibrant pink flowers and with the position of the trunks i think could make a raft style bonsai or forest.
The base of this azalea has an amazing twin trunk and i think once i pick 2 leaders or cut it right back will turn out pretty good.
This was the oldest Azalea we pulled up and in multi trunk around was a beast. I'm really hoping this one pulls through but its root ball was solid and i had a lot of trouble getting all the dirt out.
Anyways i hope this was helpful and if there are any questions i can try and answer them, I'm no expert but learned a lot on my first dig.
so that myself and tex048 and another member of our church can hopefully use them for bonsai.
Just wondering if anyone else has any good advice before i start the dig tomorrow
