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Victrinia, to answer your question on the soil. It is 7 parts pine bark and 3 parts oil-dri. Only options in my small country town. I sieved them with a window screen to get out all the dust and small particles. Then sieved them with what is called hardware cloth or soffit screen which measures has quarter inch holes. This was done three times to the pine bark after drying it. I believe I know where you see the large particles. I made a large batch of this mix. Well, what I thought was a large batch. I ended up running out an inch of short of finishing the juniper repotting. A rain shower was starting and I had all my tools and supplies layed out so I rushed and sieved the small particles out of some bark and oil-dri to fill the space quickly before it started raining hard. I was quite paniced to be honest. I figured I would wait it out until the large particles dry out a little and replace the large particles of bark with proper sieved particles. I got this idea for using the screens from a book I have. I am not sure if quarter inch particles are too big or not. I am very tight on money right now but I just HAD to start doing something with bonsai.....even if only learning how to not kill a tree. I am trying to be as economical as possible right now.

JohnQuinn, to be totally honest I am not sure it is a Satsuki, it said it was on the tag but who knows. I bought it about 2 weeks ago and it still had a few withered flowers on it and some unopened blooms that looked brown and popped off easily when touched. I don't know if this helps in determining whether it is a satsuki or not. Also, here is the advice I recieved from jfecme. -----"For the azalea, if you are going to repot it I suggest that once done you snip off every leaf. They will come back and then some, but since transpiration of moisture through the plant and out the leaves is a problem in hot weather, snipping them off allows the root system to have more time to heal itself before the new leaves appear. Be careful not to prune off too many fine white feeder roots as well in fiting it into the pot. You can also prune off any branches that do not fit into your styling plan, and that helps as well by not having leaf overload as the tree bounces back."----- I'm hoping this might help explain what I wrote. Also, the mix for the azalea will be 50/50 - peat/natures helper(mushroom compost from home depot) per jfecme's advice.

Did either of you have any idea on my question about the azalea for my garden. If it is even a possibility.

Thank you so much, and beautiful azalea John.
Hopefully one day I may have one that nice.

26-May-2008	#8
bribonsai bonsaiTALK Neophyte Join Date: May-2008 Location: Lagrange, Georgia Country: U.S. Posts: 3	Victrinia, to answer your question on the soil. It is 7 parts pine bark and 3 parts oil-dri. Only options in my small country town. I sieved them with a window screen to get out all the dust and small particles. Then sieved them with what is called hardware cloth or soffit screen which measures has quarter inch holes. This was done three times to the pine bark after drying it. I believe I know where you see the large particles. I made a large batch of this mix. Well, what I thought was a large batch. I ended up running out an inch of short of finishing the juniper repotting. A rain shower was starting and I had all my tools and supplies layed out so I rushed and sieved the small particles out of some bark and oil-dri to fill the space quickly before it started raining hard. I was quite paniced to be honest. I figured I would wait it out until the large particles dry out a little and replace the large particles of bark with proper sieved particles. I got this idea for using the screens from a book I have. I am not sure if quarter inch particles are too big or not. I am very tight on money right now but I just HAD to start doing something with bonsai.....even if only learning how to not kill a tree. I am trying to be as economical as possible right now. JohnQuinn, to be totally honest I am not sure it is a Satsuki, it said it was on the tag but who knows. I bought it about 2 weeks ago and it still had a few withered flowers on it and some unopened blooms that looked brown and popped off easily when touched. I don't know if this helps in determining whether it is a satsuki or not. Also, here is the advice I recieved from jfecme. -----"For the azalea, if you are going to repot it I suggest that once done you snip off every leaf. They will come back and then some, but since transpiration of moisture through the plant and out the leaves is a problem in hot weather, snipping them off allows the root system to have more time to heal itself before the new leaves appear. Be careful not to prune off too many fine white feeder roots as well in fiting it into the pot. You can also prune off any branches that do not fit into your styling plan, and that helps as well by not having leaf overload as the tree bounces back."----- I'm hoping this might help explain what I wrote. Also, the mix for the azalea will be 50/50 - peat/natures helper(mushroom compost from home depot) per jfecme's advice. Did either of you have any idea on my question about the azalea for my garden. If it is even a possibility. Thank you so much, and beautiful azalea John. Hopefully one day I may have one that nice.