Thank you sir! I just acquired the tree as a save because it was infested with lace bug and the prior owner lost interest in it. My goal for this year is to save and get the strength back. Then reassess next spring to see if it will be ready for a full repot because it is currently in what looks like heavy clay...Does it have any of the narrow flower petals? Kinsai will revert to its mother(?) flower, which looks like yours. You have to prune those branches off to preserve the desirable thin-petaled flowering branches.
Kinsai bark will take a reddish hue in late winter as well as an indicator.
Though, to @rockm point, impossible to positively ID cultivar by photos if you don’t have the provenance.
Is the 2nd photo not detail enough? Should I take a photo just focusing on one flower?These are bad pictures. I cannot even see if there are 5 stamens. But it is not Kinsai or Chinsai.
RockM is wrong. I can confirm many varieties. As can others. Just depends on how unique the variety is. MiniSatsuki even holds a quiz on this and many people give correct answers.
But he would be right that it is bad to relabel a variety based on what someone on the interwebs says. Many people also do bad IDs.
Should I focus on one flower? The leaves are mostly infested with lace bugs and the color is way off. But I will post pictures once the new flush pushes out.Close photos of the flowers and leaves are actually needed to make the identification easier...![]()
Closest I can get without losing focus.Yes focus on one flower....and some others, if they are different.
The amount of stamen and the shape of the leaves both are a great help in identification.
You weren’t kidding about the lace bug. Those leaves are eaten up pretty bad. Hopefully you get it under control and don’t allow them to spread. They can be persistent.Closest I can get without losing focus.
Ok, but I'm not really completely wrong. Many people can and will provide bad info online. "Experts" can be a dime a dozen online. It is very hard to ID who knows what they're talking about and who doesn't. Best solution for anyone in this situation is to go back to the source and start from there. In the end a definitive ID is probably not gonna happen. I think the OP has the right attitude in seeing that the azalea has beautiful flowers and a pretty good trunk on it and in the end, ID is kind of secondary.These are bad pictures. I cannot even see if there are 5 stamens. But it is not Kinsai or Chinsai.
RockM is wrong. I can confirm many varieties. As can others. Just depends on how unique the variety is. MiniSatsuki even holds a quiz on this and many people give correct answers.
But he would be right that it is bad to relabel a variety based on what someone on the interwebs says. Many people also do bad IDs.
I think you may be onto something with this being an indica and not a satsuki. Im not an azalea person (but I have purchased and priced a few) The size alone for an imported satsuki would make this plant worth about $1000 or more here. Giving such a valuable plant away would be difficult for me at leastYou are not completely wrong in the same way as people who ID a pink azalea using the name of just some pink azalea cultivar. They got the right idea, but make an incorrect definite statement.
As for this one, I suspect it is some Southern indica azalea that has been in the trade for a long time there. The rounded leaves and upright growth are different from most satsuki used for bonsai in Japan. But it still has 5 stamens. And it can't be R.kaempferi influenced because it is blooming now. But candidates like Duc de Rohan and Pride of Dorking are all not correct for this one either. So I donno.