Found in my backyard - Possibly Azalea?

[Sean M]

I just moved into my new house at the end of last year, and there were 3 of these plants growing in a garden bed. My wife decided she didn't like them so she dug them up to throw in the bin. Now seeing as how I will try to bonsai just about anything, I saved one and put it in the only pot I had. I had to cut back the roots hard but it is showing new growth so I think it will survive.

possible front.jpg

The main trunk was subjected to an attempt at bending. Which failed. I couldnt budge it.

possible back.jpg

Now as the main trunk is pretty straight and doesn't seem to want to bend and the growth is a bit leggy I was wondering how hard I can cut this back?

Heavy prune.jpg

Any constructive help would be appreciated.

[kcpoole]

Definitely Azalea, and yea you can cut back that hard

Why did not keep the other 2 tho as well. Azalea that size are not that common

Ken

[Scott Roxburgh]

You can definitely cut back that hard, but not yet mate...it needs to get a lot stronger before you work it.

[craigw60]

Scott is right, just let it settle and start to grow strongly before you do any hard pruning. I would grow it for a minimum of 12 months if not 2 years before you do anymore work. Azalea can die back right to the root ball after hard cutting so you will need to be careful
Craigw

[Sean M]

Thanks guys,

I'll let it settle before I hack away.

I would have kept the other 2 but I only had 1 pot, and as it was I grabbed this one from the lawn after the Mrs had ripped them up.

[Glaucus]

You can go back that hard, but what's the point? You want a mame style tree? if so, your trunk stump would most likely always be covered competely with foliage. With azalea you always struggle to get a tall strong trunkline with a good apex. Yet you want to trunk chop it all away. If you want more taper, grow sacrificial branches. No need to trunk chop and grow a new leader.

You have a relatively good trunk. Especially for an azalea. The second smaller onle looks a lot more problematic. Seems hard to use in a twin trunk style design. Maybe you can split off the smaller trunk and it's roots? Will probably create a big wound and not sure if that is very risky. Maybe cut the smaller trunk at the T section and keep the thin part. Then try to get them closer together and more upright. So plant them tilting more to the left? Twin trunk designs look best if planted in a V shape straight up.

I have a Japanese book with some examples, though most pictures are small and have to scan them.
Remember the main aim with most azalea bonsai is to make them look impressive while in flower. The flowers are half their worth. Yes, they can win bonsai competitions in winter. But those are really special and old bonsai.

[Sean M]

Thanks for the tips Glaucus,

I will probably only chop about 1/2 the main trunk. Its way too straight and tall. Oh by the way I see you are from the Netherlands. Funnily enough my wife (who ripped this out of the ground) is Dutch. I don't think I'll be entering it in any comps in the near future. I am just enjoying watching my free tree sprout at the moment.

[Glaucus]

Only way to get movement is to do that, yes.

I don't think it is too tall. In Japan among azalea enthusiasts, tall and thin is acceptable for azalea. Even when not in flowering. They have a meika style which is in a large pot and is all about the flowers. This isn't a true bonsai. They dont have stylized foliage pads.
But they also have the bonyo-meiboku 3rd and 4th department. Some are like pines in bunjin/literati style. Most are more like maples but branches not that upright. Category 1 has trunks under 8 cm while 4 is below 2 cm in diameter, measured 6cm above the roots.
These are all higher than 30 cm or else they would be shohin. So that's quite tall trees that are true bonsai and quite thin trunked and that aren't flower focussed psuedo-bonsai.
I think some tall and thin azalea look better than some very small ones because branch ramification and flower size are a problem with these very small mame bonsai. When taller and already styled to have a strong main trunk, it often gets easier to get a proper tree-like styling of an azalea.

In Japan the natural look of a species is very important. If you style a deciduous tree like a pine that is very bad because they don't look that way in nature. But azalea aren't trees. Azalea bonsai are and have to be purely fictional. So anything goes, kinda.

In Japan they have quite some old azalea bonsai with very strong trunks and nebari. So they also have a need for different looking ones. So it may not be what you want.