Advanced Bonsai Azalea trainers

[alpineart]

This has had a bit of work done while in the ground . I was going to lift them last year but it never happened .This particular tree has been grown i solid shale so the roots were like a crinkle cut chip and very shallow approximately 60mm thick .

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Its trunk measures 65mm and it canopy is 900mm wide 700mm deep and 350mm high

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It represents an old aged tree very nicely after struggling to grow in height , yet to be trimmed after the basic clipping it got with the hedge trimmers a while back .This will make for a very nice Bonsai in no time .. This is a smaller tree with a big trunk .

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This suffered die back many years ago however the trunk survived .

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It measure 70mm with nice movement in the lower base of the trunk .

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The canopy is 500mm wide 400mm deep and 300mm high .Both have major faults but these tree's will get their first work-over ahead of the rest .

Cheers Alpineart

[The Hacker]

Hi Alpine

There's some very nice Bonsai starter's you have there are sure there as big as you say

Regard's The Hacker

[alpineart]

Hi Hacker , mate if anything i always under quote not exaggerate the size of the material i collect or use , not here to bullshit anybody .These 2 would have the biggest trunks in the garden but not the biggest bases . I can read a tape measure , and yes digital camera's do lie . Maybe i should run the vernier gauge over it .

Mate they look ever bigger if i put my glasses on .The tray is 580mm wide 90mm high the pot is 400mm wide 90mm high Before potting 4 trunks were removed from the base of the small tree,the 3 remaining trunks/branches are just over 20mm each .I trimmed a pot grown Satsuki azalea a week ago , its trunk is 30mm thick @ 1/3 the age of these , i didn't expect the trunk to be over 20mm thick .

Cheers Alpine

[alpineart]

I thought i should do some work on this Azalea as it was very congested and trunks were crossing over and entangled in each other .

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Using hook and hold wires it was a 7-8 hour task that has seen 50% of the foliage and secondary/tertiary branching removed

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. Now with a more open feel to it , I will be allow it to grow on for another season with a basic clip and grow trim to further improve the structure and a few more wires to bring some of the upper heavier trunks down a bit more

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I'm not looking for a broom style more of a natural very old age tree having separate foliage pads , with flowers of course .New dimensions are 800mm x 600mm x 300mm , i did another trim after these pics were taken just to define the pads a bit more .

Cheers Alpineart

[Sean M]

Looks good! I sruggle with shaping these buggers, the branches are so snappy. Did you lose any when you set yours?

[Glenda]

All my azaleas are in flower right now.....

[alpineart]

Hi sean.mitchell1, mate i use hook and hold wiring on any brittle tree. This is the easiest ans safest method to use and yes it eliminate all those broken branches . Its a wiring nightmare and requires resetting as you progress, so i set the heavy trunks first then set the smaller finer trunks/ branches off them . Very few breakages this way .

Hi Glenda , i had a small burst of flowers in spring and early Summer . I trimmed all these back with hedge trimmers to uncover the trunks and bases before the buds were established , no good wasting energy on flowers as that would mean untrimmed and untrained trainers , basically just having plants in pots .All are back budding extremely well even the dozen or so still in the ground . Next season i hope to be able to call some of these Bonsai not trainers .

Cheers Alpineart.

[bodhidharma]

Good onya Alpine they have a bright future. Not sure about the Woodstock though. I will bring you over a Turkey.

[alpineart]

Hi Bodhi , mate the Turkey and the Woodstocks no good to me , i'm a coffee man .Silly enough now without adding fuel to the fire . I used to do Bonsai after a few sherbets and bugger me i kept cutting all the wrong branches off . There's a lot of work in these but over a very short period of time they will be good Bonsai .

Cheers Alpine