Deciduous Azalea Techniques

[Brim Gribley]

Brim, I don't think that's deciduous Azalea either. Did it keep any leaves overwinter?

Oh,you’re right it did, to tell you the truth I’m not even sure what variety it is. Well you helped narrow that down a little bit Underdog Thanks again.

 

[Eckhoffw]

One more shot at a “Lights” collection hybrid deciduous azalea. My first (white lights) clump suddenly died on me after 2 years of great progress. I’m not sure what happened.
Last year I had 2 ‘crimson lights’ get devastated by saw fly.

This time ‘rosy lights.’ A spontaneous Costco purchase. 20$? Ok fine, another shot.

More base under the soil.

 

[shinmai]

Ooh, those will be pretty when they open! Be sure to treat those basal cuts with Top Jin and then cut paste. That structure has lots of potential.

 

[Eckhoffw]

Following up here with a question.:
Has anyone been successful with a real hard chop on their deciduous azalea? Like one that removes all leaves?
This one currently. After flowering, I was thinking of doing this:
Or, of course I could just let it grow out and thicken, but those straight sections are stiff and un-wireable.
Eventually, they will need to go. So I’d like to keep the small growth that can be wired and ditch all the rest.

Thoughts?

 

[KiwiPlantGuy]

Hi,
Since they are part of the greater Rhodo family you should have no trouble with back budding and would compact your design nicely. Probably won’t get flowers straight away, but a small price.
It seems unbelievable that a 20 foot Rhododendron can be cut down to basically a stump with no troubles, so no worries here.
Love the colour btw.
Charles

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

I haven’t done quite a full chop, but when received my azalea (northern lights - golden lights) had suffered greatly with the summer heat last year and had mostly crisped leaves. I cut back pretty severely as it was a larger nursery bush in burlap bag at the time (August) and it still back budded aggressively at basically 100% of the cut locations. I then did a second round of cutbacks this spring before leafing out - same thing. First photo is initial cutback in august. I have yet to get any dieback from any cut I’ve made and almost all lead to new budding.

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Well I believe it’s post-bloom trim time for many normal evergreen azalea, but I have no idea how to trim a deciduous azalea. Remove some of leaves at the end of branches? Cut back new shoots with more than 2 nodes with leaves to two to try to induce back budding further down the branch? Any tips? I’m out having a late breakfast after going to a concert till 4 AM but I’ll post some pics of my azalea in question in a bit.

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Well I believe it’s post-bloom trim time for many normal evergreen azalea, but I have no idea how to trim a deciduous azalea. Remove some of leaves at the end of branches? Cut back new shoots with more than 2 nodes with leaves to two to try to induce back budding further down the branch? Any tips? I’m out having a late breakfast after going to a concert till 4 AM but I’ll post some pics of my azalea in question in a bit.

As promised - Golden Lights 9 months from nursery material.

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

 

[Shogun610]

rhododendron arborescens, smooth azalea.. white to pink with red stamens.. this is a native to north eastern seaboard.
I cut it back low to primary movement a few weeks ago . And now it’s responding nicely
. I wonder if to control the internode length deciduous techniques of partial defoliation or pinching works .. additionally cutting off flowers until it’s more refined to free up energy. I plan on keeping this and developing as a shohin ,, putting in kanuma next spring as well.

 

[SandSquid]

Posting here after another member pointed me this way. I just read through this entire thread and I’m still a little confused, but that’s more due to the fact I have zero experience with azaleas in general, let alone a deciduous one. So, i apologize ahead of time if I ask questions that had already been answered.

So my wife bought this ‘Exbury’ azalea last spring and then it just sat in the front yard in its nursery pot, up against the fence, and never got planted. Somewhere along the line the plastic nursery pot split open, exposing the root ball. I decided today to slip it into another pot for winter protection, and my wife said I could go ahead and keep it for bonsai if I wanted. I don’t know anything about these rhododendron hybrid azaleas (see pic below for the tag). It was also labeled “Azalea northern lights yellow,” which I’m assuming describes the flowers. The trunk isn’t very interesting as it stands right now, but there may be hope through radical pruning and chopping. I may even keep it as a multi trunk tre. The remaining leaves don’t seem very big, so maybe they’ll do alright reducing? There are a lot of good buds on its branches, including some down in the lower parts of the trunk. I don’t know the Difference between a leaf bud and a flower bud.
I guess I could use some advice on what to do here…

obviously I would like to cut it way down, but I think I read here that that could interfere with flowering if not done right?

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Flower buds are set in the summer/ fall. Those large buds are flowers, the much smaller ones are leaves. The northern lights series is a set of azaleas grown to be extremely cold hardy (down to -35 or -40 I believe). I have a northern lights “golden lights” myself I’m trying to play with. I wouldn’t chop now - you’ll lose all flowers. I think the best time to cut back is either spring and sacrifice the flowers, or after blooming.

 

[SandSquid]

Flower buds are set in the summer/ fall. Those large buds are flowers, the much smaller ones are leaves. The northern lights series is a set of azaleas grown to be extremely cold hardy (down to -35 or -40 I believe). I have a northern lights “golden lights” myself I’m trying to play with. I wouldn’t chop now - you’ll lose all flowers. I think the best time to cut back is either spring and sacrifice the flowers, or after blooming.

For sure not going to chop now, and thanks for the clarification on the buds. if I wait until after blooming this spring/summer to cut back, will the tree do alright in autumn/winter having been cut back so hard only a couple months prior? Only asking because these are deciduous and usually we chop deciduous trees much earlier than that. I’d like to chop waaaay back and try to work around the long-node issue discussed throughout this thread. Unless I misunderstood.
Thanks again!

 

[shinmai]

Sorry, but no. You want to cut back in late December/early January. Northern lights is a late bloomer, like sometimes late July into early August—absolutely not the right time for a major cut. You can prune away the small, weak shoots any time, but this is best done in fall. For even minor cuts, 1/8” or bigger, use Top Jin to seal, and then cut paste when the Top Jin has thoroughly dried. You also need to get it out of that soil—repotting is a February projecto

 

[SandSquid]

Sorry, but no. You want to cut back in late December/early January. Northern lights is a late bloomer, like sometimes late July into early August—absolutely not the right time for a major cut. You can prune away the small, weak shoots any time, but this is best done in fall. For even minor cuts, 1/8” or bigger, use Top Jin to seal, and then cut paste when the Top Jin has thoroughly dried. You also need to get it out of that soil—repotting is a February projecto

So cut back in late December and repot in feb? I assume that includes root work also.
there seems to be a lot of different perspectives on how to handle these guys.
I’ll look into Top Jin, see what it’s all about.

thanks!

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Sorry, but no. You want to cut back in late December/early January. Northern lights is a late bloomer, like sometimes late July into early August—absolutely not the right time for a major cut. You can prune away the small, weak shoots any time, but this is best done in fall. For even minor cuts, 1/8” or bigger, use Top Jin to seal, and then cut paste when the Top Jin has thoroughly dried. You also need to get it out of that soil—repotting is a February projecto

Thanks for the corrections

Sorry, but no. You want to cut back in late December/early January. Northern lights is a late bloomer, like sometimes late July into early August—absolutely not the right time for a major cut. You can prune away the small, weak shoots any time, but this is best done in fall. For even minor cuts, 1/8” or bigger, use Top Jin to seal, and then cut paste when the Top Jin has thoroughly dried. You also need to get it out of that soil—repotting is a February projecto

So cut back in late December and repot in feb? I assume that includes root work also.
there seems to be a lot of different perspectives on how to handle these guys.
I’ll look into Top Jin, see what it’s all about.

thanks!

No I was wrong with the cutback timing - I was mixing up Japanese azalea trimming (after bloom - in spring) with the deciduous (bloom in summer). I’m not sure I’d cut as early as December-January, I think I did around March this past year here in MA. I also did the top Jin/paste on all cuts. Note though that you will lose the flowers wherever you cut back in spring. I did have a second flush of growth after July cuts that hardened around October, but I’m not sure that’s advisable to do.

 

[Leprous Garden]

Thanks for the corrections


No I was wrong with the cutback timing - I was mixing up Japanese azalea trimming (after bloom - in spring) with the deciduous (bloom in summer). I’m not sure I’d cut as early as December-January, I think I did around March this past year here in MA. I also did the top Jin/paste on all cuts. Note though that you will lose the flowers wherever you cut back in spring. I did have a second flush of growth after July cuts that hardened around October, but I’m not sure that’s advisable to do.

You can't generalize all deciduous azaleas like this though. Many of the East US natives bloom in Spring (r. periclymenoides, r. calendulaceum), about the same as rhodies. Some are ecen earlier, before any keaves appear like r. mucronulatum, r. 'schlipenbachii'. Make sure you know your cultivar so you can do your pruning right!

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Thanks for the corrections


No I was wrong with the cutback timing - I was mixing up Japanese azalea trimming (after bloom - in spring) with the deciduous (bloom in summer). I’m not sure I’d cut as early as December-January, I think I did around March this past year here in MA. I also did the top Jin/paste on all cuts.

You can't generalize all deciduous azaleas like this though. Many of the East US natives bloom in Spring (r. periclymenoides, r. calendulaceum), about the same as rhodies. Some are ecen earlier, before any keaves appear like r. mucronulatum, r. 'schlipenbachii'. Make sure you know your cultivar so you can do your pruning right!

True but in this particular case I think the northern lights do tend to bloom later, at least near me. Long story short it seems like late-winter/early spring or after flowering seem to be appropriate pruning times, and which one you choose is somewhat down to the variety of deciduous.

 

[SandSquid]

Taking all this in, it would seem that for this particular type of deciduous azalea I should really consider doing any heavy pruning after the bloom is complete and when the flowers are wilting. That way there's a better chance of the cut branch growing a new bud in order to avoid a non-flowering following year.

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

Yeah if you want to always maximize flower production you won’t want to prune in spring, but I think during development on flowering trees in general flowers are often sacrificed for branch and trunk development. I think it’s a trade off.