Brief backstory:
Bought the azalea from Everleaf.com as a Valentine's present for my girlfriend. It was shipped in black soil, and was nearly frozen. It was healthy enough for a few months, but shortly after it bloomed, it's health went into the stinker. My girlfriend found aphids, and added dishsoap to the soil to combat the aphids, because she read that it was a good combatant. Ever since then, the tree generally looked pretty terrible. It never died completely, though, as there were a few new shoots forming.
We moved into a new apartment together and I found a more seasoned bonsai grower in my neighborhood. I took the tree to him for advice. He had a few comments for me. He said that the black soil was terrible for most bonsai, and he personally uses small rocks for all of his (30+ of various species and ages). He cleaned up all the leaves and trimmed it down to look much healthier. He instructed me to completely submerge it and wait for the soil to stop bubbling, and this process took about 25 minutes.
He told me that I should reach out to people who are more familiar with azaleas and ask if it should be/can be re-potted. He doesn't think that this is a good time of year, but said that if it needs to be done in an emergency, the right steps can be taken and the tree should be fine in the end.
Of course, I'll do my best to answer any more questions you might have about it. I've been watering it to keep the soil somewhat moist. It's an indoor plant and my girlfriend wants it to stay close to the eastern facing windows. It's quite close to the AC as well.
Thanks for any help you can provide!
