My 'Ben Oki' azalea

[Si Nguyen]

Awesome thread! I love reading this over the years. I like how you are so focused on developing your trees. Really show what persistence can create. That's a beauty! I wish I could grow my azaleas like that.

 

[Cypress187]

Is that straight part bendable maybe? i heared azalea's have soft(er) wood.

 

[armetisius]

lovely

 

[Jester217300]

Is that straight part bendable maybe? i heared azalea's have soft(er) wood.

Not in the least. Azaleas have extremely brittle wood. You have to wire a juvenile shoot or nothing at all.

They can rot fairly quickly. Maybe that was what was implied by "soft"?

 

[Cypress187]

Not in the least. Azaleas have extremely brittle wood. You have to wire a juvenile shoot or nothing at all.
They can rot fairly quickly. Maybe that was what was implied by "soft"?

Yeah maybe, i thought that also ment it was easyier to bend.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

It's raining outside (of course, because it always rains on club meeting days; especially when I have a ton of gear to carry in), so the azalea is hanging out on the porch loaded down and blooming out!

 

[JudyB]

wow, blows my socks off every year...

 

[edprocoat]

Wow, just wow.

ed

 

[edprocoat]

I feed it like all my other trees, Plant-Tone cakes and regular doses of liquid fish fertilizer.

I bet the critters enjoy that too !

ed

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I bet the critters enjoy that too !

ed

Not really. The squirrels actually steer clear of the cakes. But the fish emulsion attracts bees & yellow jackets; so I try to do the fish feed in the evening.

 

[cmeg1]

Wow looks great!perfect way to brighten up a rain day.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Outdoor shot...

 

[Giga]

When I see this, jealousy comes to mind.....

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Maybe one last shot in some different light...

 

[barrosinc]

that is amazing... seriously.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

All cleaned up today...

 

[Eric Group]

Just curious... You ever thought about shortening he left pointing section of that smaller trunk? Mushroom it off at about half the height of the larger one maybe?

Wow! Look at all those blooms on the ground! I have a Kurume at home I plan on reworking tomorrow and all of his blooms will be removed then. Thank you for detailing the care of this species so well in this thread!

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Yeah, the whole thing is getting a bit puffy, and is due for a rather drastic prune job.

 

[barrosinc]

Brian, do you have any idea on what variety of kurume this is?

 

[erb.75]

how long do you leave the flowers on for usually? can you get it to last the whole summer?