This azalea has been very infrequently repotted; 2008, 2012, and now in 2017. Azalea roots are fibrous, shallow, and small. They dry out quickly in the air, so it is important to keep a hose nearby. It’s been in this production-grade Chinese pot for 9 years, and while it was a good fit, it is ready for a better pot.
Except for an occasional aeration and top-dressing, it’s been repotted into straight kanuma each of the last two repots. Here are the roots, combed out; and as expected, even after 5 years since the last repot:
This time, I added a bit of pumice and lava. The automatic watering system seems to keep things just a little on the wet side, and this should dry just a bit faster:
Before the reveal…and just for fun, here is a look back 10 years…2007:
And 2017:
The new pot is a larger Aiba Koyo; 18.5″ wide, green glaze over a dark clay. The effect is very similar, as this pot is only a couple inches wider. It works pretty well. Can’t wait for blooming season!
I have been studying bonsai since 1994, in an ever-increasing obsessive fashion. In our last 5 years prior to moving from Iowa to Alabama pursuing a career in the foodservice industry, my bonsai collection was limited to a few varieties that could survive brutal winters outside, or winters under dim light in the dank basement of our humble duplex...my wife puts up with a lot. Including the trailer hitch I put on our brown 1983 Chrysler New Yorker to pull a U-Haul full of trees to Nashville for a 3-month stop along the career path that led us to Alabama. 12 years later, we no longer have the New Yorker; and not a single one of those trees remain on my bench, having given the last holdout to a new club member this summer. I prefer collecting native trees and buying the classical species used in Japan, feeding organic, and reading everything I can get my hands on.
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