You pick ’em
This post shows a Satsuki azalea in twelve digitally colored* pots. Is one color better than the others? Are there several that work? Do they all work? One question that might come up is: what color are the flowers? Would your choice (or choices) be different if the flowers were white? Pink? Red? Coral? Two tone? Tricolor? The photos are from Bonsai Today issue 25. *Colors will vary depending upon our scanner, the settings on your screen and who knows what else? Don’t worry though, it’s all just play and there’s no one right answer.
I like, in order:
Dark brown
Beige
Marbled blue
Navy blue
dark brown
Marble blue
Dark Brown or Jade Green or Marbled Blue
The ocher works with the trunk.
And the yellowish green with the canopy.
So there’s only two choices imho.
http://home.base.be/graulusjl/
just to explain my thoughts,
I picked the dark brown pot first because it draws the eye to the specimen in a very unobtrusive, natural way. I think the ocher works in the same way but is little to reddish.
Next I liked how the mottling of the Marbled blue pot mirrors the visual texture of the canopy and pulls out the blueish hue of foliage.
I think both would still work for me regardless of flowering colors.
Dark Brown and marbled blue. All the other colors draw attention away from the tree and to the pot.
Thanks you all for your comments. It’s interesting that most of you mentioned dark brown. The Japanese seldom use earth colors for azaleas, though I have seen it done. In any case, there is no right answer, so to each his own.
BTW: I think I’m partial to the marbled blue, though the colors aren’t very true in the original Bonsai Today and I’m not sure about my screen either.