Any creative ideas for a nice little Azalea?

[BonsaiJamie]

Hey guys,
I have just scored myself this nice little Azalea.
Any ideas or inspiration would be greatly appreciated, as this is my first Azalea and I think there is many many possibilities for this tree.
It is a little bigger in real life than it looks in the photos, its in a 12" pot .






and I thought I might as well put up a pic of my very first olive that a mate gave me


Cheers !!

[Eusto]

Hi,

I think it might be easier to make a suggestion if you dig down a bit around the trunk. When you see what you are working with down there it makes decisions easier. At that soil level for example the first branch may be a bit low and need to be removed or it could be perfect when you dig down a bit.

[Bonsai4ever]

Hi Jamie, I remember well my first attempts at purchasing stock to be used for bonsai from nurseries. The frustration at trying to find a suitable trunk amongst the random growth. On looking at your purchase, it reminded me of that frustration. Trying to make this shrub into a decent bonsai will not be easy and will require a few very brave decisions.

When you look at the base and work your way up the trunk you will observe that there are four branches that come of at the same level. In my opinion, three of these must go. My preference would be to keep the left front branch (in the first photo), and remove all of the rest. This will leave you with very little of the original tree (This is one of the difficult decisions that I mentioned). When you get to repot later on you can change the potted angle of the new trunk line so that it leans to the right somewhat like this >.

Azaleas shoot back quite profusely and you will be able to decide upon branching a little later on as your tree offers up new options. If it were mine, I would be looking for an eventual tree of around 6 to 10 inches tall.

If you are not prepared to bite the bullet and learn from this experience, I feel that the best option for this little shrub would be in the garden where it will provide an abundance of lovely flowers.

[kcpoole]

Hmm choices choices!
What i do is remove the obviousl ones first, then decide

How big do you want it eventually
how long before you want a "nice" tree
What are it redeeming features
does it have a nice trunkline already?

If you want a Small tree then you need to look at what low movement and branches you may have already. If you want a larger tree then possibley the low ones will be used a sacrifice, but you only want one of them at each section of the trunk otherwise it will cause reverse taper.

If you want to wait 5 years, then you can have a longer program and can cut back hard to grow from new, If you want something in Bonsai pot quickly, then you have to work with what you have

Does it have nice nebari or roots? Radially or on 1 side? this may decide you front regardless of what the branching is doing.

if there is a really nice shaped line in the trunk, then that may decide the front, and thus requiring you to build new roots from scratch.

Now to your tree
I Assume the tree wil be a small finished tree. I would take out the Centre straight trunk, and then remove at lest one of the other ones. Keep 1 as the new uppor trunk by tilting the tree, then the other one can become the first branch. It may well be quite thick but that may be OK.

then moving up the new trunk, select the next branch to be the next section leading up to the apex.

Ken