How to Prune Azalea Bonsai

Every single spring, azaleas light up our gardens using a profusion of colorful blooms. These classic mounding shrubs drift across the landscape like showy clouds. As soon as established, they require tiny care. Prune them properly, and watch plants generate layers of stunning bell-shaped flowers.

When To Prune Azaleas

Prune azaleas quickly soon after they bloom within the spring or early summer time. The ideal time is when spent flowers commence to discolor and shrivel. Cutting them back in late summer time, fall, or winter will take away flowerbuds and hold them from blooming.

Azalea Prooning Tools

A pair of hand clippers and loppers are all you will need to have. Hand clippers function nicely on limbs smaller sized than ½ inch in diameter. Loppers deal with branches ½ to 1 ½ inches thick. They've lengthy handles, which offer you lots of leverage for cutting woody limbs and permit you to attain in to the center of shrubs. Never use shears on azaleas unless you happen to be making a formal appear or possibly a shaped hedge. Keep in mind, squared-off hedges and closely clipped shrubs call for a whole lot of upkeep.

Preserve cutting tools sharp, so their blades make clean cuts when slicing via wood. Numerous high quality clippers have replacement blades. Modest files made just for sharpening blades also can be bought. Dull tools make pruning much more tough and can crush and tear stems.

How you can Prune Azaleas

In most landscapes, azaleas appear ideal when minimally pruned, permitting them to retain their naturally graceful kind. Take away lengthy stray shoots by reaching down in to the plant and creating cuts subsequent to bigger woody branches. This permits sunlight and air movement inside the center in the shrub, which promotes wholesome new development.

Significant Azalea Pruning

When azaleas develop also huge for their surroundings, they might have to be pruned drastically. You are able to reduce overgrown plants down to about 1 foot in height. Then feed them using a slow-release, water-soluble fertilizer (12-6-6). Often water the plants you reduce back to encourage a flush of suckers in the stumps. The following spring, the shrubs must be covered with plenty of new development. Lessen the amount of shoots per stump to two or 3, leaving only the strongest and greatest placed ones.

Decide on the proper Azaleas

When planting azaleas, use selections that will not outgrow the space. Satsuki Hybrids for example 'Gumpo' develop only about three feet tall, whilst Southern Indica Hybrids like 'George Lindley Taber' and 'Mrs. G.G. Gerbing' can develop ten feet tall. Study tags and label details just before getting plants, and verify with reliable landscapers or your county Extension agent to make sure you are generating the correct decision. A big shrub developing inside a tiny location can generate a upkeep nightmare.

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