Collected azaleas and rhododendrons

Carl_Bergstrom

Last weekend, I collected three azaleas and three rhododendrons from a friend's garden. Following Matt's advice (see the species-specific forum), yesterday I began repotting them into pure kanuma.

Here are a few pictures. I'd love to hear your comments, suggestions for care, or shaping, etc.

First, an azalea:

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Carl_Bergstrom

A big rhododendron...

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bonsaial1

Love that azalea alot. Not much for rhodo's. I think the leaves are too big. But thats just me. That azalea looks like it would become a very nice plant though. Are the other one's as nice?

Bonsaial

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Carl_Bergstrom

Here's an azalea (I believe) that I repotted today in a hailstorm.

When I started working, it was sunny and warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt. Half an hour later, the sky had completely clouded up, the temperature had plumeted, and it began first first rain buckets, then to hail. I figured I needed to finish what I'd started, though, so I kept going.

So after another half hour, there I stood in short sleeves, soaked to the skin, hail bouncing off my head and arms, holding a hose and watering-in my tree in the driving rain. If the neighbors see me now, I thought, they'll call the men in the white coats.

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Carl_Bergstrom

It's got quite a powerful - if somewhat unruly - nebari. Could be nice with some work, I imagine.

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Carl_Bergstrom

Finally, a smaller rhododendron. I really like the trunk movement on this one, mostly because it was such a pleasent surprise. The tree had been buried up to the first branches, and had rooted all along these branches and the lower trunk. Clearing it back, I found the really nice movement that you see here.

The downside was the tree had been field-grown in a very heavy clay. The roots were one big tight inextricable fiberous mass of root and clay. No chance of cleaning the rootball out with a chopstick or root hook, so I spent about half an hour with a spray nozzle, trying to work out the clay so that the central roots won't rot out now that the tree is in much-better-draining kanuma.

Even so, I had to take a heck of a lot off of the root ball. So I cut back hard on top to match.

How do you folks with more collecting experience than I deal with this sort of a fibrous-feeder roots in heavy clay situation?

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Carl_Bergstrom

Thanks, Al!

The others are further from being bonsai, let's put it that way. I actually really like the second azalea and the second rhododendron, though the second azalea will need to pretty much be developed from scratch and the rhododenron is...a rhododendron.

The bigger rhododendron may just be a container plant, rather than a bonsai. It seems better suited to that role.

There are two other little azaleas that I haven't done yet; both are nice, but somewhat smaller. I'll probably pot them up this weekend.

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Adam

OldMisterCrow, I really like that first azalea. I think with a little work it would be a nice tree. The second azalea "you believe" dont look much like an azalea to me, but it could be the picture. Anyhow could luck with you new set of tree's.

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Adam

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zeb

I like all of your new trees. You're going to post pics of the two smaller azaleas also, right?

As for the style suggestions:
The first azalea looks a lot like a rainforest tree and that's alright, but I think you should prune some of the "weeping" branches. Not all of them, though. They bring feeling to the tree.
The first rhodo's a bit complicated. It could look better if the branches were cut back to about 3", but then the leaves would be even bigger. Now I know! Keep it that size for the next fifty years and it'll have a beautiful thick trunk to compliment the leave size!


Zeb

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