Most garden Rhody varieties are good for Bonsai. Underused they can offer stunning opportunities for Shohin and smaller size trees. Not too costly, they are better grown in temperate climates.. Unlike the wonderful and showy Satsuki Azaleas, these smaller shrubs offer great possibilities.

This was the start point. Well it was not really as I had already cut the branches off that were not left with the jinned areas. It was a long term project over three years. The tree was very leggy and the height was distracting from the possibilities of the tree.

After flowering I cut off the top hard but left the interesting twist in the branches. This was in June.

By the end of July and into August the buds had sprouted all over the trunk section. I will style this early in the season as opposed to after flowering which is normal , however I do not want this to flower for three years as that reduces the leaf build up.

When finished I will call this Bonsai Mulgray after the Mulgray Twins who kindly gave me this Bonsai in 2005.They were some of the first people to join me when I started the Scottish Bonsai Association in 1978. Helen and Morna are exceptionally good horticulturists. Formerly English Teachers, they are now well known Detective Writers

Unknown Azalea species form Nepal.

Collected in Nepal by a team from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh around 50 years ago, a cutting from that original bush was planted in a garden near the gardens. A student of the gardens was lining next door t the house and he eventually became the head of Parks and Gardens for Edinburgh District Council and he told me this story. The previous owner of the house had also told me about this Azalea. In 1990  I bought that house and dug this up and planted it as a cascade. A very unruly bush it gives a wonderful show of flowers in July. I have worked on developing some sort of style for a long time but the branches are very thin but the flowers are, as I said, wonderful. So its grown now for its show rather than its style. I keep trying to go to the gardens in July and get the right name from the original bush if its still alive.

2005 old style

June 2009