Collected Azalea

[Amanda]

This morning I set out to dig up this Azalea from a garden. It was pouring rain, has been all weekend and near impossible weather to drive through as I ventured south along the free-way wondering if I should just call and postpone the dig until it dried a bit

Off the free-way and it cleared up a bit, besides what's a bit of rain anyway when you are keen for a dig?

Took two of us to get this out of the garden, lots of manoeuvring and out it lifted all compact, there's gotta be about 45-50kg of dirt in that root ball. We lugged it into the back of the wagon, then tried to position it so none of the branches snapped.

So all in all a great morning. Got home and it's pouring still so I left it outside wrapped in the blanket, the hole I dug is far too small for the transplant and any deeper it's gonna hit solid clay so after recouping I'll head out and grab a large nursery pot from Bunnings.

There's a nice base in amongst all the mess, a main trunk with some decent movement and taper. From what I can see some decent nebari too. I'd like to dig a little deeper and see what's in there.
Pics are from my phone and in reverse order

I've never dug an Azalea before so any advice on what to do now would be appreciated!

[kcpoole]

Nice score

Remove any clay mud fromt the roots, and Pot it up into decent soil.

Keep well watered but not wet and leave alone to recove until you see positve signs of recovery. Seasol is good at this time. You can Prune back to remove any unwanted foliage, and see what you got

Ken

[MattA]

Hey Anja,

Nice score, I am supposed to be going to remove a few things from a garden tomorow but was thinking of putting it off.. If you can do it today why the hell cant I tomorow

I would be inclined to prune out anything that is definitely unneeded and as ken said, remove most of the old soil & pot up with some good freedraining mix. Give it a bit of extra care & attention & you should be fine. Azaleas are pretty tough & move well, especially when you get as good a rootball as you seem to have on this one.

Good luck with it, look forward to seeing where it goes.

Matt

Forgot to mention, putting it back in the ground would be ok too as long as you raised the bed a bit so its not sitting in that horrid clay soil you have there, as with all housing developments they strip the top soil & leave crap. How your suppose to build a garden without doing alot of remedial work to the ground....

[nealweb]

Nice one Anja, well done. Looks like you got heaps of root with it. If you loose a bit more when thoroughly cleaning out all the old mud then just reduce the top back to match and it should do great. Seasol is supposed to be good for recovery and root growth and we have also been using a hydroponics product by Clonex called clonex clone solution, they use it for propagation. It contains rooting hormones and should help get it going again. Bit pricey though.
Good luck

[Amanda]

Thanks for the advice guys. I've seasol on hand ready to go. I'll be sure to remove some more of the root. There's lots of the white spaghetti type roots and not much in the way of anything hardened off from what I can see so it should be basic cut back to fit into the pot. I'm reluctant to pop it in the ground as it's filling with water, this area was sandstone and clay and not much else before development, filled with a whole lot of blue metal, bricks and crap, the only thing that thrives is murraya paniculata.

The root ball is filled with excellent quality soil, no clay at all, would it be best to cut it back and fill in the pot with a good draining mix?

Matt, go and get ya hands dirty tomorrow!

[MattA]

OK OK OK .. I am on it... rang to reconfirm.. lets hope it stops raining long enough for me to get into it.. If not I will just have to wear a few garbage bags

Matt

[Amanda]

Here's the Azalea in a grow box. The root ball was a mess of tangled bromeliad roots and the neighbouring plants it was growing with. The hardest part was cleaning up! Curl grubs must be getting into everything because I found lots, before I knew it my dog had eaten them, happy she wasn't sick.

It appears a while ago one of the lower branches was snapped and it's produced it's own root system, I'm not sure if I should sever that or maybe let it grow on and keep it a feature? Any advice there? The roots appear advanced enough.

[bodhidharma]

When i first saw the spray bottle in the background i went.. GADZOOKS..thinking it was a 2 litre one that i use, looked closely and realized it was a 500mm one I personally think you should lose the fallen branch unless you want to promote its root growth and keep it for another tree. Nothing more to do with the main tree but let it grow now. Start training it once it has bounced back would be the go i reckon.

[Amanda]

When i first saw the spray bottle in the background i went.. GADZOOKS..thinking it was a 2 litre one that i use, looked closely and realized it was a 500mm one

I wish!!
I'll be bringing this right down after a few seasons of catching up, so long as it backbuds well enough - I have never, ever kept Azalea..

tick tock.... tick tock.....

[Jan]

I've seen a Robert Stevens bonsai landscape that had a fallen branch/limb that had taken root on a neighbouring "island". It was one big bonsai but he had used the broken branch that reshot as a feature, so don't dismiss the idea too quickly.

I think it might have been one of the images in the advertising for his book - not sure of the name of the book, something about "soul"? Visions from the soul, or of the soul; you should find it if you search "Robert Stevens Bonsai Books" in Google or look on Stone Lantern's site.

I've never grown azalea myself so I've no advice but nice "prize" and best of luck,

Jan.

[Amanda]

Thank you, Jan. It was a $9.95 eBay gamble to dig an unknown Azalea with sketchy details re the flowering. Worth it IMO, there were plenty of suckers with roots attached, this is the only one I've left as it seemed to show some interest and I got a couple of plants from it.

I'll have a search tonight for Robert Stevens books when it's quiet here. Sounds very interesting?

[Edward Scissorhand]

Thank you, Jan. It was a $9.95 eBay gamble to dig an unknown Azalea with sketchy details re the flowering. Worth it IMO, there were plenty of suckers with roots attached, this is the only one I've left as it seemed to show some interest and I got a couple of plants from it.

I'll have a search tonight for Robert Stevens books when it's quiet here. Sounds very interesting?

Hey Amanda, What a fun and interesting find! Lets hope it starts popping buds in Spring or when the weather warms up.