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Just wanted to say in regard to my new Azalea I have potted on the other day in Ericaceous soil, I can see flowers dropping. It has been bad weather here with torrential rain the last day or two and that may have exasperated that fact. But I would love to know if it is normal for an Azalea to have their flowers for such a short time?

You should remover the flowers when you repot. You will see the benefit next year. prune hard it will back bud easily. It is usual to only allow the flowers to open and stay for a few days as they take a huge amount of energy from the tree. I did mine last week, and I can see a difference already with new growth. Start fertiliser in about 3 weeks time.

m5eaygeoff wrote: ...prune hard it will back bud easily.

How would I do this? I don't want to take of too many branches.

As we can't see the plant it is difficult to comment. Remove the buds by pinching or cutting, then prune to two leaves. Remove any crossing branches completely. Have a look at bonsai4me.com where there are good species guides.

You can see it here.



Right. So when you say "prune to two leaves" you count two lots leaves down the branch and then snip. That's how I understand it. I don't see any crossing branches. I think that is fine.

Cheers.

can you maybe show your Azalea? that way it would be easier to help out a bit..

It's in the link.. The white Azalea with the pyramidal shape to it. That's mine.

The variety is not the best for bonsai, the flowers are far too big for the size of the plant. However, if you don't allow the flowers to open then you could use it. The trunk is very thin and need to be grown on to get a reasonable size. The branches are long and thin and beed prning back.

m5eaygeoff wrote: The variety is not the best for bonsai, the flowers are far too big for the size of the plant. However, if you don't allow the flowers to open then you could use it. The trunk is very thin and need to be grown on to get a reasonable size. The branches are long and thin and beed prning back.

On the issue of the flowers do you not think that the Azalea would look a bit better if there was only a small handful? I think it would. Maybe it is because there was too many. You couldn't see the leaves. I am just thinking from an aesthetic point of view.

Regarding the branches there is about 2 or 3 thicker branches that maybe you couldn't see on the pics. They do exist under the canopy.



Regarding the pinching out I have pinched out something and I have sent a pic of the part. I don't know if I have pinches out the right thing. I am not familiar with the various anatomic parts of a plant.

I wold be removing several branches. Crossing ones first. Then any where there are two coming from the same place. You need to remove the bud and then to two leaves, Have a look at bonsai4me.com where Harry has species guides.
Have you said what country you are in?
The flowers are too big, reducing the number makes not difference. You could prevent it from flowering by removing all the buds.
The best varieties have much smaller or single flowers.