Old garden Azalea (Christmas cheer)

[aussie4bonsai]

I dug this azalea out of a neighbors front yard 16/9/2010, it had been planted up against a tree for over 30years and over those year the tree roots stopped the azalea roots from going down and it had to spread side ways making a nice big nebari.

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Two litre juice bottle to show size.

[nealweb]

Wow, solid material, nice find

[aussie4bonsai]

Today two months and a week later this is a Christmas cheer for me.
It’s going so well I am thinking of layering the top.

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[Beaumatsu]

wow that looks great i would air layer the top aswell and just in my opion i would get rid of some of the multiple truks leave the strogest one or two cut them a bit lower and some new braches might start to appear i would love to have an 30 year old azelea. keep us posted on what you decide to do and what colour flowers does it have?

Ohh and is that kanuma you have that azelea growing in?

BeauMatsu

[aussie4bonsai]

Hi BeauMatsu
Yes the potting mix is Kanuma

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These flowers were on when I dug it up.

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This photo shows the amount I will cut back

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I left the whips on so I can thread graft onto the main trunk some think like is this.
Happy New Year
Barry

[Damian Bee]

Dont cut back too hard just yet, it needs a year to strengthen up before you do any major work. Die back can be a serious problem when you cut off heavy branches.

[Damian Bee]

Not sure about it being Christmas Cheer, I have one similar here at home but it is as yet un-named.

[aussie4bonsai]

Hi Damian
I was thinking of layering the top in a month, do you think I am a bit eager.
The flowers were photographed in the night with a flash so the colour is a bit bright.

[Scott Roxburgh]

I would wait, It is great material that you dont want to lose, I know that I have jumped the gun plenty of times doing too many things too soon...

[aussie4bonsai]

I would wait, It is great material that you dont want to lose, I know that I have jumped the gun plenty of times doing too many things too soon...

Hi Scott
I know what your saying but time is a factor, I would save a year in time layer in February and remove in spring or later.
I was thinking of thread grafting the whips and having the bush down to the size end of this year, so I could start or the branch structure.
In the photo the red line shows the area I want to keep the blue box shows were I would like to layer, the layers are secondary to my plan if they work good if they don’t they end up in the bin as they would if I didn’t layer.
Barry

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[Scott Roxburgh]

30 year old stock vs 1 extra year delay...

I think the wait is worth it.

[Damian Bee]

In regards to the Christmas Cheer topic, here is a link to a photo of that type in flower, it looks a little different to the one you posted.
viewtopic.php?f=132&t=6221

I think you should wait until August/September before you do any cutting back or layering, not much growth will occur between Feb and August. The foliage on the plant now will provide it with the energy it needs to recover from the stress of transplant. I have lost a couple of beauties because I was to eager to get into them
I think a better course of action would be to feed and tip prune so that most of the coming flower buds are removed and you can encourage some shoots further back down the trunk.
There is no point in pushing for fast development only to loose the plant completely.
Cool those jets Barry

[Damian Bee]

In regards to the Christmas Cheer topic, here is a link to a photo of that type in flower, it looks a little different to the one you posted.
viewtopic.php?f=132&t=6221

I think you should wait until August/September before you do any cutting back or layering, not much growth will occur between Feb and August. The foliage on the plant now will provide it with the energy it needs to recover from the stress of transplant. I have lost a couple of beauties because I was to eager to get into them
I think a better course of action would be to feed and tip prune so that most of the coming flower buds are removed and you can encourage some shoots further back down the trunk.
There is no point in pushing for fast development only to loose the plant completely.
Cool those jets Barry

[Damian Bee]

Oops

thats what happens when you backtrack looking for a previous post, now we can compare the drafts I guess.

[nealweb]

[quote="Damian Bee"]

I think you should wait until August/September before you do any cutting back or layering...





I have never done a layer but I believe it is a summer job, best done in December