collected azalea

This spring I collected 3quite fantastic azaleas and removed nearly all branches. They did quite well this summer and produced heavy foliage. They aren't ready to be styled by any stretch though. Should I prevent them from flowering in the spring or just let them run their course?

It really doesn't make a big difference either way. Most people would remove them during the development phase, but it's not critical.

On another note, you said you cut off nearly all of the branches and they produced heavy foliage - but they aren't ready to be styled yet. Why not? I’ve not seen your plants, but generally speaking when you dig, cutback and pot azaleas you get a tremendous flush of growth from top to bottom. You should now be able to eliminate the new shoots that you know you won’t need, but be sure to leave yourself plenty of options. Start formulating your plans now, and wire out those shoots into your branch framework in late winter/early spring. At this point you don’t need to be concerning yourself with “first branch - back branch - second branch”, you can always eliminate unnecessary branches later. This first flush of new growth is usually the strongest you’ll ever get, take advantage of it and don’t cut yourself short - literally.

What kind of azaleas are we talking about, anyway???? If it grows well for you in N E Ohio, I doubt it would be happy here on the Gulf Coast.

Thanks Russell. Im really not sure what sort they are. One is very very old and and gnarly with 2 nice trunks both hollow with many burls and 6" diameter trunk. I've been begging my dad to let me have it for 2 yrs now. It has good taper as well with bright pink flowers. Very well..I will cut off obviously useless branches and do some preliminary work. I posted some lives of the gnarl one on here a while back and maybe the others as well. Thanks again.

I guess partly why I said they weren't ready is because I didn't know if cutting back a shoot that has not hardened off would kill the shoot. And I meant that I posted pics ....not lives. Thanks again