Harunobu
Chumono
I bought this 'Violetta' azalea as nursery stock in 2012. (Dutch Kurume Kerkhoff/Multiflorum hybrid, not Glenn Dale).I have been growing it out in full ground for a while now.
Sadly, I do not have a lot of before and after pictures of pruning I did. Somehow, those got lost. Which is why I am posting now, so they don't get lost again (assuming this place is still here in 5 or 10 years, hopefully).
I got this one in the spring of 2012 and pruned to prevent reverse taper.
Spring 2012:
I bought this one because it had a decent trunk where reverse taper was barely not setting in yet. And it was naturally backbudding. It is rather obvious which trunkline is the main trunk. Which is why I bought this one.
The downside was that it had a second trunk on the backside.
Somehow, I don't have a picture from after pruning. Or any other pictures up to 2020. But today, it is really tall. Earlier this year, I pruned it pretty hard. And finally got completely rid of the second trunk.
Summer 2020:
The way this was developed was to select 2 shoots out of the apex. This is done mid summer every year. Often, you would get a whirl of 3 to 7 shoots from the base of the flower bud. I would prune all but 2. And the weaker one I could prune the apex out of as well. I'd select the two based on strength and the movement they would give the trunk line. The fatter branches were kept in check to prevent too much reverse taper. Same for the thinner main trunk. It was not pruned away, but kept in check while the main trunk was grown taller.
You can find the same trunk line here as in the 2012 picture:
There is some issues with the nebari and the scars on the very base of the trunk. But I think all this backbudding will help get rid of some of it. The trunk was pretty buried and now it has been planted at an angle, which is why these roots are also quite exposed. I should have tried to work the roots and set up nebari back in 2012, but I did not.
So I have grown a tall single trunk without reverse taper. There is some movement. And now I have backbudding to fatten up the base of the trunk. I am thinking I want to keep it as tall as it is now, to fatten up the entire trunk. Because it didn't get that much fatter in 8 years, to be honest.
As tall as it is now, no idea where I would want to chop it for the final height. There are some awkward spots now near the top. But I am thinking I should just grow all that out as much as possible, as it will be chopped and gone completely at some point, and an entirely new apex will then be grown. Honestly, I am thinking I want to grow this trunk fatter for 8 more years. Why not? Just to get that Japanese-style fat and old trunk with decent movement and good taper. It is about 30cm in height now with a 4 cm diameter trunk. Why not go for 12cm trunk diameter, minimum? It is all set up now. So in that case, I won't touch those awkward sidebranches higher up that could cause reverse taper. It is too tall and the movement isn't so nice there anymore. So let's just allow reverse taper there. In return, the diameter of the entire trunk will increase. It will be chopped below that at some point. Otherwise, I would prune back those main sidebranches to 2cm stumps next spring. And the lower shoots that backbudded just now will allow for taper to develop. The lower on the trunk, the more sidebranches I want. And I kind of have that now. But in the future, I will want even more of them. So I will have to prune back hard almost everything every few years to get stronger taper. But for now, I can let the diameter increase uniformly.
I think that one reason why it is growing so well now is I never really pruned the roots. But I have to work on the roots and prune away a lot of them and find some nebari flare as well. And that has to be balanced with a good hard pruning. Maybe that I will do in 2022?
Sadly, I do not have a lot of before and after pictures of pruning I did. Somehow, those got lost. Which is why I am posting now, so they don't get lost again (assuming this place is still here in 5 or 10 years, hopefully).
I got this one in the spring of 2012 and pruned to prevent reverse taper.
Spring 2012:
I bought this one because it had a decent trunk where reverse taper was barely not setting in yet. And it was naturally backbudding. It is rather obvious which trunkline is the main trunk. Which is why I bought this one.
The downside was that it had a second trunk on the backside.
Somehow, I don't have a picture from after pruning. Or any other pictures up to 2020. But today, it is really tall. Earlier this year, I pruned it pretty hard. And finally got completely rid of the second trunk.
Summer 2020:
The way this was developed was to select 2 shoots out of the apex. This is done mid summer every year. Often, you would get a whirl of 3 to 7 shoots from the base of the flower bud. I would prune all but 2. And the weaker one I could prune the apex out of as well. I'd select the two based on strength and the movement they would give the trunk line. The fatter branches were kept in check to prevent too much reverse taper. Same for the thinner main trunk. It was not pruned away, but kept in check while the main trunk was grown taller.
You can find the same trunk line here as in the 2012 picture:
There is some issues with the nebari and the scars on the very base of the trunk. But I think all this backbudding will help get rid of some of it. The trunk was pretty buried and now it has been planted at an angle, which is why these roots are also quite exposed. I should have tried to work the roots and set up nebari back in 2012, but I did not.
So I have grown a tall single trunk without reverse taper. There is some movement. And now I have backbudding to fatten up the base of the trunk. I am thinking I want to keep it as tall as it is now, to fatten up the entire trunk. Because it didn't get that much fatter in 8 years, to be honest.
As tall as it is now, no idea where I would want to chop it for the final height. There are some awkward spots now near the top. But I am thinking I should just grow all that out as much as possible, as it will be chopped and gone completely at some point, and an entirely new apex will then be grown. Honestly, I am thinking I want to grow this trunk fatter for 8 more years. Why not? Just to get that Japanese-style fat and old trunk with decent movement and good taper. It is about 30cm in height now with a 4 cm diameter trunk. Why not go for 12cm trunk diameter, minimum? It is all set up now. So in that case, I won't touch those awkward sidebranches higher up that could cause reverse taper. It is too tall and the movement isn't so nice there anymore. So let's just allow reverse taper there. In return, the diameter of the entire trunk will increase. It will be chopped below that at some point. Otherwise, I would prune back those main sidebranches to 2cm stumps next spring. And the lower shoots that backbudded just now will allow for taper to develop. The lower on the trunk, the more sidebranches I want. And I kind of have that now. But in the future, I will want even more of them. So I will have to prune back hard almost everything every few years to get stronger taper. But for now, I can let the diameter increase uniformly.
I think that one reason why it is growing so well now is I never really pruned the roots. But I have to work on the roots and prune away a lot of them and find some nebari flare as well. And that has to be balanced with a good hard pruning. Maybe that I will do in 2022?
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