Rhododendron Blue Diamond

I took a few photos this afternoon of my Rhododendron 'Blue Diamond'. It's nearly at it's peak and today was my last chance to capture it for this year.

DSC_0963 by Bonsai eejit, on Flickr

DSC_0978 by Bonsai eejit, on Flickr

More photos of it here.
http://bonsaieejit.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/in-full-flower/

Hi Ian

Interesting trunk on this one.... And the flowers are lovely... A great introduction to the bonsai year!
Thanks
Bryan

It's beautiful...I really like the base and trunk, could you post a close-up of that area? The bark looks really interesting.

Chris

Hi Chris,

Here you go.

DSC_0967 by Bonsai eejit, on Flickr

I was able to expose more of the trunk during the last repot. You can see this on my blog HERE

Gorgeous tree and I love the color of the flowers. Is this a hybrid? Do you know the horticultural crosses?

( R. intricatum x R. fastigiatum) x R. augustinii ssp augustinii

Glaucus wrote:( R. intricatum x R. fastigiatum) x R. augustinii ssp augustinii

That saves me looking it up

Ian, I like your tree. Please tell me the color of the pot (I'm color blind), it has a nice shape and texture; it looks glazed. I'm thinking it might be a metalic green...
Thanks,
Todd

Hi Todd,

The pots been a problem for this one. The last one was an oval grey colour, almost silver. Problem with it was that it was too small. I repotted this year and the only pot of the right size on my shelf was it's current one. A rectangle reddish brown in colour. This matches the bark well but is the wrong shape. I'm on the lookout for a better one.

Geez, I wasn't even in the ball park with the color.
Thank you for the color description.

I have a dwarf Rhododendrum (purple flower, can't remember the name) which has a windswept feel like your does. I plan to airlayer it to improve the base.
Todd

Glaucus wrote:( R. intricatum x R. fastigiatum) x R. augustinii ssp augustinii

Many thanks. I'm gonna look for one, somewhere.

Looking good!!

Hi Ian.
Now that is something different,
really nice and interesting tree.
I would not worry to much on the pot on the moment the color is not bad.
I am curious how you will proceed with this tree.
regards, Sunip;)

congrats... nice tree...

Howzit Ian,

It's a really good looking tree. Mahalo for sharing.

A Hui Hou,
-Tim

sunip wrote:Hi Ian.
Now that is something different,
really nice and interesting tree.
I would not worry to much on the pot on the moment the color is not bad.
I am curious how you will proceed with this tree.
regards, Sunip;)

Hi Sunip,

Yes, It's different. It's easy to assume that it responds in the same way as an azalea, but it certainly doesn't. If it did, everyone would have one
It doesn't like wire and once it's filled out, as this one has, you can forget about back budding unless you carry out major pruning.
Over the next few years I want to balance vigour throughout the tree. Some areas are weaker and need to catch up.
Even without flowers, it's not bad to look at

Thanks for all the nice comments, everyone loves a bonsai in flower