AusBonsai

Have you had frost on it ?

Definitely not. As soon as it started to get cold it's gone in the little greenhouse I got. In the first pics you can see some leaf damage so I suspect it was happening to some degree when I got it.

They are the spring leaves from last year (the bigger ones below the smaller ones) which usually fall now. All quite normal.
I'ts important to repot Azaleas every year with a thourough repot ( right down to secondary roots ) every 3-4 years. If you don't do this they will progessively weaken over time and you begin to lose branches. A thourough root overhall means the following:
Use a sharpened chopstick to remone as much soil as you can.
Use a strong jet of water to remove more soil
Chopstick again to get right into the main root branches.
More water and more scraping and cutting until ALL of the fine hair-like roots and ALL of the old soil is gone.
Pay particular attention to the bottom of the trunk. If you can't see it you have not removed enough.
A final high pressure wash (without skining the main roots) followed by a good trim.
Repot into a pot with just enough room so as to have about 20 or 30mm of space all aroung the root ball. Most Azaleas are over potted.
Keep out of wind but in a very bright to sunny position. Spray often but don't over water.
Stand back and wacj your Azalea grow!

The best Azalea medium I have used:

2 parts fine orchid bark 2-5mm
1 part course gravel of a similar size or diatomite
1 part Sphagnum moss rubbed through a 5mm seive (the plastic kind)
Finish off by covering with finely choped moss.
Sprinkle of peat.
Or Kanuma if you can afford it but I found the above mix gives excellent growth.

Azaleas do poorly in a very fine commercial type bonsai mix.
When the are properly potted and well established, they should dry out rather quickly. ( which means you need to be home to water them!)

Great advice treeman. Got a couple of azaleas in bigger pots to thicken up, so this actually answers some questions I had too! [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]

Thanks Treeman for your great input and advice. I will follow this for my couple of small underdeveloped azaleas to hopefully turn them into something.

Thanks so much Treeman! I only just purchased it so I have no idea when it was last repotted. Should I wait until next year just to be safe?

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adabelbengals wrote:Thanks so much Treeman! I only just purchased it so I have no idea when it was last repotted. Should I wait until next year just to be safe?

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I would wait until spring to repot anyway.

adabelbengals wrote:Thanks so much Treeman! I only just purchased it so I have no idea when it was last repotted. Should I wait until next year just to be safe?

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Normally repot after flowering in spring but when really attacking the roots every third repot or so, remove all the flower buds and repot before it has a chance to flower. That way it has all season to concentrate on vegitative growth. Flowering weakens all trees but especially Azalea.

Just a quick update, I must be doing something right, she's flowering really well!

As Azaleas are botanically the same as Rhododendrums, in my hunt in 'Disposal tray' at a local nursery cum hardware shop. I saw what looked like an interesting plant, with red leaves. I thought that is a rhododendrum or azalea. I often do that, and they give me the plant for 1 dollar.
Anyway this time they waved the one dollar as I only had my plastic. Got home, Googled, and as far as I know it is a R.'elizabeth' that has crimson flowers and leaves that naturally turn red. I am going to re-pot it today in some nice soil that includes worm farm compost. It should like that.

The red leaves could be natural. Check the genus. i have one of those azaleas I bought from Bunnings, only 6 inches high. It was firstly in a double pot, and the inner pot had no drainage holes. ????? I managed to save it, and some of its leaves are red. It's the yellow ones I was worried about. Oh they gave me a full refund, and I bought more bonsai starters. They have a one year 'happy plant' guarantee.