Azalea Bonsai Progression (2016 – Now)

This is my Azalea tree that I started from nursery stock and I am trying to grow as bonsai and I will be going through its progression below.

It is still has a lot of development, but I still think it’s coming along nicely.

If you want to watch it in video format, you can watch the YouTube playlist below. The videos show the progression every month throughout the year, sort of like a time lapse.

Just be aware some of my earlier videos are not the best quality, but just like my trees, the quality slowly improves over time, so stick with them and they both get a little better towards the end.

Azaleas are small evergreen shrubs that are very popular as bonsai. They are grown for their fantastic flowers and can make fantastic trees if done right.  You can read more about their suitability in Are Azaleas Good Trees For Bonsai?

2016

In autumn 2016 I bought an Azalea for £3.97 from Homebase (which is a hardware shop that has a nursery section).

It was group of about 4 trees in the one pot.

I took it home and put it in the garden and then just left it until next spring. It was too late in the season to be doing any work to it.

2017

Once the spring arrived I repotted the trees with the aim of separating them out into the biggest individual pots I could find.

It was maybe the most root bound pot I have ever seen. It was just a solid mass of roots. I had to cut a lot away to separate them but it was all fine in the end.

Once they were in the separate pots I just left them to recover and grow

2018

Nothing happened in 2018. They were all just left alone and allowed to grow all year

It did flower, so that was nice to enjoy and actually see what future potential the tree could have.

2019

In 2019 I had to move house, which meant I had to leave most of them behind. I Still have two, but we will only be looking at one in this progression.

I also had to reduce the size of the tree, so it could be transported. 

This started with a hard trim at the start of the year (which will have removed the flower buds for this season)

Then nearer to the time that I was moving in spring I repotted the tree into a smaller pot so it could be easily shipped. Basically I just flat cut the roots and placed it in the new pot.

I pruned it back again in early spring, to correct a few problems. As it had been growing unchecked for the last few years there were lots of weird branches growing in every direction. I wanted to clean things up, rather than just allow them to develop into unsightly knuckles of growth.

This give the tree a very basic structure, but it was now a lot cleaner than before.

It was then left to grow out for the rest of the year.

2020

2020 started with a hard prune in late winter. This will have removed any flower buds, but I knew that would happen.

I then repotted the tree in  spring.

Although it had grown really well in 2019, its roots had basically not grown at all. The soil  was actually a bit too wet. When I Repotted I used a looser mix than I normally would to really help with drainage

I then left to grow freely all year.

2021

At the start of 2021 I did not prune the tree. This meant I could enjoy the flowers this summer.

After flowers had finished, in early summer it was finally pruned back.

it was then left for the rest of the year to grow freely.

2022

I started 2022 by giving it a very light prune. This was more removing unwanted branches than taking things back, so a lot of the flower buds where left alone.

I also did not repot the tree in spring. It should be fine in this pot for a while longer.

As I didn’t prune it properly at the start of the year, it was still able to flower in early summer and it looked great.

After it flowered I pruned it back and then it was left alone for the rest of the year.

2023

I started 2023 by doing nothing. The branches where okay. They where not too long and there was no annoying ones, growing where they shouldn’t be, so the tree was left alone.

As I did not remove anything, the tree was able to flower

Although I lost the footage of it in flower, so we just have to look at the before and afters.

After it flowered, I didn’t prune it. Normally I would, but it seemed fine, not much had grown, so I just left it alone.

2024

This is where we are with this tree. The plan will to be pretty much the same. I will maybe prune it in late winter and maybe even repot it in spring, but over all it will mostly be left alone and maybe we will see some more flowers this year

If you also have an azalea and are wondering how I look after it, you can read my Azalea Bonsai Care Guide.