Deciduous Azalea Techniques

[Leo in N E Illinois]

R. 'White Lights' buds are still tight, its only been in the 40's here, even though 5 miles west the temperatures were in the 60's, Lake effect.


'Soft Shimmer'
This one is going ahead and blooming, it came from a nursery, obviously a nursery in a warmer climate.

Flowers are a little different, Azalea normally have 5 petals or some even multiple of 5. 'Soft Shimmer' has many petals, and no discernable flower parts. So it is a small flower, and the flowers have lots of petals but no visible pistil or stamens. Could not detect a fragrance , but it is a chilly day. Maybe fragrant when the sun comes out.

 

[shinmai]

Northern Hi-lights

 

[MorddexxBonsai]

Finally waking up here. Nice to know the one I repotted to attempt neagari roots on survived the chop.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

'White Lights' still taking its sweet time.

 

[WWest]

@WWest
Welcome to the deciduous azalea thread. Yes, 'Millennium' counts as deciduous. Nice looking azalea. It probably is a single root system, deciduous types tend to form a cluster of trunks right at the soil line. A single cutting will push multiple buds. Nice. You window well is a good winter storage area. Though deciduous azalea are noted for exceptional hardiness. What zone (how cold) is 'Millennium' listed to be able to survive?

Thanks for your comments. According to Rhododendron web site they are hardy to -20 F. It’s growing leaves nicely and the buds remain on the plant. Supposedly later blooming so we’ll see. I am hoping to winter outside somehow because I need well for evergreen Azaleas I am working with. I need to be realistic about how many bonsais I can reasonably care for, but well you know...

 

[MorddexxBonsai]

Seems hard prune on this one was very successful at least 4 or 5 back buds on the thicker old wood I pruned down.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

'White Lights' will be open in the next few days.

 

[Eckhoffw]

White lights have come and gone.
when would you prune?

 

[coltranem]

My Gibraltar azalea didn't flower. Last year I pruned hardened growth back to two leaves and cut some larger leaves in half on June 15th. I did so minor cleanup in August but left most shoots alone. Only one flower bud was produced and it never opened. I didc re pot it in May so am thinking the tree wasn't as strong as possible will try something similar this year.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Why don't you just set it on fire now?

 

[0soyoung]

My Gibraltar azalea didn't flower. Last year I pruned hardened growth back to two leaves and cut some larger leaves in half on June 15th. I did so minor cleanup in August but left most shoots alone. Only one flower bud was produced and it never opened. I didc re pot it in May so am thinking the tree wasn't as strong as possible will try something similar this year.

I have a deciduous and an evergreen azalea that produced no (zero, 0) blooms this year. Neither has been repotted for at least 4 years. I have another deciduous that has some root problems, I believe, and it had a few blossoms, but a poor showing this year. All have grown vigorously so far this year. Meanwhile I had a bumper crop of flowers from the rhododendrons and azaleas in my landscape. Last year some weren't so good. It was a banner year for our Gibraltar which is kept as a landscape planting.

Some gardener's believe there is a bi-annual pattern to flowering. There are also scholarly papers that report on some unknown factor involved in flowering - more ramification = more tips, should mean more flowers, but it doesn't.

There are many still unsolved mysteries, and how to get more flowers (or eliminate them by means other than pruning) is among them.

Carry on
Make notes
Review your notes and any other info.

Its life.

 

[Forsoothe!]

In the landscape, and when the seed pods are not removed in a growing zone that is not as long as the native zone, the plant does not have the time to complete the entire growing cycle. The flower buds are produced after the seeds are ripened, and if the season is not long enough for that to conclude, no flower buds will be matured for opening the following spring.

In such cases the plant flowers every other year. Any year it doesn't flower, it has more than enough time to mature the first flush, have a modest second flush (in most cases) and set foliage & flower buds for the following spring. Removal of the seed pods immediately following flowering short-cuts the process and leaves lots of time for the plant to complete the yearly cycle.

 

[coltranem]

Why don't you just set it on fire now?

I think I missed typed. I repotted it last may and did the pruning last June. The reason I will try something similar this year is that the plant has not just been repotted unlike last year.


Leo I have log so hopefully I can track how the plant reacts.

 

[Underdog]

My Gibraltar azalea didn't flower. Last year I pruned hardened growth back to two leaves and cut some larger leaves in half on June 15th. I did so minor cleanup in August but left most shoots alone. Only one flower bud was produced and it never opened. I didc re pot it in May so am thinking the tree wasn't as strong as possible will try something similar this year.

I got nuthin on my Gib here either this year

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Learning how to get flowers predictably is the point of this thread. It is clear that what works for evergreen, tsutsusi type azaleas (the greater kurume & satsuki groups combined) do not work reliably for deciduous azalea. So this thread is to document what works. Photo of plants in bloom and documentation as to what was done to them the year previous is the key information here. Speculation as to why is not the emphasis. Technique & result is where I'd like this thead to be focused. So good results (blooming) or what was tried and resulted in no blooms are the important bits of information. Now I should stop typing and repot at least one of my 2 deciduous azalea.

 

[Harunobu]

Deciduous azaleas are quite different from evergreen azaleas. Deciduous azaleas natively occur in North America, some parts of Europe, China, Japan, and other parts of Asia. Your garden cultivar may be a hybrid from species from very different part of the world. When you think about when these continents separated, their evolutionary history was long ago separated and their last common ancestor was a long time ago. And even longer ago, the common ancestor of deciduous and evergreen azaleas.

Even making hybrids of deciduous and evergreen azaleas has been very very difficult. One goal is an evergreen plant with strong yellow flowers. And for this, we require the pigment genes from deciduous azaleas, but the plant habit of evergreens. And the species seem too distant to make the cross.

I don't grow any deciduous azaleas, let alone bonsai. So I am of extremely little help. And this is kind of pioneering territory in general.What should a deciduous azalea bonsai look like? I don't think anyone will say they know for sure.

But as to why the evergreen azalea doesn't bloom, I have never had an azalea not bloom that was mature enough. Even some cuttings bloom after 2 years. I do know of an azalea in my neighborhood (so someone elses garden) that sometimes doesn't bloom, or blooms poorly. But they may be pruning it late summer/early autumn. No idea what they are doing to their plant. You say 'not repotted for 4 years'. Now I think you should considering repotting your evergreen azalea next year (probably your deciduous azaele as well as I assume they are not that different in root systems, but I don't know). But repotting won't really affect flowering unless it was a traumatic repot that did damage. You don't mention when you prune, so I suggest it is either that or too much shade. If not those two and it is healthy, then that is quite a mystery and I would even suggest it might be a non/rarely-blooming cultivar like 'Saotome'.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

@Harunobu
The point of this thread is to collect in one thread techniques that work of deciduous azalea. Azalea hybrids where deciduous North American species influence is dominant. We are not discussing evergreen azalea at all. All hybrids being discussed here are hybrids where deciduous azalea traits dominate. There are many, many threads on evergreen azalea. Take discussion of evergreen azalea to one of those threads. We are also trying to avoid speculation without hands on experience here. If you have not tried any techniques or tried growing deciduous azalea derived from North American species, we really do not want the speculation without experience. Most of us have experience with satsuki and kurume azalea, we are not discussing those types here.

We are trying to document what actually works, and our failures when we have failures for our North American hybrid azaleas. They have a lot to offer, including colors like orange and yellow, fragrances and most important, winter hardiness far beyond anything you would experience in Netherlands. Some of the Northern Lights series of hybrids can flower after experiencing winter temperatures of -35 C. This is important for those of us in the northern tier of states in the USA and for our Canadian members.

I apologize if this note seems harsh, but I am trying to "police" this thread to keep it from getting cluttered up with satsuki information and or wild speculation without actual experience in deciduous azalea.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

'White Lights'
I don't know why, but the flowers are "wilting", they are not opening normally as I would have expected them to open. The buds should be turning to face out or up, but instead many buds are drooping down looking wilted. A few opened normal, I was able to smell the sweet, but light fragrance.

Could be the late freeze we had? I made no move to protect them. The media seems moist, possibly too wet, it is still in nursery potting mix. I'll give it a few more days to see if this changes. It has been cool here. 10 - 15 C, or 50 to 65 F, tomorrow will be our first "hot" day, at about 85 - 90 F or up to about 32 C.

 

[henrykiser]

'White Lights'
I don't know why, but the flowers are "wilting", they are not opening normally as I would have expected them to open. The buds should be turning to face out or up, but instead many buds are drooping down looking wilted. A few opened normal, I was able to smell the sweet, but light fragrance.

Could be the late freeze we had? I made no move to protect them. The media seems moist, possibly too wet, it is still in nursery potting mix. I'll give it a few more days to see if this changes. It has been cool here. 10 - 15 C, or 50 to 65 F, tomorrow will be our first "hot" day, at about 85 - 90 F or up to about 32 C.

To Me looks like they may still have some peeking up to do with some warmth and dappled sun...feel like they look healthy maybe just slowed down by the cold snap you mentioned?

 

[Harunobu]

Someone else asked why their evergreen azalea didn't bloom. That it.

If you are trying to 'police' your own thread, maybe don't do so by going after someone who did nothing of what you think the ' crime' is. And if I were as ' autistic' as you seem to think I am, I am still completely free to put a wall text on whatever I feel like posting, here in 'your' thread.

If this is somehow a problem to you. Ask a mod to split off the evergreen question to a new thread and then delete your post.