First attempt at neagari azalea

[Woocash]

I bought this Azalea Japonica ‘orange’ from a supermarket a couple of months ago and have been waiting for the flowers to come and go and for some soil and kanuma to arrive so I could have a go at a small neagari project. I got a drinks bottle, cut out a section and gaffered it up to form a root tube. I then filled a pot with kaizen number 1 soil and perched the tube on top. Next I washed of the roots of the plant, chopped off any upward facing roots and, holding it at the top of the tube, filled the cavity with kanuma. I then wired the tube to the under pot for stability and pruned and wired the azalea itself.

I thought that with the exposed root style often being quite delicate looking, a cascade or semi cascade style would suit nicely but I can’t find any real examples of a cascading neagari azalea. Am I not looking hard enough or is it not often done?

I forgot to take any pictures of the process but I have another similar azalea called ‘red’ which I will do the same with when it goes over so I’ll take a few more pics then. Heres my first attempt anyway. Any thoughts, tips for aftercare or whatnot would be gratefully received.
(It’s pretty diddy)
in flower before the operation

 

[sorce]

Nice, are the boxes sunlights for the cabin?

Sorce

 

[Woocash]

Nice, are the boxes sunlights for the cabin?

Sorce

Yes, they used to be the only real ventilation in a cabin back in the day as portholes were generally fixed on small craft. They’re called pigeon boxes. Not sure why though. I’ve heard some people say it’s so pigeons could come and go, but that’s a little bit of nonsense, boat folk had no need of pigeons, so who knows?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I recall seeing semi-cascade with exposed roots. You don't see that many "full cascades" with or without exposed roots. Full cascades are when the lowest branch extends below the feet of the pot. The semi cascade is when the cascading branch dips below the rim of the pot, or the nebari in the case of exposed roots, but does not extend below the feet of the pot.

Full cascades are a challenge to keep the energy balanced, so are often attempted, and often are shortened up midway through training to make them semi-cascades. Photo attached is a 2018 photo of my white form of 'Waka Ebisu', I think it is properly called 'Shiro Ebisu'. The upper branches get pruned 2 or 3 times a summer, the lower branches will only tolerate 1 pruning per summer. They simply do not grow as much as the "above the rim" branches. Leaf size shows how the ramification is unbalanced. Small leaves up top, because the branches are 3 and 4 degrees of branching, big leaves down low because branches are only 1 or 2 degrees of ramification.

 

[j evans]

If you ran low on groceries maybe a pigeon could come in handy?
I really like that color, nice find.

 

[sorce]

folk had no need of pigeons

Are they not what tells of land nearby?

Doves traditionally yes?

Sorce

 

[Woocash]

Are they not what tells of land nearby?

Doves traditionally yes?

Sorce

No these are on inland boats that mainly travel on narrow canals about 15 - 20 ft wide.

I did a bit of digging and apparently they were so named because they resemble the lids of boxes that carrier pigeons were transported in. Yes, doves on a ship though.

 

[Woocash]

If you ran low on groceries maybe a pigeon could come in handy?
I really like that color, nice find.

To go and fetch some more or to eat? Lots of rabbits and deer around here so pigeons would be a bit further down the list I reckon.

Thanks, I really like orange flowers and couldn’t find any at the nurseries around here so I was glad to find the last one in the weekly deals at the local supermarket.

 

[Woocash]

I recall seeing semi-cascade with exposed roots. You don't see that many "full cascades" with or without exposed roots. Full cascades are when the lowest branch extends below the feet of the pot. The semi cascade is when the cascading branch dips below the rim of the pot, or the nebari in the case of exposed roots, but does not extend below the feet of the pot.

Full cascades are a challenge to keep the energy balanced, so are often attempted, and often are shortened up midway through training to make them semi-cascades. Photo attached is a 2018 photo of my white form of 'Waka Ebisu', I think it is properly called 'Shiro Ebisu'. The upper branches get pruned 2 or 3 times a summer, the lower branches will only tolerate 1 pruning per summer. They simply do not grow as much as the "above the rim" branches. Leaf size shows how the ramification is unbalanced. Small leaves up top, because the branches are 3 and 4 degrees of branching, big leaves down low because branches are only 1 or 2 degrees of ramification.

View attachment 299193

Ah ha that makes sense, most plants want to grow upwards after all. Thanks for the tips. I’ll have to see how this one reacts to cascading of any degree. I wanted to style it so that the foliage finishes at or near to soil level but we’ll see how it pans out. It’ll be a few years before the roots get exposed fully anyway and so I can gauge what’ll look right.

Do you think that starting off from a higher plain would make a difference, still having roots below the tip or is it just that they don’t want to grow downwards naturally?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

In Chicago, in the Italian neighborhoods, "Pigeon box" type windows would be installed in the side of a garage, or a shed on the roof of a multifamily building, these somewhat unique windows were "added on" to existing buildings, for the pigeon coops. Many Italians in Chicago used to raise racing pigeons. These windows were opened in the mornings and closed in the evening after the birds came home to roost. The racing pigeon is the "ancestor" of the city pigeon. The "old guys" because they always were, would take baskets of pigeons out on a Saturday or Sunday, drive 50 or 100 miles away. The group would all release their birds at once, and then race home and time to see when each bird returned to the roots. Often big money was bet, or it seemed big to me when I was a kid, tens and twenties of dollars, not hundreds though. Or at least that was what was admitted to me, who knows the "real" numbers. The old guys knew I talked to the grandmothers, (their wives) too. I was maybe 7 years old, so we are talking 60 years ago.

I've probably eaten squab, a stewing pigeon. my Hungarian grandmother loved horsemeat and pigeon. I was maybe 10 years old or a little older and I remember her lamenting that Illinois had outlawed horsemeat and the City of Chicago had banned pigeon from the poultry and butcher shops. Of course most of her complaining was in Schwabisch, a dialect of German limited to the southern and eastern Danube river valley. She'd talk, I'd answer in English. I never learned to speak Schwabisch. Quickly lost my facility to understand anything a person older than me would say by the time I was 15 years old. Or does that go with being a teenager?

 

[Woocash]

Yep pigeon racing used to be big up north and it still continues thanks to some of the “old guys” still into that sort of thing. They managed to breed all kinds of fancy pigeons trying to create the perfect homing pigeon, hence the term, pigeon fancier - one who breeds pigeons.


I’ve eaten a few pigeons too that my Dad’s nabbed off an old farmer or such. So much effort for so little sustenance!

 

[Javaman4373]

Do you think that starting off from a higher plain would make a difference, still having roots below the tip or is it just that they don’t want to grow downwards naturally?

This comment brings to mind that at Mass MOCA in N. Adams MA, they have an outdoor display where a number of trees are mounted on an elevated structure upside down. It made me wonder if any bonsai enthusiasts use this technique to alter the shape of their trees. See: http://www.expandedenvironment.org/tree-logic/

 

[Hack Yeah!]

@Woocash , did it grow well this year?