@Satsuki and Other Trees in Mack's Garden 22

Renewal April 30th, 2014


Araki \ Part 2


Before I am leaving Japan for Netherlands on May 8th to help satsuki enthusiasts to grow satsuki trees and make them into bonsai as volunteer, I would like to introduce two huge trees of Korin and Kozan which were dug out from the nursery on March 16th and planted in the bonsai pots on 17th and 18th after I had washed the roots of them. They are not typical cases of araki in the ordinary nurseries, but the special cases in mine.

I asked a friend of mine, Mr Mamiya to help me to dig out 24 trees from my nurseries and plant 15 trees because I thought I wouldnft be able to do so by myself. Since the details of the work were written in the previous article, I donft write about them again.

Section 1. Korin


This Korin has been grown from the cuttings. And its life is like mine. When I had a serious disease at the age of 29 and was brought to a very big hospital, a doctor said to my parents, gHe may die tonight.h But fortunately I could leave the hospital at the end of March, 1972 after I had stayed there for more than 5 months. And when I got married in autumn, I couldnft go upstairs in haste and walk around freely.

Fortunately we had a little garden attached to our flat which we had bought in Kobe city and it was surrounded by the wood wall which defended the plants from the cold north-west winds. And I dug out a lot of satsuki trees from my fatherfs garden and planted them there though the labour was very severe, bought several varieties of satsuki trees and was given several varieties of them by a friend of mine. And I decided that I would make a lot of saplings of satsuki to give a half of them to our friends because I thought they would outlive me. Since I always had a fear of death, I was eager to see a lot of things living, especially the plants. I was born in a village among the mountains. My father produced green tea and I helped him to grow the tea trees in my boyhood. The satsuki tree and the tea tree belong to the same family. Therefore it was very easy for me to grow satsuki trees.

At first I took a lot of cuttings in spring in 1973 and soak them in the water for some hours. And I spread the sphagnum on the bottom of wooden boxes and threw soft small Kanuma soil 3cm in depth. After applying the medicine to the bottoms of cuttings, I inserted them into the soil vertically. And I spread the sphagnum on the soil.

Seeing a lot of white roots, I removed the upper sphagnum and soil from the wooden boxes, and separated the sphagnum which was left on the bottom of them into small squares by cutting it on the lines between the cuttings. After spreading the white roots of each sapling ramblingly with tweezers, I transplanted them in small plastic pots. I spread the sphagnum on the soil and continued to give them a very little quantity of rape cake every week, so that they could grow very tall. The height of more than 50 saplings was about 90 cm. And I made a lot of small saplings, too.

One of them is this Korin. Bu the height of this tree is 52 cm now. Why? When I wired it in autumn, 1978, I broke it near the bottom of trunk because it already was 5 years old, thick and hard though it was very tall. When I got the regular job at Kogakkan University in Ise city in 1976, I left our flat in Kobe city on Thursdays and returned there on Mondays after I had had two lectures in the morning. Though I was very tired at that time, I had to take care of my son in Kobe because my wife taught math at high school. Therefore I couldnft wire any saplings while they were flexible.

Judging from the points of present view of making saplings, I made a serious error. I inserted the cutting into the soil vertically and transplanted them in the terracotta pots vertically. Though I bought some books about satsuki trees, they didnft teach me the present methods to make good saplings. And I saw a lot of photos of satsuki bonsai in them and understood that the trunk base line was upright.

When we bought an old house in Ise in summer in 1978 and began to wire the saplings in autumn, I read the monthly magazines of satsuki and knew that my method had been a great error. Therefore I wanted to plant them slantwise in the pots. But since they had the very good rootage, I couldnft do so and wished that I could have bent the trunks of them a little after wiring them, using small two or three vices. Though I succeeded in some trees, I failed in a lot of trees. And I broke a lot of them and cut the trunks short to sell them at our flower show.

I couldnft sell this Korin at our flower show for several years because it was very poor. But since I thought that it might be a small good bonsai, I planted it in the nursery in 1991. About five years later, I sprayed a strong herbicide around all trees in the nursery and a lot of trees died. But it lived through these hard times like me. And now it is a very good material of satsuki bonsai. Therefore it is my favourite of the trees which I have grown from cuttings.

A. After pruning in the nursery

I pruned this Korin in the nursery on February 11th so drastically that you can see the basic figure well. It has not only a large scar on the back bottom of trunk but also very thick branches. These are my errors, too. If I had removed very thick branches 20 years ago, now it would have the desired branches and wouldnft have some large scars. At that time I could study for a long time in a day to write some papers except teaching because fortunately I could walk freely and run upstairs.

Therefore I couldnft find so much time to spare for the special work about the satsuki trees in the nursery except the ordinary cares of them, and imagine that the trunk circumferences of them would be so great, neither.

The photo was taken on March 17th, 2014.

B. The nebari (rootage)

Since this tree had been planted in Kanuma soil since the sapling, it was very easy to remove the soil with a jet of water. When the cutting had a lot of white roots, if they were spread ramblingly by tweezers and planted in Kanuma soil, perhaps it would have such a good rootage as this tree has.

The photo was taken on March 17th, 2014.

C. The bottom of rootage

You cannot see any cut ends of thick roots on the bottom of rootage. It is because this treee doesnft have a lot of thick vertical roots that it has such a huge bottom of trunk. Though I removed a lot of roots, it has still so many thin roots that it will recover the health and have a lot of shoots soon.

The photo was taken on March 17th, 2014.

D. This is the whole figure of Korin which is seen from the front.

I donft have any good garden shops in Ise where a lot of good bonsai pots are sold. And I have to buy some before I repot some trees. Whenever I found good bonsai pots in Kanuma city or any other places which were not expensive, I bought them. But since they are very large, I have to pay a lot of money. Fortunately I can buy them from Tochinoha shobo when I can find them on the pages of Satsuki Kenkyu. A lot of them are much cheaper except very expensive ones because they are used ones. But when some persons offer the same pot, we have to wait for the lottery.

This time I decided that I would dig out 7 large trees and 4 middle trees whose trunk circumferences are great and plant them in the bonsai pots. Though I had bought 5 very large pots from the publisher till repotting, I had only about 25 pots when I planted 11 trees. Judging from the number of them it was impossible for me to choose the pot which is very suitable in shape, size and colour to each tree. Please estimate the whole figure of Korin and the bonsai pot after you imagine that it will have a lot of shoots.

The height is 52 cm. The trunk circumference is 42 cm. The pot is 56 x 41 x 15 cm. The photo was taken on March 18th, 2014.

E. The whole figure seen from the back

I am sorry that the photo isnft good because I am not good at taking photos.

The photo was taken on March 18th, 2014.

Section 2. Kozan


The short history of this Kozan is very simple. I paid 300,000 yen for it in 1991 whose height was 35 cm and whose trunk circumference was 27cm. At that time araki was very expensive. But now we can buy them for a half price or less.

Though I had planted it in a large terracotta pot, I transplanted it in the very large wooden pot in January 1994 so that it might recover the scars on the front trunk sooner. But since I couldnft get a good result, I transplanted it in the nursery in March 2001.

A. After pruning in the nursery

I pruned this Kozan in the nursery on February 11th so drastically that you can see the basic figure well. The whole figure is very good. When I dug out it from there on March 16th, the height was 45 cm, and the trunk circumference was 46 cm. Comparing this tree to the previous Korin, you can understand that the growth of trunk is much slower than that of Korin because the height was 35 cm, and the trunk circumference was 27 cm when I had bought it in 1991.

The photo was taken on March 18th, 2014.

B. The rootage after washing this Kozan with a jet water

I didnft have to remove the soil with a rake because this Kozan have been planted in Kanuma soil and was transplanted two times since I had bought it. But you can understand that the condition of thin roots is worse than that of Korin though thick roots are very good. Why? I think that it is because I didnft arrange the rootage when I transplanted it in the large wooden pot in 1994 and transplanted it in the nursery without arranging of the roots in 2001.

The photo was taken on March 18th, 2014.

C. The bottom of rootage

Though you can see a lot of cut ends of thick roots, you cannot see a lot of thin roots at the ends of thick roots. Judging from the fact, I think that the bottom of this tree hasnft grown thicker than that of Korin because the rootage of thin roots was worse than that of Korin though both of them had been planted in Kanuma soil in the nursery.

The photo was taken on March 18th, 2014.

D. The front of Kozan after finishing watering the roots

The rootage of thick roots is very good. But that of thin roots isnft very good. Therefore since I thought I had to take good care of it, I continue to give all repotted trees the water which is mixed with HB101 and spray a small quantity of water over the whole figure every two days. And I continue to give them the ordinary quantity of water other every two days.

The photo was taken on March 18th, 2014.

E. The back side of Kozan

This tree has three big scars on the trunk. Perhaps it will take it a lot of time to recover them.

The photo was taken on March 18th, 2014.

F. This is the whole figure of Kozan which is seen from the front

The height is 45 cm. The trunk circumference is 46. The pot is 49 x 36 x 15 cm. The photo was taken on March 18th, 2014.


To be continued.