Ideas for Crepe Myrtle and Azalea?

[hard drive]

G'day all. Have been lurking on here for a little while now but this is my first post. I've finally found some stock to have a go with, but I'm stuck for ideas about where to go with these two.

Theres a Crepe myrtle stump and an Azalea.

Any and all suggestions would be much appreciated.

Dave

[Jamie]

nice stump mate, it looks very smooth i like it nice solid movement in there too, what ya want to do is let it grow out now for atleast a year, get the tree budding all over so you have something to work with come next year. some good feeding once it has leafed out and that should help too


other than that it is hard to speculate any type of design right now. sorry mate


jamie

[hard drive]

Ta muchly. I was wondering if I should cut the trunk closer to the bend? The way it is atm it has absolutley no taper at all.

[Jamie]

i would wait till you get budbacking all the way down the trunk as where you cut now is fine, because you might end up with a little die back from the chop.

and when you do get new shoots then you can decide where to cut back to start creating some taper

cheers

jamie

[Petra]

I was wondering if I should cut the trunk closer to the bend? The way it is atm it has absolutley no taper at all.[/quote]


The taper will come when the new growth gets going. Do not cut it any more, this trunk is excellent it has great movement. Just let it grow for a year and new branches will form thickening up that trunk.feed it up once the new growth gets going. Look forward to its progress. Cheers!

[hard drive]

Thanks alot guys, any ideas for the Azalea? Chop him at the first little branch on the right and let it grow out?

[Jamie]

yea, chopping at the small first branch with a cut that tapers down will work, then let it grow out for a year or so, similar to the crepe myrtle.


jamie

[hard drive]

Cheers mate, it's nice to be able to confirm that i'm not doing something drastically wrong!!

[Jamie]

lol, all good pal, we have all done something wrong that we wish we could go back and do over, its just how quick we learn from them and move on that furthers us into our bonsai journey


jamie

[kcpoole]

The Crepe I will not do any more to until you see where it going bud out and then decide.
the Azalea I muight even cut to the second branch. Does that one come out below the sharp bend? If so it might cut back to that one then see what you get
Do want a shorter stumpy one, or a taller more elegant style? If it has movement in the trunk then you may get away with it leaving taller


Ken

[hard drive]

I think i might leave it a bit taller for now - the plant has always been a prolific flowerer so any size i can keep in it will hopefully allow me to show that off better?

[kcpoole]

I think i might leave it a bit taller for now - the plant has always been a prolific flowerer so any size i can keep in it will hopefully allow me to show that off better?

Whith Azaleas, I like to see lots of height or width( for a semi cascade), to provide lots of surface to show the flowers off. A taller tree can help in this but you still need to have some taper or movement in the trunk to achieve it.
Azalea are very slow to put in trunk Girth, and even moreso in a pot. It really is pretty much what you have is what you get unless you really want to let go mad in a grow box or the ground.

ken