When to prune back winter hardy Azalea.

[Chub]

When is the best time to prune my Azalea back quite a bit.
http://www.thetreefarm.com/azalea-northern-lights

 

[0soyoung]

When is the best time to prune my Azalea back quite a bit.
http://www.thetreefarm.com/azalea-northern-lights

Azaleas are usually pruned after bloom.

 

[Harunobu]

Hard prune after they leave dormancy. But this one is deciduous. So I donno.

 

[Beng]

Like Osoyoung said after flowering.

 

[october]

The reason why it is recommended to prune after it flowers is so you can have flowers. If you prune before it flowers, you will not have any flowers. However, if your tree is in training, you would not want to keep the flowers anyway. You would want to remove them so the energy goes to branch and leaf growth. Early spring is agood time to trim and style azaleas that are in training or just starting training.

Rob

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

After flowering, as others stated. Kurumes bloom first, then grow. I let mine grow 5-6 nodes, then cut it back pretty hard in May, then let it go for the rest of the season:
http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?7466-My-Ben-Oki-azalea

If you're doing heavy pruning to get material started, I'd wait until early spring.