Azalea dying??? Winter Australia

Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Hi everyone, I am new to bonsais and was gifted a Satsuki Azalea bonsai on Valentines Day. The tree is a cutting and I have had it for about 4 months. It is currently winter in Australia and I am not sure if my tree is dead or not. The leaves have started to go brown and the stems are dry and brittle. It gets watered properly about twice a week, not over watered or under watered.

During the warmer months, I had it outside for the majority of the day, not in direct sunlight but would bring it in when it got too hot.

Around the middle of April when it started to get colder, I started bringing it outside and it seemed okay and then when it started to go into winter, the tree started to go brown and brittle. It has been outside during winter so that it could go into dormancy as that is what I was told it would do. Could it be like this because it is winter or have I somehow killed it? :(

I have attached a photo of how it looks like now and would love ANY advice possible.

Thanks heaps.
 

Attachments

  • 95A5EEA7-3446-421C-9111-622DF0743A9B.jpeg
    95A5EEA7-3446-421C-9111-622DF0743A9B.jpeg
    157.4 KB · Views: 36
Its dead. Looks like root problems :(
 
Very few places in Australia that would be too cold for satsuki in winter. Mine stay outside all winter with temps down to -5C

Azaleas can be temperamental at the best of times. A few of mine have just up and died for no apparent reason so maybe this is not something caused by your care or location.
They do get attacked by azalea lace bugs which are usually hard to see but the telltale signs are leaves turning silvery then brown. Lace bug does not usually kill a tree but might just help push an already stressed tree past the point of no return.
It is also possible that it got a bit sick of constant changes of position. Every time you move a tree the leaves need to readjust to the new conditions. I noticed that my trees grew less well for a few weeks whenever I moved them to a new position so mostly I try to leave them in one place wherever possible now.
Many trees have made miraculous recoveries so I would keep looking after your tree until well into spring in the hope it will sprout new shoots at some stage.
 
Back
Top Bottom