Dwarf and Medium Height Shrubs
For the Rock Garden Background
Executive Summary about Dwarf
Azaleas by Kyle Y Widner
Here is a
wide list to select from-the problem is not so much what to take as what not to
use.
Azaleas: Any
of the hardy deciduous azaleas are available, but it is easy to overdo them. In
most types of landscaping, azaleas and rhododendrons should be used in masses; in
rock gardening a single plant often better answers the purpose.
Forsythia:
Most varieties rather large and coarse. Suspensa litboldi is the lowest growing
and most graceful.
Goldflower
(Hypericum moserianum) : Good for yellow flowers in midsummer; variety Buckleyi
is more dwarf and spreading.
Rhododendrons:
Almost too large and too heavy even for the background, excepting in rock
gardens of large size. The Myrtle rhododendron (myrtifolium), Wilson
rhododendron, thriving in sun or shade (both of which are hybrids of r. minus)
and ovatum, are dwarf alpine forms.
Roses:
Several of the taller-growing species, not mentioned in the preceding list,
such as Hugonis and the Redleaf Rose (r. rubifolia) with its small starry
blossoms, carry the spirit of the rock garden.
Care For the Azalea Bonsai
Tree
Executive Summary about Dwarf Azaleas by Bob Flukes
Training a
Satsuki azalea bonsai tree is most interesting. The forms into
which they are trained vary according to one's taste and the nature and shape
of the plants used.
The best
times to practice training are just before or just after flowering or from
mid-September to October. If training is done in the earlier season, the
branches will be fixed and the plants can be released from the copper wire
coils in the autumn.
It is better
to start the training while the azaleas are young, say 3 to 4 years from
cuttings, or an inch or so in diameter at the trunk. The copper wire should
never be coiled around the trunk and branches too tightly, as it may damage or
even kill them. As a precaution the
trunk and branches may be covered with hemp fiber before training with the
copper wire.
A Satsuki
azalea bonsai tree should be trimmed just after flowering, as the new growth
breaks the harmony of form or becomes too dense, or shoots that are too strong
are produced.
To really
appreciate the styles and forms of the shrubs, one must have aged and well
trained plants, and so the Satsuki azalea bonsai tree has not become every
man's hobby.
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