Common name - Azalea
Scientific name - Azalea Indica
Description: A member of the Ericaceae family, it comes from Japan.
Shrub that can be deciduous or persistent, depending on the variety, with bright green oval leaves.
It is highly appreciated for its flowering, which in some varieties can be of different shades on the same plant. The most appreciated variety is "Satsuki", which comes from Kanuma, the place where specific soil for Azaleas is collected.
Location: Outdoors, where it can enjoy 2 to 3 hours of direct sunlight a day (ideally in the morning or late afternoon), protected from strong winds and frost. During flowering, we must protect it from direct rain (but always outside) which will wither the flowers.
Watering: Very abundant during flowering. As it is sensitive to limestone, we must use good quality water (mineral water in the final line! ) and avoid wetting the leaves, only doing so in the case of foliar fertilization.
Water the soil abundantly until enough water comes out through the drainage holes, in order to uniformly moisten the soil, always from above never by immersion, using a fine-grained watering can (there are specific ones for Bonsai).
Allow the surface layer of soil to dry slightly between each watering (to confirm that the plant already needs water, touch the earth with your fingers).
If you have a dish under the Bonsai, never leave any water in it (to prevent the roots from rotting).
There is no advantage in spraying the leaves, only do it on days when you fertilize and if the fertilizer is for foliar application, but make sure that they arrive dry at night to avoid fungus.
Nutrition: From February to October, with "Fertile Bonsai" (fortnightly) and "Bio Bonsai" (Fortnightly), reinforcements should be made with "Micro Bonsai" and "Iron Bonsai" because the pH of the water tends to hinder the assimilation of micronutrients.
Pruning: Contrary to most trees, it does not have apical dominance, we always have to leave it "green mass" at the apex.
We must clean the new buds that cover the flowers before they open so that the direct sun stimulates them as well as the formation of leaf buds around the floral bud.
After flowering, we select 2 well-located buds from the several that are born in the place where it bloomed and we remove the floral ovaries (small fruits that appear in the flower area) because if we leave them, the plant wears out a lot and may even die.
Transplants: With "Earth Bonsai -Azaleas" or "Kanuma" pure, after flowering in May/June along with formation pruning.
On worn-out plants we do in February/March but we will remove all the flower buds in order to avoid flowering wear.
We recommend using "Rhiza Bonsai" when transplanting, since even though azaleas only mycorrhizate with specific spores that are not present in the product, they benefit from all the other phytofortifiers and biostimulants present.
Wiring: Wiring from October to Spring, during spring and after flowering (May to August) the branches are poorly formed and they all break, but always with great care as the Azalea is very brittle.