Azalea - are these worth buying?

GinaRothfels

I was looking at Azaleas at a local nursery today and saw two trees with bases which looked like they might have potential.

Tree 1
Base looks nice for the first couple of inches, then the trunk goes dead straight for about a foot with no growth (shown here attached to a wooden pole). Could I cut it down to the top of the knob and grown a new trunk and branches or would I kill it if I did so? I'm assuming this is natural growth and not a graft, but I don't really know as I have no experience with Azaleas. If I cut it down, what is the right time of year to do it? In South Africa we are just going into winter.

Attached Images

	Azalea-1-trunk.jpg (70.3 KB, 70 views)
	Azalea-1-base.jpg (62.7 KB, 85 views)

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GinaRothfels

Tree 2
This would be a twin trunk and would require much less cutting back than tree 1. I have not seen the flowers on this tree and the foliage seems less attractive than tree 1. Also I don't know if I want to do a twin trunk, but I'm not sure.

Attached Images

Azalea-2-base.jpg (70.7 KB, 54 views)

GinaRothfels

I am only looking to buy one tree and don't know which of these to buy, if either. I can keep looking if these don't have potential, but am interested to know whether such a drastic trunk chop is possible on an Azalea in case I see something better when I am far from home and don't have the opportunity to think and go back later.

Sorry, but these are the only photos I have of these trees as it was close to closing time and the light was not good.

jfecme

Well, given what I can see, I like tree 2 best.However, some things to consider. One is this a large leaf azalea, like Formosa? Sometimes they don't leaf reduce well. Doesn't mean it can't make a handsome bonsai, but you may want to consider that for proportion in chopping back the trunk.

Where I live in the southern U. S. we cut overgrown in-ground azaleas back to the trunk to tidy them up a bit. They come back from the trunks like gangbusters usually.

I think it's worth a try. Perhaps plantit in the ground for a season and go ahead and cut bck the trunk to where you wnat it whileit is dormant. Be sure to seal the wound.

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GinaRothfels

I didn't spend that much time looking as it was quite late, but I think the leaves on both of these were smaller than most of the others.

I'm not too keen to plant potential bonsai in the ground as we have a garden service that would be likely to mess with my tree but would be happy to plant it in a biggish pot or colander. Obviously they are not dormant yet as there were flowers on most of the trees. How long would it take before I could cut them back if I decided to do so?

Sterling

Random question for Azalea growers. Do azaleas do well as root cuttings? I have two in the ground that I will probably need to dig up next year and I just wonder if I would be able to get some cuttings from the root trimming I plan to do when I get them up.

PatArizona

G'day Gina...

Could give better advice with "entire tree" pictures...

However...without seeing them up close and personal...I think you can do better...

Pat

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jeremy_norbury

Pat's right. Could do better.

The thing that concerns me is that they look like "Standard" azaleas - which implies they are grafts onto rootstock of over types.

I'm not particularly happy with either tree - but tree 2 has at least some interesting features.

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