Though I introduced “How to grow the saplings and young trees of Kogetsu” in my web site whose date was June 14th, 2013, now I would like to introduce “How to prune the young trees of Kogetsu.” Generally speaking, if the young trees of Kogetsu were given a lot of fertilisers and water, they are so strong that they are apt to have flowers of red, fukurin (white jewel border) and sokojiro (white throat) because their genes are much stronger than those of other flowers. Therefore if these shoots of branches are not removed from the bottoms of them, the tree will have a lot of them in some years. But if the completed bonsai of Kogetsu were not given a lot of fertilisers, you will be unable to see a lot of strong new shoots of them. Judging from this fact, it is most important working that we always remove them from their bottoms when we would like to grow our young Kogetsu into a good bonsai.
We have three chances to remove them. At first, it is very easy if we can remove these shoots when our trees are flowering. If we would like to remove them when pruning them after blooming, we have to attach the marks by these flowers lest we should forget to remove them. Secondly, whenever we can see the red leaves and stalks which mean that they will have the flowers of fukurin (white jewel border) or sokojiro (white throat), remove them from their bottoms. But I am sorry to tell you that the shoots which will have red flowers in the next year do not have any red leaves and stalks. Thirdly, when we can see the red-coloured leaves in the autumn, remove their shoots. But the leaves of shoots which will have red flowers do not turn red. Judging from this fact, we have to remove the shoots or branches from their bottoms drastically, which are having red flowers.
This method can be used to choose the flowers of other variegated satsuki trees, too. Even if a satsuki tree had some red-striped flowers and a lot of white flowers, it is OK. But Yama no hikari is contrary to them. According to my experience, even if a young tree of this variety had only red flowers, it will have white flowers in the future. Please pay attention to this kind of varieties.
It is January 3rd 2011 that I began to start the web site. Therefore I do not have a lot of photos of all my satsuki trees that I took before then, and since I did not have any plans to continue to write some topics, I do have only several photos which I need to write about them now. Then, I have to explain something without any photos or to use the same photos as I used in my web site sometimes.
Section 1. The colour arrangements of the flowers of completed bonsai
When it has passed more than about 15 years since a cutting of Kogetsu was inserted into the Kanuma soil in the seedling tray if the shoots of flowers of red, fukurin and sokojiro were removed drastically whenever the tree was pruned after blooming, though their genes are still stronger than those of white or striped flowers, it is apt to have a small number of strong-coloured flowers.
A. Kogetsu - A
The left photo of Kogetsu A was taken on June 2nd, 2012. You can see 1 red flower, 4 flowers of fukurin and 7 flowers of sokojiro on it. I thought the colour arrangement was very good at that time. But I removed all shoots which had flowers of fukurin and sokojiro on the right trunk, a shoot of red flower of the left branch on the left trunk and some shoots of sokojiro on the apex of the left trunk when I pruned it in blooming time of 2012. It is most important to prune these kinds of varieties while they have the flowers.
The right photo was taken on May 31st, 2013. You can see only 2 flowers of fukurin and 2 flowers of sokojiro on it. In addition to them, I could see 2 flowers of fukurin and 3 flowers of sokojiro at the back of the tree. I think the colour arrangement is much better than that in 2012 and like this kind of colour arrangement concerning a variety of Kogetsu very much. Which do you like? But you have to remember a strict fact that the tree will have more flowers of red, fukurin and sokojiro in some years.
The photo was taken December 22nd, 2015. You cannot see a lot of red leaves. Judging from this fact, you can expect that this tree will have a good colour arrangement of flowers, that is, not have a lot of the flowers of fukurin and sokojiro. If you would like to buy a completed bonsai as chuhin in autumn, you had better buy a tree like this one.
The left photo is the front of Kogetsu A. It has only two flowers of sokojiro and does not have any flowers of red and fukurin. But it has a lot of small and middle red-striped flowers. And the right photo is the back of the tree. Since it has a lot of variegated flowers, the colour arrangement of flowers is colourful. Though some satsuki enthusiasts may like it, if they cannot remove the shoots of fukurin and sokojiro whenever they prune the tree, it will have a lot of them and red flowers in several years. These photos were taken on May 24th 2016.
Now when the flowers of this tree in 2012 are compared with those in 2016, which do you like? I think this tree must be 15 years old. If it is so, since the genes of the flowers of red, fukurin and sokojiro already are not much stronger than those of pure white and striped flowers, you may keep several flowers of red, fukurin and sokojiro.
If you prune your Kogetsu after blooming, you have to attach the coloured strings or wires to the shoots of the flowers of red, fukurin and sokojiro as marks. It is easy and sure that you remove them from their bottoms while they have the flowers. I removed them from this Kogetsu drastically. But I am sure that I will see some of them and may see a few red flowers in a few years. The left photo is the front side of the tree and the right photo is the back. These photos were taken on July 7th, 2016.
B. Kogetsu - B
The left photo was the sapling of Kogetsu B which did not have any strong-coloured flowers. Therefore I could keep any shoot when I styled it. This photo was taken on May 25th, 2013 before styling. I thought it was the best way that I made this Kogetsu into a two-trunked bonsai and wired it. The right photo was taken after stylingon June 6th 2013. And I changed the pot into a bonsai pot when repotting it in June 2014.
The left photo is the front side of a young Kogetsu. Though it did not have a lot of flowers, the colour arrangement of flowers was very good because it had only a few strong-coloured flowers. The right one is the back whose colour arrangement of flowers was very good without any strong-coloured flowers. Since these photos were taken on May 20th 2016 and the tree was not in full-bloom, though you cannot recognize the colours of the flowers strictly, it is sure that you cannot see any red flower buds.
But since this tree is nine or ten years old though colour arrangement of flowers is very good, I think the genes of the flowers of red, fukurin and sokojiro still are much stronger than those of pure white and striped flowers. Therefore I have to remove all shoots drastically which have any strong-coloured flowers. The left photo is the front side of this tree. And the right one is the back. These photos were taken on July 7th 2016.
Section 2. The flowers of young Kogetsu
Though the following 6 trees of Kogetsu are young, since they are 9 or 10 years old, I do not have a lot of photos of the saplings which I would like to use in my web site because I did not had any plans to use them in it at that time. Therefore I would like to introduce only the good examples of colour arrangement of flowers.
A. Kogetsu - C
The left photo was the sapling of Kogetsu C which had only one red-striped flower on the front side. This is a very good condition when we style a sapling or young tree of Kogetsu. Therefore I could keep any shoot when I styled it. This photo was taken before styling on May 25th 2013. The right photo was taken after styling the tree on June 6th 2013. I thought it was a good plan that I made this Kogetsu into a three-trunked bonsai and wired it. But I thought the central trunk was so short that I had to restyle it when it was repotted. And when I repotted it in June 2014, I made this tree into a two-trunked bonsai.
The left photo is the front side of Kogetsu C which has only 4 sokojiro, but does not have any other strong-coloured flowers. And the right photo is the back. You can see only three large-striped flowers. Therefore the colour arrangement of flowers is very good. These photos were taken on May 22nd 2016. After pruning it at the end of May, I gave it to one of my friends though I had thought that I had to change the pot into a bonsai pot when repotting it.
B. Kogetsu - D
This was the sapling of Kogetsu D. It had only one large-striped flower though it did not have a lot of flowers. Since I thought the colour arrangement of flowers was very good, I made it into two-trunked tree when I pruned it after blooming in 2014.
The left photo is the front side of Kogetsu D which has only white and red-striped flowers without any strong-coloured flowers. And the right photo is the back. You can see only two flowers of sokojiro on the apex, but cannot see any strong-coloured flowers. Therefore the colour arrangement of flowers is almost perfect. These photos were taken on May 20th 2016.
After removing two shoots of flowers of sokojiro and pruning the tree, I changed the pot into a bonsai pot. And I changed the front side of this tree into the back side. Though I thought that it had a good style when repotting it, judging from the whole figure, I think I have to make the space between the two tops shorter with wiring than now.
C. Kogetsu - E
This is the photo of Kogetsu E which was taken on May 31st 2013. Though it is small and does not have a lot of flowers, you can see only one flower of fukurin without any other strong-coloured flowers. In this point, the colour arrangement of flowers was almost perfect. But I do not have any photos of the tree which was restyled and repotted in June 2014.
The left photo is the front side of Kogetsu E which has two flowers of fukurin and one flower of sokojiro without any red flower. The right photo is the back side. It has only one flower of fukurin and one red flower without any flowers of sokojiro. Since I always give a lot of fertilisers to young trees, this tree has a lot of much larger flowers than average normal ones. Therefore the heavy apex is inclining to the left. These photos were taken on May 21st 2016.
Some satsuki enthusiasts may think that these flowers are very beautiful and the colour arrangement of flowers is perfect. But since this tree is young and small and has several strong-coloured flowers, I removed all the shoots which had them while it was flowering. If it is 20 years old, I may keep shoots of the strong-coloured flowers and cut them short when pruning it.
This is the photo of the front side of Kogetsu E, which was taken on July 7th 2016. Since I think that the present style of this tree is good, I will change the pot into a bonsai pot when repotting it in June 2017.
D. Kogetsu - F
The left photo is the front side of Kogetsu F which has only one flower of fukurin without any other strong-coloured flowers. The right photo is the back side. It has only two strong-coloured flowers. Since it still has a lot of swelling flower buds, you may be unable to judge the colour arrangement of flowers strictly, but since I know that I removed all the shoots of the strong-coloured flowers last year, and can recognise the colours of the ends of swelling flower buds, the colour arrangement of flowers is very good. These photos were taken on May 21st 2016.
This is the photo of the front side of Kogetsu F which was taken on July 7th 2016. Since this tree is young and has some strong-coloured flowers, I removed all these shoots which had them while it was flowering in May. But since I think that the present style is not good, expecting that it will be good when the trunk will be much thicker than now, I will repot it in June 2017 after confirming the colour arrangement of flowers.
E. Kogetsu - G
The left photo is the front side of Kogetsu G which has only two flowers of sokojiro and two large red-striped flowers without any other strong-coloured flowers. The right photo is the back side. It has only one red flower and two flowers of sokojiro. All the full-opened flowers are very beautiful though it still has several swelling flower buds and the colour arrangement of flowers is very good. These photos were taken on May 21st 2016.
This is the photo of the front side of Kogetsu G which was taken on July 7th 2016. Since I think that the present style of this tree is very good, I will change the pot into a bonsai pot when repotting it in June 2017. It is very dangerous that we repot the young trees of Kogetsu in March and make them have a lot of flowers in May because we may keep the shoots as necessary branches, which have the genes of strong-coloured flowers, especially red ones whose stalks are not red but green through a year.
F. Kogetsu - H
The left photo is the front side of Kogetsu H which has only two flowers of fukurin and two red flowers. If I remove all the shoots of them, the colour arrangement of flowers will be perfect. But it has a lot of strong-coloured flowers in the middle photo of the back side of the tree. The right photo is the enlarged one of the middle photo. Though I removed a lot of shoots or branches of strong-coloured flowers last year, I can see 10 strong-coloured flowers on this photo. It is a great problem to me. These photos were taken on May 21st 2016.
Though I have to remove the branch and shoots of strong-coloured flowers, if I remove this branch from the bottom, the parent trunk will not have any branches in the middle part of the trunk. Here are two methods. One is to remove the branch from the bottom completely so that some new shoots may come from the trunk, and other is to cut it very short without any shoots so that only a few new shoots may come from the branch. And I chose the latter because the colour arrangement of flowers would be good if the branch had only a few strong-coloured flowers. And besides, even if the tree had it on the trunk of back side, nobody would feel a strong impression of them from the front side of the tree.
Section 3. The trees of Kogetsu which I disposed of
It is difficult to get the good saplings of variegated varieties of satsuki. It is basic that we have to get the new shoots by the narrow-striped flowers at the start of June. Even if you got them and inserted them into Kanuma soil in the seedling tray, you may see some flowers of red or fukurin or sokojiro at the ends of them next year. It is because all variegated varieties of satsuki always have the genes of strong-coloured flowers. Therefore when you can find these flowers on the saplings which are one years old, you have to dispose of them. You must not keep them.
These trees which have flowers of red, fukurin and sokojiro on the photos were not suitable to the young trees for bonsai. Judging from my experience of satsuki, they mean my errors because I didn't root them out from the seedling tray in about 2007. But I have grown a lot of saplings and young trees of some varieties to give them to my relatives and friends as presents. And besides, a lot of women like these flowers of red, fukurin and sokojiro. Fortunately, since I have their photos, I can show you bad examples as teaching materials. These photos were taken on May 31st, 2013. But since I already disposed of them, now I do not have them.
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