AusBonsai

I've been offered an azalea from a friends garden its nothing special but I'll try something with it.
My question is how well do the back bud? I've been told there pretty good but want an opinion from a bonsai prospective.
What time of year is best to pluck it from the ground?
How gentle do I have to be with the roots?

I'm a complete novice with flowering plants so lay it on me.

Best Regards,

Keith.

they back bud real well

Thanks dayne.

Should I let it stop flowering before attacking it?

Definitely stop it flowering, the flowers will take energy that the plant could use for its own health.

Spring is a good time to collect, that is when i repot my satsuki.

Just keep it in shade for a few weeks after collection, when there is new growth start fertilizing

Azalea are easy to collect and will recover really well if treated right. Keep away from full sun after collection, and they most certainly back bud from a bare branch easily.

I have collected at all times of the year, but to maximise the chances, leave till spring and get as much of the rootball as you can

Kne

Gday Keith

You should wait until after winter to pull it out of the ground. In August / September the plant will be actively growing so this should be a good time. Tie the plant into the pot so the fine roots can develop. With the right after care the root system should come back well
Do you know what type of Azalea it is ?

Andrew

Hmmm,

What type of Azalea is it?
Is it flowering now and can you post some pics?
August would certainly be a good time to remove it and work on it (if you do it now wounds may not heal properly and become diseased) but you do need to take some care and get as much of the main roots as you can, so that you have some options.
Depending on the variety, it will react differently to cut backs, some relish it, others hate it so I think it is important to establish what variety it is. You don't want to pull it out, spend time on it only to have it drop dead.

if you want it to stop flowering just cut them off allso it depends on the variety satsuki flower at a different time of year satsuki means fith month which is when it flowers id run a shovel around it about 250mm out from the base just east west north south and leave till start of august this will cut some roots and leave some and will reduce stress when you dig it out

Hi all,
Thanks for your great input on the subject. I may not be able to wait until august to extract it. The yard its in is being sub divided for development. The plant has only been in the ground for about 6 months so its still quite small. I'd like to have a shot at an azalea the only reason I'm interested as it has a single trunk unlike all of the nursery stock I've looked at.

I'll wait it out as long as possible and see how things go.

Regards,

Keith.

Hi Keith, you are so right about the single trunk quite a rare find. I have found that azaleas dug from the ground need to have all the garden soil washed off the root ball, if the plant has only been in ground for 6 months this may not be an issue but worth checking.
Craig

Thanks craig i'll check it out when i start to dig. The angle of planting would be good for a informal upright in a years to come with some training.

can't wait. thanks again to everyone.

Regards,

Keith.

So, whens the best time to repot and sort out the roots? Spring?

Psymo wrote:So, whens the best time to repot and sort out the roots? Spring?

Yep after flowering is when I do all mine. If you do not let is flower, then you can do a little earlier

Ken

kcb_1983 wrote:Hi all,
Thanks for your great input on the subject. I may not be able to wait until august to extract it. The yard its in is being sub divided for development. The plant has only been in the ground for about 6 months so its still quite small. I'd like to have a shot at an azalea the only reason I'm interested as it has a single trunk unlike all of the nursery stock I've looked at.

I'll wait it out as long as possible and see how things go.

Regards,

Keith.

Hi Keith

As you might know we just dug a lot of Azaleas that are around 100 years old (viewtopic.php?f=132&t=4852) which I will post some more pics of soon. After we have removed all the trunks we don't need and treated the jins and sharis we will let them grow for a season so the roots can re-establish. After that we will select the branches and wiring. Most of the ones we have are multi trunks but we have a few single trunks as well.

Show some pics when you can. Good luck

Cheers,

Chris

Howdy,
It is too cold this week, but you could tip prune any new growth and water hard now. Also remove any straight water shoots that come off low. Don't dig when a dry westerly is blowing. If you can hold off til Ekka Wednesday and its not too cold and windy, dig it then.
Bruce