Satsuki azalea? Looking for help ID'ing it, and next steps advice

[substratum]

With Mothers Day recently passing, our local Publix grocery stores had many small, lovely, and absolutely bloom-covered azaleas, which I was told by the flower lady were Satsuki varieties. They had the variety pictured below (flower about 1.25" across), some with a scarlet double or regular flower, some with a salmon double or regular flower - all small leaf, 1-1.5" flower size. I've not been able to find any easy to navigate site to identify the variety - if anyone recognizes it, please let me know. I picked this one up yesterday on the clearance rack.

It looks like there may be as many as six plants in the pot. When it's finished blooming (still some buds on it that I'd like to see unfurled), I'm thinking about separating them to pot individually in an azalea mix, to let them recover and fatten up for a couple of years in pots in a sort of nursery area of my property. From a future bonsai specimen standpoint, is there a downside to doing that? Any tips? Related question - is this a futile pursuit on this particular plant?

 

[substratum]

Someone on FB ID'd it for me. Apparently, not Satsuki.

Indian azalea (Rhododendron simsii 'Sachsenstern')

https://www.botanikfoto.com/en/deta...a-rhododendron-simsii-sachsenstern-410010.php

Here's a more recent, pic.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Excellent find. Caution. R. simsii and it's hybrids are NOT hardy, they will not tolerate hard freezing, and are only marginally frost hardy. But you are in Florida, so you only have a month or so of cold nights.

Otherwise these can be treated like Satsuki. Because you let it bloom out completely, meaning that the tree has depleted much of it's carbohydrate reserves (energy), remove the late straggler flower buds. Cut off old flowers, make sure no seed pods remain. Then give a mild dose of fertilizer. Let azalea recover a couple weeks before repotting. Let it rebuild a little energy first. If you find more flower buds keep removing them, until after it has recovered after repotting.

Separating those trunks will be traumatic. You are going to rip off the majority of roots. Best would be to pick the 2 best trunks, and just sacrifice the rest. Then keep in shade to recover.

Have your potting media and pots ready before you start. I use either 100% kanuma, or a perlite/kanuma blend. I have also used a pumice, fir bark, sifted peat moss blend, where pumice is about 50%.

In the past, I've cut off all but one trunk flush at ground level rather than tear up the root system and have no survivors.

 

[substratum]

Leo - thank you for the counsel. In that last paragraph where you cite cutting all trunks but one, and having no survivors, are you saying that even the one died, or that all the cut trunks died?

I’m in North Florida, so we do get some hard freezes up here. We had a solid week early this year where it barely rose above freezing... bird baths remained frozen the whole time. Tough life, I know, but as far as weather goes, a bit of an anomaly.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I mangled the language.
When I cut flush all but one trunk, the one survived and thrived. Repotting was easier, because I was saving roots for just one trunk.

When I tried to separate and keep all of the trunks (usually 4 trunks) I have had problems, once all 4 died, usually only one or two make it. In trying to get enough roots for each trunk, you often don't have enough for any of them.

If you do try to save all the trunks, treat them like cuttings, until growth shows they have rooted. Shade and if needed, if leaves wilt, put tree in plastic bag for humidity.

 

[just.wing.it]

I tried playing with some of them last year...
They are beautiful, surely...
I gave them a major cut back, and root work, they backbudded all over, then croaked...
Too much root reduction, I think...

 

[substratum]

Several weeks before Mother's Day, our Publix grocery stores start stocking several varieties of these small leaf azaleas, and I could kick myself for not picking a few up when there were more to choose from. Some of the flowers were double-pinks, some were double-white, and all were lovely.