Azalea 04
Satsuki Azalea ‘Chinzan’ [Rhododendron satsuki ‘Chinzan’]

April 1, 2025. 2024 was a great one for this tree. The kanuma must have been what it needed. I learned a lot about taking care of azaleas from Marge at the 2024 show, just listening to her talk about how she handles her azaleas. So I put a lot of that into practice during the year, and I was looking forward to a great year for 2025. Then I missed it when I brought my trees in during the early freeze we had in late 2024. Dammit! It lived, but barely. I’ve cut it back, and I’ll have to cut it back even more. At least it’s alive. I can’t even think about repotting it this year.

Maya 26, 2024

MAY 26,2024. I repotted this one, using a cheap deep pot I’d had another azalea in originally. It was empty after I slip-potted the burning bush into a bigger plastic pot. Most of that on the other page. I didn’t do much to the azalea’s roots. I found it was in a general mish-mash of soil components, and most of the pieces were too large. I put it in all Kanuma, leaving most of the root ball intact. I want to watch it closely this summer and see how it does. I’m hoping for a lot of growth.

April 21, 2024

MAY 22, 2024. I have just let this one grow on its own for a while. Too long, actually. I’ve trimmed it up a good bit, and I’ll repot it next week. I’ putting this update in now so I’ll remember what I learned listening to Marge answer questions from someone at the show last weekend.

Don’t let it bloom fully every year. Once every three years is enough. Let it grow in the other years. In a blooming year, remember that Satsukis send out new shoots before the buds open. Cut those new shoots off so all the nergy into the blossoms. It sure worked for her, because the entire canopy was covered in wide=opn perfect blossoms. Stunning.

The photo in this paragraph was made last month, when my tree was just opening its blossoms.

September 18, 2022. This little gem needs to be repotted in 2023, because it’s been untampered with for too long. It’s growing well, and looking good, even at this time of year, but it could be growing more. Before winter sets in I should review branching and get rid of some of the extra shoots at the ends of last years branches. Baby steps.

2018.October 16. Like the other one, this one needs a different soil mix. I trimmed it up a good bit, but like the larger azalea, this one did OK but didn’t grow any. Dammit.

2018.March 10. I repotted it yesterday in the Byron Myrick oval. I hate to do it, but I think I have to remove buds this year so the thing can spend all its energy growing out some.

2017. August 30. This one bloomed like a champ back in April. Unfortunately it was a little too early and the poor thing looked shaggy by the time the show rolled around. I had worked hard on it, removing extra growth in the fall and winter, and doing some bud pruning getting ready for spring, so being unable to show it was a disappointment. But–that’s the way it goes, I guess. Kind of like farming on a small scale. Since May I spent some time thinning new growth, and I actually pruned some of the major branches again. I want a more consistent dome with some “bird space” in it.

PLANS: Right now I need to do another round of removing extra shoots. Next spring I want to put it in Byron’s pot that the Azalea No. 1 is in now. Not sure yet what I’ll do with it.

2016. Fall. Took it to a Saturday workshop and got some opinions on removing part of the top. Went home and did it. Broke the cutting up into smaller pieces and stuck them around in various places to see if they would root. Still wish I had a nice oval pot for it to live in.

2016. June. Most of the buds dropped off, but I did get a few blossoms. Sort of sweet rose-pink color, plain azalea blossom, no mottling in the throat or anything. After blooms faded I cleaned it up and wired a few places, trying to get a tighter shape on the whole thing.

2016. Spring. I repotted it in late March, which was way too early. It was full of buds when I got it, but this kind of treatment isn’t what it wanted, I’m afraid. Not only that, I had to do a lot of root pruning to get it in the new pot, and it was larger than the one I thought I could use. I wish it weren’t a rectangle, because I just like to see flowering plants in ovals.

Next time!

2015. Fall some time. I bought this one on the FaceBook 99-cent Auction page, I think. Maybe it was the regular Bonsai Auction page on FaceBook. Either way — I was pleased to get it. It came from the Bonsai Learning Center in North Carolina and it wasn’t very expensive at all. I like the really small leaves. Tiny leaves are a characteristic of chinzan, I think. And the base looks just right.

Photos