Three Flowering Trees in a trench coat walk into a bar. - Rhododendron Roblee 1, 2, and 3 - Camellia Sasanqua 1, 2, and 3.

[HorseloverFat]

@HorseloverFat You are doing yourself a disservice potting them in such deep pots. They would be fine if you cut those pots down to 3-4" and let the roots spread and start creating some nebari.
Or better yet mount the tree on something flat (piece of wood/plastic) and spread the roots over it before planting. Plenty of posts about that.
CW

I do agree.. and will DEFINITELY perform this operation upon repotting.... They MOSTLY went in deep because of how i had to “separate” them.. by sawing large “wedges” of the rootmass.. it was a massacre...

Thank you! They will be going into “loafers” instead of “thigh-high” boots next repotting chance I get.

 

[HorseloverFat]

(((Update))) Roblee

 

[HorseloverFat]

(((Update))) not wanting to break the azalea contest’s rules.(I entered my girard’s cutting FIRST, technically ). i will still be documenting Roblee 1 here.

Basically “got in there” and nudged it in the right direction... still leaving those back two branches on to ensure life and vitality (I MIGHT be wrong, there )

 

[HorseloverFat]

(((Update Sasanqua)))

New growth! Almost as if it “heard“ us discussing. (Similar growth on all three)

 

[HorseloverFat]

 

[HorseloverFat]

(((Update)))
Roblee 1

Slight “encouragement” and new estimated planting angle.

(That lowest branch will be getting removed, eventually)

 

[HorseloverFat]

Roblee 2

Slight shaping “encouragement”

(I also don’t believe THIS specimen’s lowest branch is there “to stay”)

 

[HorseloverFat]

Roblee 3

“Encouragement”, also... those lowest back branches.. are also “an illusion”

 

[Harunobu]

It is so annoying when you prune an azalea, keep 2cm of a branch, and it doesn't backbud at all on it. For 1 and 2, you can grow out that side branch by a lot before you remove it. It is nowhere near competing in thickness with the main trunk. You can keep it and remove it just before it does start to compete (and then it will backbud on or near the cut)

Number 3 you will have quite some growing to do if you want to make it a single trunk. You can fatten up the trunk you want to keep by having as much leaves on it as possible. While at the same time, keeping the amount of foliage on the side trunks a lot lower/constant. And then when the now main trunk starts to shallow/envelop the smaller trunks, you can remove the smaller ones. Then you have turned the twin or triple trunk into a main trunk with a sacrificial branch. Takes more than 5 years to do so, though. Then ideally you get backbudding at the same height but a different spot from these large scars you now have. And you grow the main trunk even fatter, partially using those backbudding branches. If you let those grow half the size of the sidebranches you removed, then they will help scarring over but not cause the same size scar if you remove the secound bunch of sacrificial branches.

 

[HorseloverFat]

It is so annoying when you prune an azalea, keep 2cm of a branch, and it doesn't backbud at all on it. For 1 and 2, you can grow out that side branch by a lot before you remove it. It is nowhere near competing in thickness with the main trunk. You can keep it and remove it just before it does start to compete (and then it will backbud on or near the cut)

Number 3 you will have quite some growing to do if you want to make it a single trunk. You can fatten up the trunk you want to keep by having as much leaves on it as possible. While at the same time, keeping the amount of foliage on the side trunks a lot lower/constant. And then when the now main trunk starts to shallow/envelop the smaller trunks, you can remove the smaller ones. Then you have turned the twin or triple trunk into a main trunk with a sacrificial branch. Takes more than 5 years to do so, though. Then ideally you get backbudding at the same height but a different spot from these large scars you now have. And you grow the main trunk even fatter, partially using those backbudding branches. If you let those grow half the size of the sidebranches you removed, then they will help scarring over but not cause the same size scar if you remove the secound bunch of sacrificial branches.

Thank you!

I will take this into account from now on..

(The lowest back branches mentioned shoot straight out of the back and aren’t really visible at the trunk whatsoever.. they ARE jettisoning into the “background” space, though)
So for number three.. a single trunk is definitely NOT what my aim is.

 

[Harunobu]

Oh, I see you said 'lowest back branches'. Since this azalea has no satsuki blood, I would predict that it does not backbud naturally without pruning. Many satsuki would backbud in late summer on hard wood that is exposed to sunlight.

This cultivar seems to grow out only a few new buds that grow quite quickly upon being pruned. So that means that if you want different buds on old wood, you have to prune and be lucky again at some point. It might be tricky to get it to do so. Which may mean that your best bet with these Roblee ones is actually not to try.

Which for 1 and 2 may be an argument to keep those low branches around because if you clip them off, you can't be sure you will get a new one exactly where you want it. So far, it only seems to backbud once twice near the cutting surface of the branch you cut.

To my (slighly odd) azalea bonsai aesthetics, if is always best to have a first branch that is really low. I dislike the look of a bald lower trunk. So if you agree, don't prune off those lowest branches you have right now until you have something better (namely somehow a new branch from backbudding at a better spot).

On No.3, the leftmost trunk, at the Y-split. I feel you can't keep both. I think I would remove the lower branch at the Y-split in favour of the upper one. But no hurry with that. Can be done next spring or 2022.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Thank you thank you thank you!

It’s true that those specimens WITH those lower branches you mentioned are amazing when executed correctly.. I will still figure them into hypothetical design ideas!

I was also feeling this way about that split.. (on 3) I’m glad YOU brought it up, as well!

 

[Harunobu]

Hmm, I am wondering now about the transition between your old wood and your new buds. Ideally, you want to go from a thicker old wood branch to two new thinner shoots. But every time you got one. And I don't think there is a way to get a second one to pair the shoots up (I think you did get 2 on one branch). So that kind of means that these shoots will have to be cut down by a lot so the new shoots bud back and fork into 2 shoots. But then you have this awkward transition between first the old wood thick branch. Then it changes into a new thin shoot (the ones you have now). And then after 1-2cm, those shoots split up into 2 new shoots (which you don't have right now). Then you do have an increase in ramification as branches get thinner. But I wonder how the transition in branch thickness will look.

 

[HorseloverFat]

I am planning on setting some lower movement into the Camellias...

My question is;

Given that they just were repotted in spring, should I wait to prune, also.
Or still prune back to 2/3 leaves like recommended...

Or does this not matter much considering I probably won’t be using many of the existing “top branches” in my final designs?

 

[HorseloverFat]

(((Update))) Roblee(s)

 

[HorseloverFat]

(((Update))) Sasanqua(s)

(Looks like a marigold starting back there)

 

[HorseloverFat]

Out of the hole!

 

[Carol 83]

Out of the hole!
View attachment 359948

Are you not worried about more cold weather? It's only March 11 and even here way south of you we have have hard frosts in April sometimes.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Well.. the hole is colder right now than the apocalypse area.. they were frozen solid when I brought em out.. soooo i’ll be stepping these when it gets below 30 at night.. they’ll go under tables otherwise... I’m not worried about the sasanquas.. they are zone 5.. so i think i’m”out if the woods”.. but I will be careful! Thank you!

 

[HorseloverFat]

Alsooooo.... my set-up MAAAY have been ABOUT to make accessing “the hole” impossible!