Some good news, some bad.

Finally moved into the new house and just wanted to post a few pictures that i have gotten behind on. The azalea flower pictures are from the end of may of this year.





And how it looks today.



Here is the bad news. I bought this very interesting cascade ponderosa pine at the 3rd national show from Andy smith. We couldnt really figure out why the tree died but about 2 weeks after comming home with me the tree was dead.





Very sad day. I thought that tree had alot of potential. I had called Andy to try to figure what went wrong and he said its dead pick another. What a nice guy no questions asked and he is sending me another tree. And the tree i got i thing is even more amazing and will be a show stopper some day. It was just collected in March of this year so there wont be any work done on the tree till 2014.





Hope you enjoyed my pictures.

Neil

Sorry to hear about the first pondersosa, but the replacement looks great! What a nice trunk. I've got two of his ponderosas that were just collected last spring, both are doing fine but still establishing.

What variety is the azalea?

Yes Andy has some amazing material. The azalea is a 21 year old Shuho No Hikari import from japan. Hope you had a good time at Bills, i know i did. Did you take home that larch?

Neil

Just a small word of caution, when buying lifted pines. It is sensible practise to keep them, with no styling done for a minimum of two years, prior to sale. I wouldn't consider buying one that hadn't gone through this establishment phase and is obviously growing healthily. ie Pushing lots of fat new candles in spring.

Nice replacement pine, and great customer service on Andy's part!

FWIW, it appears that your satsuki is developing some disparity in strength that should be addressed soon to keep the weaker portions healthy. When you prune, try to balance the tree by removing the bigger leaved-shoots to give the smaller guys a chance. You got it right if, after pruning, the remaining leaves appear the same size throughout the tree. Ben Oki helped me balance an azalea this way in '05, and it has remained very consistent ever since.

Neil,

The larch now resides in my yard. I'm really glad you decided you didn't want it! I should have learned my lesson by now...if you see something that grabs your attention, don't procrastinate. I'm actually very surprised that someone else didn't grab it, especially at that price.

Kev,

Understand your concern/caution, but as we were discussing in another thread - it's really a decision each individual must make. In my case, I was willing to purchase unestablished, just collected material and wait the (unknown number of) years required before working on it. I do see people on forums talking about buying just collected trees, then potting, trimming and wiring them right away...I always cringe...

Brian Van Fleet wrote:Nice replacement pine, and great customer service on Andy's part!

FWIW, it appears that your satsuki is developing some disparity in strength that should be addressed soon to keep the weaker portions healthy. When you prune, try to balance the tree by removing the bigger leaved-shoots to give the smaller guys a chance. You got it right if, after pruning, the remaining leaves appear the same size throughout the tree. Ben Oki helped me balance an azalea this way in '05, and it has remained very consistent ever since.

Thank you for the advise. This azalea has been moved 3 times in the last year. Last fall it was on my porch at an apartment getting 4-5 hours of sun. Then to a friends for the winter and spring getting even less sun in the spring maybe 3 hrs. Now the past 2 months it has been getting a solid 6 hrs. So im pretty sure alot of those big leaves are from not enough light. I did notice alot of Bill Valavanis azaleas were thined out. Is this the time to thin an azalea? Thank you for your time.

Neil

Kev Bailey wrote:Just a small word of caution, when buying lifted pines. It is sensible practise to keep them, with no styling done for a minimum of two years, prior to sale. I wouldn't consider buying one that hadn't gone through this establishment phase and is obviously growing healthily. ie Pushing lots of fat new candles in spring.

Thank you Kev. Actually the first cascade ponderosa pine did have new candles and its wierd that it passed so fast. I guess i am just showing the tree to show that i got another one from a very nice guy who went out of his way when he didnt have to. I know its not in the best health but its doing alot better that the other.

Neil

Is this the time to thin an azalea?

It is, as long as you aren't trying to show it next year with a good crop of flowers. As you may know, buds are developing now for next year, and pruning removes them. Normally this is done just after flowering.

The plus side is that with a better balanced tree, it should produce a better crop in '14 than it did this year.

Brian Van Fleet wrote:

Is this the time to thin an azalea?

It is, as long as you aren't trying to show it next year with a good crop of flowers. As you may know, buds are developing now for next year, and pruning removes them. Normally this is done just after flowering.

The plus side is that with a better balanced tree, it should produce a better crop in '14 than it did this year.

Thank you.

Neil

coh wrote:Neil,

The larch now resides in my yard. I'm really glad you decided you didn't want it! I should have learned my lesson by now...if you see something that grabs your attention, don't procrastinate. I'm actually very surprised that someone else didn't grab it, especially at that price.
.

Chis,
Was that the little one in the rectangular brown unglazed pot that we both were looking at in spring, if so I'm glad you got it!

Neil,
Good to finally see some shots, and I think the replacement Pondi' is even better! Andy rocks man thats how you do it if there's a problem..

Sorry to have missed you both but I had a car issue halfway to Canandaigua, I suppose it was lucky it happened there rather than half way to Rochester..

-Jay

drgonzo wrote:

coh wrote:Neil,

The larch now resides in my yard. I'm really glad you decided you didn't want it! I should have learned my lesson by now...if you see something that grabs your attention, don't procrastinate. I'm actually very surprised that someone else didn't grab it, especially at that price.
.

Chis,
Was that the little one in the rectangular brown unglazed pot that we both were looking at in spring, if so I'm glad you got it!

Neil,
Good to finally see some shots, and I think the replacement Pondi' is even better! Andy rocks man thats how you do it if there's a problem..

Sorry to have missed you both but I had a car issue halfway to Canandaigua, I suppose it was lucky it happened there rather than half way to Rochester..

-Jay

Jay,
Sorry to hear about the car issue, always good company when the three of us meet up at Bills. Hopefully Bill will post some pictures of the demo he did. He did a phoenix graft of i think 2 junipers onto a 1000 year old bonsai that died. He had a book with pictures of the tree alive. Pretty amazing.

Chris ,
Post a picture of that bad boy. Jay this larch is "sineous" style i think. Its 5 or 6 trees with nice low branching and movement in the trunks.

Neil

Neil, I don't think the larch "monster" would photograph well at this point - once I get a chance to get in there and do some work, repot, etc I'll definitely get a photo. There are 5 trunks, I have no idea how they're connected, if they're separate trees, etc.

Neil Jaeger wrote:

Kev Bailey wrote:Just a small word of caution, when buying lifted pines. It is sensible practise to keep them, with no styling done for a minimum of two years, prior to sale. I wouldn't consider buying one that hadn't gone through this establishment phase and is obviously growing healthily. ie Pushing lots of fat new candles in spring.

Thank you Kev. Actually the first cascade ponderosa pine did have new candles and its wierd that it passed so fast. I guess i am just showing the tree to show that i got another one from a very nice guy who went out of his way when he didnt have to. I know its not in the best health but its doing alot better that the other.

Neil

Neil, same thing happened to me and Andy was also very nice about it and I too feel like I got a better replacement than I had. This one was a burlap one and is growing very well. Good luck with yours, it's got great trunk movement

Fore wrote:

Neil Jaeger wrote:

Kev Bailey wrote:Just a small word of caution, when buying lifted pines. It is sensible practise to keep them, with no styling done for a minimum of two years, prior to sale. I wouldn't consider buying one that hadn't gone through this establishment phase and is obviously growing healthily. ie Pushing lots of fat new candles in spring.

Thank you Kev. Actually the first cascade ponderosa pine did have new candles and its wierd that it passed so fast. I guess i am just showing the tree to show that i got another one from a very nice guy who went out of his way when he didnt have to. I know its not in the best health but its doing alot better that the other.

Neil

Neil, same thing happened to me and Andy was also very nice about it and I too feel like I got a better replacement than I had. This one was a burlap one and is growing very well. Good luck with yours, it's got great trunk movement

Thank you for the kind words. I am treating thr tree with extreme care. In hopes to see nice candles next year. My mentor has 2 from andy and they both are doing amazing

Neil