New Bonsai - Saotome Azalea

[Aaronjmusgrave]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post (and bonsai) so bare with me. I received this amazing bonsai as an early birthday present in January and since have been maintaining it reasonably well, at least I hope. I've tried to prune the tree only when it grows way out of an appealing shape, with regularly watering and monthly feeding. Also to note, I live in Brisbane.

As I have no experience with bonsai, I have no idea how quickly it should be growing, the way in which it should be growing, and how best to balance the tree. If I'm not asking too much, I was hoping to get some general advice on the bonsai, especially regarding the branch locations and how the tree is currently developing. Here are a couple of pictures of the azalea.

IMG_1624.JPG

Front on.

IMG_1623.JPG

Back of the tree.

IMG_1626.JPG

Trunk and branches. In this shot the branch closest to camera is sprouting like crazy and am not sure if the placement of these shoots is a good thing either.


This is what the bonsai looked like straight from the nursery (with a filter, apologies).

IMG_1627.jpg

It is a particularly gangly (long limbed) tree, but I like the overall shape. I am just hoping for some advice that may help me better balance the tree in terms of growth. Any and all advice is welcomed and appreciated, thank you!

[Elmar]

Welcome to Ausbonsai,
I've only recently come across this tree species and they can turn into the most spectacular trees!
Unfortunately I'm useless in guiding you but there are plenty on here that have a great deal of experience, not just in Bonsai but with Azaleas as well.

You've come to the right place.


Cheers
Elmar

[Jarad]

Welcome Mate,

There's some information in the wiki page on Azaleas that can be found here:
https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index.php?title=Azalea

There's a button for the wiki near the top of the page.

I've really only just got into the styling of these trees and am experimenting so unfortunately I can't give you a heap of advice. All in all, she looks healthy, so you've done well.

[kcpoole]

Nicew little azalea
A few points to consider.

Remove the Curved back branch ( or wire down). it is not the same shape and style as the others so needs to be fixed.
Remove the centre apex stem. it continues the trunk line straight up. Remove it and use the front branch as the apex.
Cut back the branching and apex to encourage back budding. Wire out upper branching so as to build a wider canopy.

Trim back the lower branching to encourage back budding to build the foliage pads

The trunk is quite thin so the tree cannot be tall as it will look ungainly. a nice shorter tree with wide spreading canopy.

Ken

[Aaronjmusgrave]

Thanks guys. Ken, can the cutting back be done now during Autumn without harming the tree?

Thank you for the advice, I'm very keen to play around with it on the weekend. Another quick one with cutting back the lower branches, i'm hesitant in cutting back too far from the foliage (chopping half the branch off). Will the tree start to back bud even if I were to do this? I hope I'm making sense, hah. Thanks again!!


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[Jarad]

One of the good things about healthy azaleas is that they can backbud from just about anywhere.

[kcpoole]

They will back bud on bare wood readily so no fear in cutting back hard.

Depending on where you are in OZ, is what you can do.
I repotted some today as I am in Sydney and still high 20's here now. Will be still warm in a month or so.
If you were in Tassie or Canberra / Southern highlands then maybe not

Ken

[Aaronjmusgrave]

Excellent, thank you guys! Yeah I'm in Brisbane so it's still summer during the day basically.


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