A lot of Japanese like cherry blossoms very much because they make us feel that spring has come at last after the very cold winter. And we can enjoy them for a long time because each variety of cherry trees has a different flowering time in each district because Japan consists of a lot of islands which are located long from the north to south and has a lot of high mountains, and the flowering time of them depends on the weather (temperature). The weather forecast tells us the cherry blossom front (the flowering time of Someiyoshino) every day in the season. But at the same time the very short period in full bloom and the beauty of them is often likened to the fragility of human life.
Section 1. The flowers of Someiyoshino and other varieties of cherry trees
I and my wife went to the hanging cherry tree park of Takami-no-sato which is located 630 meters above sea level among the deep mountains in Higashiyoshino village in Nara prefecture near the border between Mie and Nara prefectures by my car on April 25th, 2017. TV told us about the flowering time of cherry trees that these 1,300 hanging cherry trees were near the full blooming on 22nd. But since it took them only two days to be in full bloom, we were a little bit sad to see the pale pink of their flowers and a considerable number of cherry trees beginning to finish flowering. Therefore you can see the very beautiful flowers of these trees on the photos which were taken when we went there on April 16th, 2015.
And when we went to the park of Byobuiwa in Soni village, Nara prefecture after seeing the flowers of hanging cherry trees, we were very glad to see the very beautiful flowers of a lot of huge mountain cherry trees and the very wide and high columnar jointing. Byobuiwa means the great walls of rocks like a folding screen. Since the park of Byobuiwa is located about 840 meters above sea level, the temperature is much lower than in Ise: though the mountain cherry trees in the mountains in Ise already had finished flowering on 12th, the flowers of the huge mountain cherry trees were in full bloom on 25th. Therefore we were very happy because we had not imagined that they would be in full bloom and the columnar jointing is very huge before we left our house. A lot of trees including young mountain cherry trees at the bottoms of these rocks are growing so prosperously now that we cannot see one fourths of them. And you can see the white flowers on the right photo which was taken on the day. Though this tree is a natural-crossing tree which has white flowers, other natural trees have the flowers of pale pink. This is just the change of nature.
Since I could not go to any famous places to see cherry blossoms in Ise in the season of 2017, I would like to introduce three photos. The left photo is cherry blossoms at night, which was taken on the bank of the Isuzu River on April 4th, 2016, the middle one was taken on the bank of the Miya River on March 31st, 2015, and the right one was taken near our house on March 30th, 2015.
Next, I would like to introduce how I prune three varieties of cherry trees in the pots because I was asked how to prune cherry trees by a reader of my web site. One of them is Kawazu Cherry and two of them are Issaizakura which means that these trees have little flowers and leaves, and are suitable for bonsai. It has been said in Japan from the old time that if one person cuts or prunes a cheery tree, he is stupid, and if he does not cut or prune an ume tree, he is stupid. Since the trunks and branches of cherry trees are fragile, it is difficult for us to style a lot of varieties of them into bonsai.
It is the theory to cut or prune cherry trees in the pots after blooming or to trim them in winter or before blooming if you would like to see their beautiful flowers and good shapes. And never cut or prune them in July, August, September and October if you would like to see their flowers in the following year. If you prune them smartly in August and early September, perhaps they will not have any flowers not only on the branches which had come in the spring but also on the new branches which came after pruning. If you cut or prune them drastically in late September or October, perhaps they will not have any new branches after then.
And never give your cherry trees in the pots the same quantity of fertilisers as you give your satsuki trees in the pots even if you would like to grow them large. If you do so, they will be weak in some points and the distances between the small branches will be longer though they will have much thicker trunks: they will not have good shapes as bonsai, and when you cut or prune their branches and even if they were thick, some of them may die because cherry trees are basically weak.
Section 2. Kawazu Cherry Tree
A strange cherry tree was found out in 1955 on the bank of a river by a person who lived in Kawazu town in Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka prefecture. Though he had planted it in his garden, it did not have any flowers for 10 years. In 1977 it was named Kawazu Cherry because it was classified as a new variety of natural crossing between Oshima Cherry and Taiwan (winter) Cherry. You can see the flowers of the parent tree on the left photo and other trees on the middle and right photos, which were taken on February 26th, 2013 when we went to Kawazu town to see them by a bus tour. It begins to have flowers at the start of February and is in full bloom at the end of the same month in the warmest districts in Honshu, the main island of Japan. It continues to have blossoms for about a month.
We bought a little sapling of Kawazu Cherry when we went to Kawazu town by a bus tour in 2013 and planted it in a deep terracotta pot. Though it had not had any flowers since then, it began to have several flowers at the end of February 2017. If it had been planted in the ground in Ise, I think the flowering time would be about 20th of February. You can see the flowers on the left photo which was taken on 11th March. And I enjoyed seeing them for more than 20 days. The right photo which was taken on 24th March is before pruning.
Since I was not sure that I could style this Kawazu cherry tree into a good bonsai, I planted it in a deep terracotta pot. The soil is the mountain soil which I have brought from the mountain in my home town. All varieties of cherry tree are so weak that if we wind their saplings with wires drastically to make a good bonsai I think they will die. Therefore I think we had better style them only with a pair of scissors. And we must not cut their trunks or branches at random. I always cut parts above the parts with thinner branches or new leaves. You can see how to prune them on these photos which were taken on March 24th. If we cut the parts where they do not have any branches, they will be sure to die. Cutting the new shoots from November to February or early March before blooming, we have to make them have 2 or 3 flower buds before blooming, or make them have more than one new leaf bud after blooming. We never cut any parts of cherry trees without thinner branches.
But I am not sure that I will be able to make it into a good bonsai because I think this variety is not suitable for growing it as bonsai. Therefore I am thinking that this tree is a material to test whether I will be able to grow it as bonsai or not. And I would like to make it into a bonsai which has a natural style without using any wires. And I will repot it into a bonsai pot in December of this year after confirming flower buds and enjoy flowering of this tree next year.
You can see this tree growing on the photos which were taken on April 19th, though it does not have any long new shoots. Besides since two new shoots are seen on the right photo, this tree will look better in two years. The left photo is the front side of this tree and the middle photo is the back side.
Section 3. Issaizakura
A. Old cherry trees in the pots
I have three old cherry trees in the pots now. I was given Cherry tree A and B as souvenirs by my wife when she went to Mt. Fuji and Hokkaido as a teacher leading a school excursion about 31 and 33 years ago. Therefore, strictly speaking, they must have different varieties though she bought them after confirming the name of Issaizakura on each name tag. But I could not distinguish them distinctly for a long time.
But Cherry tree A was in full bloom on the left photo which was taken on April 2nd, 2017 after I had removed the dead branches. Since cherry trees are weak, if they have been put in the hard conditions of pots for a long time, one or two branches begin to die. You can see the dead branches on the left photo of the front side of this tree before I removed them. The middle and right photos are the front and back sides after I did so.
And Cherry tree B did not have any flowers on the left photo which was taken on 2nd. And Cherry tree C which I have grown from a new sprout of Cherry tree B since about 27 years ago did not have any flowers on the same day, either. It was so cold in the early spring in Ise that the flowering time was different from each other. Generally speaking, we always can enjoy the flowers of cherry trees in the ground for a week at the end of March since they had a lot of flowers. But it took them two or three day to be in full bloom in Ise in April 2017 because it was very warm on 2nd to 6th. The middle photo is the flowers of Cherry tree B, and the right photo is those of Cherry tree C. Though they were not in full bloom, since according to the weather forecast it would continue to rain from the evening of 7th to 11th, fortunately I could take these photos when it stopped raining for a while in the early morning of 8th.
And since I could see the blue sky and the sun for a while in the afternoon of 10th, I could take these photos of Cherry tree B (left photo) and Cherry tree C (right photo). Though a lot of petals of them fell down by the heavy rain, they had still a lot of swelling flower buds. But the strong spring storm blew a lot of their petals away and the heavy rain gave a lot of damage to their flowers on 11th.
Since I have not given them a lot of fertilisers since long ago, they always do not have long new shoots except some. Therefore I always do not prune them after blooming but cut only long shoots short after their leaves fell down in the late autumn or in the early winter. But since not doing so last autumn and winter, I did so after they had had their young leaves and took these photos on April 17th.
Now Cherry tree A is so weak that I could not prune it drastically. But I am glad to see two new shoots on the upper part of trunk (right photo). If they will grow large, I hope that this tree will look better. The left photo is before pruning and the middle is after pruning.
Now Cherry tree B is so weak that it had several dead branches. Therefore I removed some from the upper part of this tree (middle photo) and a large one from the bottom of the trunk (right photo). The left photo is before removing them.
Since the branches of the upper half of this tree are weak and those of the lower half are very strong, I removed a lot of smaller branches from the lower thick branches. And after finishing pruning it, I changed the front side to the back side because I had removed the thick dead branch. The left photo is the new front side of this tree, and the right is the back side.
Cherry tree C is so strong that I could remove a lot of small branches. But I must not prune cherry trees as drastically as I prune satsuki trees. And, after pruning it, I thought I could change the present front side to the new one. The whole style of this tree looks better than before. The left photo is before pruning. The middle photo is the new front side of this tree, and the right is the new back side.
B. Three spouts
Three old cherry trees in the bonsai pots always have some sprouts which came from the soil. When I repot them, after removing the soil, I sometimes separate these sprouts from the parent’s roots and plant them in terracotta pots to give them to friends of mine. But they won't have good roots when they grow large. If you would like to get good saplings which will have good nebari, you had better insert some cuttings into fine Kanuma soil after flowering.
Cherry tree D, E and F are sprouts which are perhaps 8 years old. When I took these photos in the early morning of 8th because it stopped raining for a while, Cherry tree D (left photo) was in full bloom though the number of flowers is small. Cherry tree E (middle photo) had a lot of swelling flower buds. But Cherry tree F (right photo) had only one swelling flower bud.
And though it continued to rain from the evening of 7th to the noon of 10th fortunately I could see the blue sky and the sun for a while in the afternoon of 10th and take these photos. The petals of flowers of Cherry tree D fell down and you can see a lot of new leaves on the left photo. But you can see a lot of flowers and swelling flower buds of Cherry tree E on the middle photo and only one flower of Cherry tree F on the right photo.
I think that since the difference of flowering time of these trees comes from the nature of their parents, they may not be the same varieties. Though Cherry tree D and E had a lot of flowers this season, they had had only several flowers last year. And since the colour of flowers of Cherry tree D was pale pink, judging it from the point of view in 2017, it is not the spout of Cherry tree A. But I can be sure that judging from the colour of flowers and flowering time of Cherry tree E its parent is Cherry tree B. And Cherry tree F may have the same parent as Cherry tree E has.
I pruned Cherry tree D, E and F on April 17th after they had had their young leaves. I have three young cherry trees because I have not been asked to give them to any persons, that is, they were not the materials which I would like to make into good bonsai. Therefore though I cannot style them drastically, I would like to try to make them into bonsai. At first I pruned Cherry tree D only with a pair of scissors to make it into the style of natural tree. The left photo is before pruning, the middle one is the front side of the tree after pruning and the right is the back side after pruning.
I wired Cherry tree E after pruning to wind the trunk slightly and make it into a natural style of bonsai. If I make the trunk have strong curves with wires, I think that it will die within 2 years. The left photo is before pruning, the middle one is the front side of the tree after pruning and the right one is the back side after pruning.
I pruned Cherry tree F after removing two thick branches to make it into a small bonsai because I could not have any ideas about the style, that is, it was not a material for a good bonsai. The left photo is before pruning, the middle one is the front side of the tree after pruning and the right one is the back side after pruning.
Now I would like to think of the flowering time of cherry trees in pots. As shown above, even if some cherry trees were the same variety, their flowering time often was different. Why is it different? I can think that it comes from the age difference of these cherry trees and the difference of the sizes of pots or the difference of quantity of soil in pots. If they were planted in large pots, it is sure that they have less damage in summer and winter than when they were planted in small pots.
And even if they were the same variety, the pink of their flowers often is not same. As seen in flowers of satsuki, I think that this difference comes from the age difference of cherry trees and the difference of quantity of fertilisers mainly. Generally speaking, if they are young the flowering time is later than the completed bonsai but it may depend on the sizes of pots and the quantity of soil in the pots, and if we give a lot of fertilisers to them, their colours will be deeper or stronger than those of trees which were not given a lot of fertilisers. But not only the former has a greater damage from the rain than the latter has but also the periods of their flowering are shorter. Therefore when you would like to enjoy cherry blossoms for a longer time, if you did not give them a lot of fertilisers and water in the previous year, you may keep your cheery bonsai in your room till they finish flowering. Though you cannot enjoy flowers of satsuki in the room for more than three days, cherry blossoms are OK because cherry trees do not have a lot of leaves when they have flowers. But you must not keep your room hot.
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