Telperion Farms fire Azalea

[mwar15]

This is a Satsuki Azalea “Go No Tsuk” it was acquired in April of this year from Telperion. It went through the fires in 2020 and hanging onto life. Talking to Kris it was from cuttings from imported trees.

it didn’t have much growth when I got it. It is root bound and has lots of dead branches.

I brought it home drilled some holes through the root mass to try and get some water into the mass. I kept it on the north side of my house.
a week later:

it pushed a lot of growth and was time to cut back some of the dead stuff and pull flower buds. I’m doing this to try and keep the energy in the tree and not waste energy into flower at this stage


the next step is to fertilize, keep pulling flower bits and get it healthy. It probably will get repotted next year.
I did take a bunch of cuttings:

 

[Lost2301]

Good job!!

 

[Paradox]

Nice. I agree with helping the tree to funnel energy into growth and recovery. Let it get strong again before you start working it

 

[mwar15]

Nice. I agree with helping the tree to funnel energy into growth and recovery. Let it get strong again before you start working it

I will.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Good job!
After looking at your images, I think you ought to get in and take out all the non essential sucker branches and trim the tree back to twos if you haven’t already..... this will let in more light to the interior. In fact you might even push the margins back a little to induce even more backbudding. There are a lot of long straight branches that will have to be taken back, so you might as well get it started now then later.
At some point, next year or a year later, you may want to consider taking everything back to the trunk and get the final form rocking.
cheers
DSD sends

 

[mwar15]

Good job!
After looking at your images, I think you ought to get in and take out all the non essential sucker branches and trim the tree back to twos if you haven’t already..... this will let in more light to the interior. In fact you might even push the margins back a little to induce even more backbudding. There are a lot of long straight branches that will have to be taken back, so you might as well get it started now then later.
At some point, next year or a year later, you may want to consider taking everything back to the trunk and get the final form rocking.
cheers
DSD sends

I was thinking about that when I was cutting out the dead stuff and took a little off but. You are right there are a few years of suckers and it’s very leggy.
I will give it a couple weeks. I just moved it on to my benches and more sun. I’ll see how it adapts.

 

[mwar15]

Repotted this guy this spring. I will cut flower buds again this year to help with back budding. It is already pushing new growth since the repot

 

[queenofsheba52]

Wow, what a difference you made with this fire survivor! It's very rewarding to 'help' a tree regain vigor, isn't it?

 

[AnutterBonsai]

amazing work!

 

[mwar15]

Let it bloom this year

 

[pixlus]

@mwar15 ,

Does the farm still have a web site? How do you order from them now, post fire?

thx