Glaucus
Omono
This was one of the first azaleas that I bought back in 2012, 'Violetta' (Dutch Kurume Kerkhoff/Multiflorum hybrid, not Glenn Dale).
And I have been growing it out in full ground for a while now.
Sadly, I do not have a lot of before and after pictures of all pruning I did. Somehow, those got lost. Which is why I am posting now, so they don't get lost again (assuming this place is still here in 5 or 10 years, hopefully).
I selected this one because it was a nursery plant with somewhat of an uniform trunk.
Spring 2012:
Actually, it had some twin trunk action going on. So Initially, I decided to keep the dominant two trunks and to try to grow the base fat to prevent reverse taper.
You can see that besides the two-trunk split at the soil level, the dominant trunk has two areas with potential reverse taper if left unpruned.
It recovered from that initial pruning in a pot. But because it wasn't growing rapidly and because I wanted this one to have a sizable trunk way down the road, I decided to plant it in the full ground. This must have been 2014 or 2015.
After 1 or 2 years in a pot with mediocre growth, and 1 year in the ground, I believe in the second or third full growing season in the full ground, it started to grow really vigorously. Including backbudding at the base of the trunk.
At this point, it still had the smaller twin trunk, but by pruning that one back the main tree had become way more dominant. At some point I pruned back the twin trunk to almost nothing. And then finally, it was completely removed.
This resulted in even more backbudding at the base, which I let grow freely for a year.
Then jump to 2020. The total height now was significant, as every year I selected one shoot to become the leader/apex. Often, I would keep a twin shoot, but keep it weaker. You can kind of see it in this branch structure.
The base had now fattened up a little bit. Not significant even in 8 years of growing. You can see some pruning scars and backbudding in the next picture, where the twin trunk is now completely gone.
Near the end of the 2020 growing season, it looked like this:
Letting all these shoots grow some more, here in September 2021
I believe I reduced the amount of shoots somewhat in 2022, but no pictures.
Then I have this hazy picture of March 2023, before I did some serious pruning:
This March 2023. I really reduced the amount of branches and shoots. But more importantly, I pruned out a long section of the apex. I decided to chop out the apex to try to grow it more sideways. And this top section was too long and straight to be used in a final design anyway. If you look along the entire trunk, there is kinda a bit of movement and natural-looking sections. But then it would become long and straight because that section grew rapidly as a dominant leader.
Now, mid May 2023, I can see the response to the pruning.
This is the tree with the chop on the top:
There are still plenty of branches to fatten up to create more taper at the base. But maybe removing the shade will give me more backbudding in 2024. Or maybe right away.
There are some pruning scars. The branches that I left can fatten up quite a bit more without leaving major scars when I eventually remove them. And there is 1 new shoot growing from the back just above the soil level. Some other new buds I already removed.
For some of the branches higher up, I reduced to 2 shoots:
Notice the reddish extrusions just before the node where I pruned? Those are new buds. Note that I also removed almost all flower buds. This may also have contributed to these buds growing there. The buds come from a shoot that grew in 2021. And they are just below where the flower bud sat in 2022.
Also, the apex which I completely chopped is budding back:
The fatter section pointing towards the viewer is probably what I will remove, because it is too fat for the apex. But I did not cut it flush off yet. By leaving 5cm for both sections, I give more area for backbudding.
Just some new shoots growing on that fat section will help keep the flow of nutrients going from the roots all the way to the apex, preventing any dieback. And this section will not get fatter any time soon.
Additionally, if I prune off the fat section flush, and somehow I also don't get backbudding on the thinner section, I might get a dead apex. This way, one acted like a backup. Ideally, I would have kept a pair of leaves on one of them, to be 100% sure there is no dieback.
But that area was too bald already, because I had not pruned it and it grew so vigorously.
At my measure, I can reduce this even more. and see if I can create some type of crown for a future bonsai design, while flatting up the trunk even more.
The major lesson for me is actually that even with a fast growing (non-satsuki) cultivar, and conservative pruning. This trunk still does not amount to much. It may need 10 or 15 more years.
But there is some taper there already. And with directed pruning, you can achieve quite a bit.
And it definitely seems that once you prune, you set the stage for future backbudding. Once you have pruned a section and it will backbud there in response to said pruning, it will keep backbudding in that same general area in the future, even if you have not pruned.
And this even though it is a kurume which does not normally fill out bald unshaded branches with new buds spontaneously (which most satsuki will do).
I did not dig this one up. So I have no good idea on the roots or nebari. Which is maybe also a mistake. Maybe in 3 to 5 years, I need to prune back both the roots and some shoots and see if that can improve the development of the nebari.
And then maybe I will also wire downwards some branches to be part of the final design.
And I have been growing it out in full ground for a while now.
Sadly, I do not have a lot of before and after pictures of all pruning I did. Somehow, those got lost. Which is why I am posting now, so they don't get lost again (assuming this place is still here in 5 or 10 years, hopefully).
I selected this one because it was a nursery plant with somewhat of an uniform trunk.
Spring 2012:
Actually, it had some twin trunk action going on. So Initially, I decided to keep the dominant two trunks and to try to grow the base fat to prevent reverse taper.
You can see that besides the two-trunk split at the soil level, the dominant trunk has two areas with potential reverse taper if left unpruned.
It recovered from that initial pruning in a pot. But because it wasn't growing rapidly and because I wanted this one to have a sizable trunk way down the road, I decided to plant it in the full ground. This must have been 2014 or 2015.
After 1 or 2 years in a pot with mediocre growth, and 1 year in the ground, I believe in the second or third full growing season in the full ground, it started to grow really vigorously. Including backbudding at the base of the trunk.
At this point, it still had the smaller twin trunk, but by pruning that one back the main tree had become way more dominant. At some point I pruned back the twin trunk to almost nothing. And then finally, it was completely removed.
This resulted in even more backbudding at the base, which I let grow freely for a year.
Then jump to 2020. The total height now was significant, as every year I selected one shoot to become the leader/apex. Often, I would keep a twin shoot, but keep it weaker. You can kind of see it in this branch structure.
The base had now fattened up a little bit. Not significant even in 8 years of growing. You can see some pruning scars and backbudding in the next picture, where the twin trunk is now completely gone.
Near the end of the 2020 growing season, it looked like this:
Letting all these shoots grow some more, here in September 2021
I believe I reduced the amount of shoots somewhat in 2022, but no pictures.
Then I have this hazy picture of March 2023, before I did some serious pruning:
This March 2023. I really reduced the amount of branches and shoots. But more importantly, I pruned out a long section of the apex. I decided to chop out the apex to try to grow it more sideways. And this top section was too long and straight to be used in a final design anyway. If you look along the entire trunk, there is kinda a bit of movement and natural-looking sections. But then it would become long and straight because that section grew rapidly as a dominant leader.
Now, mid May 2023, I can see the response to the pruning.
This is the tree with the chop on the top:
There are still plenty of branches to fatten up to create more taper at the base. But maybe removing the shade will give me more backbudding in 2024. Or maybe right away.
There are some pruning scars. The branches that I left can fatten up quite a bit more without leaving major scars when I eventually remove them. And there is 1 new shoot growing from the back just above the soil level. Some other new buds I already removed.
For some of the branches higher up, I reduced to 2 shoots:
Notice the reddish extrusions just before the node where I pruned? Those are new buds. Note that I also removed almost all flower buds. This may also have contributed to these buds growing there. The buds come from a shoot that grew in 2021. And they are just below where the flower bud sat in 2022.
Also, the apex which I completely chopped is budding back:
The fatter section pointing towards the viewer is probably what I will remove, because it is too fat for the apex. But I did not cut it flush off yet. By leaving 5cm for both sections, I give more area for backbudding.
Just some new shoots growing on that fat section will help keep the flow of nutrients going from the roots all the way to the apex, preventing any dieback. And this section will not get fatter any time soon.
Additionally, if I prune off the fat section flush, and somehow I also don't get backbudding on the thinner section, I might get a dead apex. This way, one acted like a backup. Ideally, I would have kept a pair of leaves on one of them, to be 100% sure there is no dieback.
But that area was too bald already, because I had not pruned it and it grew so vigorously.
At my measure, I can reduce this even more. and see if I can create some type of crown for a future bonsai design, while flatting up the trunk even more.
The major lesson for me is actually that even with a fast growing (non-satsuki) cultivar, and conservative pruning. This trunk still does not amount to much. It may need 10 or 15 more years.
But there is some taper there already. And with directed pruning, you can achieve quite a bit.
And it definitely seems that once you prune, you set the stage for future backbudding. Once you have pruned a section and it will backbud there in response to said pruning, it will keep backbudding in that same general area in the future, even if you have not pruned.
And this even though it is a kurume which does not normally fill out bald unshaded branches with new buds spontaneously (which most satsuki will do).
I did not dig this one up. So I have no good idea on the roots or nebari. Which is maybe also a mistake. Maybe in 3 to 5 years, I need to prune back both the roots and some shoots and see if that can improve the development of the nebari.
And then maybe I will also wire downwards some branches to be part of the final design.
) and only got into bonsai about 5 years ago..so I'm only at the beginning of my bonsai education ..but Ive always loved Azaleas...I think they're fascinating shrubs. How can you not love the incredible flower display they produce.
