Satsuki and Bonsai in Mack's Garden

Pruning the satsuki trees in the nursery

I finished pruning the satsuki trees in the nursery on 12th March, that is, it took me 23 days to do so. As we had a lot of snow on 11th and 14th, and it rained a few times in February, I couldn't finish it by the end of it. Though it was very warm in December, it was extremely cold in January. Therefore I had thought at the end of January that the condition of pruning trees in the nursery would be all right if I could finish it by about 10th March. But at the end of February I could see the new small buds on the tops of shoots under the big branches of some trees, and the small drops of ice at the end of small shoots in the early morning, which I had cut short, that is, they already began to have their activities of growth in spite of frozen temperature in the early mornings. This is my first experience.

I have a sad history that I recognised the cleft barks on the trunks of small types of some trees at the end of March when I gave them fertilisers. At that time I thought that the reasons were three: at first these trees had been very luxuriant, secondly I had pruned all of trees in the nursery by the end of February, and thirdly it had been very cold early in March. Since then I have taken note of the weather forecast, especially one for the three months ahead. Recently it is said that it is getting warmer and warmer on the earth. Even if it were cold on the surface of the earth, it may be warmer in the earth than before. Therefore I think that it is better for me to prune the trees in the nursery by the end of February in 2012. Besides it often rains in Ise in March.

After removing the old black sheets which prevented weeds from growing, cleaning the dead leaves, removing bad roots and moss from the trunks and branches of a lot of trees, I gave them a lot of pellets of organic fertilisers on 15th. I grafted two saplings to the trunk of Jyuko no Homare which lack necessary roots, and a sapling to the trunk of Shuho no Hikari to make a root on 17th. After maintaining the level of soil in the nursery by throwing Kanuma into the lower parts of soil, I spread the new black sheets on 18th and 19th.

The biggest and best Kozan in my nursery after pruning. Height = 44 cm, circumference = 42 cm.

Nikko after rough cutting.

Please watch the second left branch. You can see the long new shoot which I would like to keep to change the front of this tree. I would like to cut the branch short to change the thick branch to the thin branch.

Grafting two saplings to the trunk of Juko no Homare to make two roots.

Grafting a sapling to the trunk of Shuho no Hikari to make a root.

Grafting a new shoot to the trunk of Nikko to make a branch.

　My nursery