I have 8 young trees of Kogetsu as the materials for my web site. Last year they had a lot of long new shoots in the midsummer though I had pruned them after blooming. Therefore I decided to prune them again though I was afraid whether they would have a lot of lowers in the next flower season or not because it was my first experience. But fortunately they had a lot of flowers in next May, that is, I had good results. Therefore I would like to show their flowers in 2017, the pruning of 3 trees in the bonsai pots and the trimming of 5 trees in the terracotta pots in the midsummer again.
Section 1.The flowers and pruning of young Kogetsu in 2017
Though I had introduced how to prune the young Kogetsu after blooming in my web site whose date is June 15th 2016, since they had a lot of long shoots, I pruned them again on July 19th. And I introduced the pruning of them in my web site whose date is November 7th 2016. If you read them, you can understand the reasons and details of pruning of them in midsummer again. And if you refer to the photos and sentences in my web sites whose dates are November 27th 2012 and June 14th 2013, you can know their short histories.
A. Kogetsu A
Comparing the left photo of this tree in 2016 with the right one in 2017, it had more flowers in 2017 than in 2016. The colour arrangement is very good because I removed any red shoots whenever I saw them and any shoots which had red flowers when I pruned it after blooming. This is the most important workings when we grow the young satsuki trees of multi-coloured flowers.
I was happy that I had a good result, but since the soil already was hard, I had to repot it after pruning. The left photo is the front side of this tree and the right one is its back side. Judging from the both photos of the whole figure which I took on July 30th, it has not had a lot of new shoots yet. I think it is because I removed the soil in hast and washed the roots drastically. Therefore perhaps we had better repot the satsuki trees which are more than 15 years old without removing the soil completely and washing the roots drastically when we repot them after blooming when it will be very hot in midsummer.
B. Kogetsu B
The left photo is the flowers of Kogetsu B in 2016. And since the soil was hard, I changed the terracotta pot into a bonsai pot when repotting it after blooming. The middle one was taken on June 1st after repotting. And this tree was so strong that it had a lot of new shoots and flower buds when the right one was taken on October 29th.
The left photo is the flowers of Kogetsu B in 2017. This tree has the very good colour arrangement of the flowers, too. And since it had a lot of long shoots I pruned it on July 30th. I can expect that it will have a lot of flowers because I had the good results of pruning of young Kogetsu in midsummer again. I think that making good bonsai consists of a lot of experiences and errors. The middle one is before pruning and the right one is after pruning.
C. Kogetsu C
The left photo is the flowers of Kogetsu C in 2016. The middle one was taken on July 23rd after pruning it again. And this tree was so strong that it had a lot of new shoots and flower buds when the right one was taken on October 29th.
The left photo is the flowers of Kogetsu C in 2017. Compared with the flowers in 2016, this tree had much more flowers and much better colour arrangement of the flowers than in 2016, that is, I had a very good result. Though I removed some unnecessary shoots and cut very long shoots short on July 30th, I did not prune 5 young trees of Kogetsu C, D, E, F and G in the terracotta pots because I will plant them in the bonsai pots in next March. It is because I always am very busy after blooming and I think I will have better results if I repot them in March. The right photo was taken on July 30th.
D. Kogetsu D
The left photo is the flowers of Kogetsu D in 2016. The middle one was taken on July 23rd after pruning this tree again. And it was so strong that it had a lot of new shoots and flower buds when the right one was taken on October 29th.
The left photo is the flowers of Kogetsu D in 2017. Compared with the flowers in 2016, this tree had much better colour arrangement of flowers than in 2016 because I removed any red shoots whenever I saw them, and any shoots which had the red flowers when I pruned it after blooming. Though it had several red flowers and fukurin about 5 years ago, now I am very happy that I have a very good result of my workings. Though I removed some unnecessary shoots and cut very long shoots short on July 30th, I did not prune this tree because I will plant it in the bonsai pots in next March. The right photo was taken on July 30th.
E. Kogetsu E
The left photo is the flowers of Kogetsu E in 2016. Though the colour arrangement of flowers is good, since this tree has a lot of flowers, it has not kept a good shape. It is because the variety of Kogetsu has thinner shoots than other varieties. But when I took the middle photo on July 19th, the whole figure is good. It was so strong that it had a lot of new shoots and flower buds when the right one was taken on October 29th. And since it has a good shape as a bonsai, I hope that the bottom of trunk will grow very thick when I repot it in 6 years.
The left photo is the flowers of Kogetsu E in 2017. Compared with the flowers in 2016, this tree had much more flowers than in 2016. And the flowers are very beautiful and large because the trunk and branches grew thick for a year. I did not prune it in midsummer again because I will plant it in a bonsai pot in next March. The right photo was taken on July 30th.
F. Kogetsu F
The left photo is the flowers of Kogetsu F in 2016. The colour arrangement of flowers is not very good and this tree does not have a good trunk base line. Therefore it will take me some years to make it into a good bonsai. If the bottom of trunk will grow thick, I think its shape will look well. The middle one was taken on July 23rd after pruning it again. Though I had pruned it very drastically in July, it had a lot of new shoots and flower buds when I took the right photo on October 29th.
The left photo is the flowers of Kogetsu F in 2017. Compared with the flowers in 2016, the colour arrangement of flowers is better than in 2016 because we cannot see any red flowers. But since I think that it is not best, I have to remove the shoots which do not have good flowers whenever I prune this tree after blooming. I did not prune it in midsummer again but cut very long shoots short and removed unnecessary shoots because I will plant it in the bonsai pots in next March. The right photo was taken on July 30th.
G. Kogetsu G
The left photo is the flowers of Kogetsu G in 2016. The colour arrangement of flowers is rather good, but the trunk of this tree does not have a good shape as bonsai now. I have kept it because I hope that it will look better if the trunk grow much thicker. The middle one was taken on July 23rd after pruning it again. When repotting it in March 2018, if I consider the angle of trunk, it may look better. Though I had pruned it so drastically in July, it had a lot of new shoot and flower buds when I took the right photo on October 29th 2016.
The left photo is the flowers of Kogetsu G in 2017. Compared with the flowers in 2016, the colour arrangement of flowers is a little bit better than in 2016. Though these flowers are much larger than the average, since this tree is short, it will be much better if we do not make it have a lot of flowers when it will be completed as bonsai.
Section 2. The repairs of broken trunks
Unfortunately and accidentally a lot of my satsuki trees often have some damages from the typhoons, storms, crows, me and some persons. If they are very serious, I cannot repair them. But I can repair some of them by grafting, restyling and new shoots.
A. Kogetsu H
The left photo is the flowers of two-trunked Kogetsu H in 2016. The colour arrangement of flowers is very good, and this tree has a good shape and is oldest of 8 young trees of Kogetsu. When I pruned it on July 23rd again, the whole shape on the middle photo is very good. But unfortunately the main trunk was broken by the May storm at the start of May 2017: it fell down from the shelf. The right photo is the flowers of this tree in 2017.
But when I saw a small new shoot at the top of the broken trunk about 10 days later, I was very glad to think that I would be able to grow it longer than the other trunk. The left photo is this tree before pruning on July 30th. The new shoot which came from the top of broken trunk already is taller than the other trunk. Therefore I wired it and pruned the tree. The middle one is it after pruning. When I took the right photo on August 17th, it grew much taller. Perhaps it will have a good taper in 5 years and I will succeed in the repair.
B. Yama no hikari
This is a three-trunked Yama no hikari. Its origin was the natural seedling which I found near Ogon no hana in the second nursery about 20 years ago. The variety of Ogon no hana is a bud sport of Yama no hikari though it is not seen in The Large Satsuki Dictionary. Perhaps it has not been registered in the lists of flowers of 3 biggest satsuki societies in Japan yet. And though I had not taken care of it for a long time, since a large tree of Yama no hikari had died, I dug it out from there and planted it in a large terracotta pot 3 years ago.
The left photo is its flowers in 2016. Since the longest trunk has a lot of white flowers, the colour arrangement of flowers is not good. It is because this variety is apt to have white flowers. Therefore we have to remove the shoots of young tree which have white flowers. And I thought that I had to graft some shoots on this trunk in the near future, pruned the tree and wired 3 trunks on July 7th. Judging from the middle photo which I took on July 7th, the style is not good. Therefore I thought I would have to consider the angle of trunks when I repot it. The right photo was taken on December 16th.
But unfortunately the longest trunk was broken by the May storm at the start of May 2017: it fell down from the concrete block. The left photo is the flowers of this tree in 2017. Now the colour arrangement of the flowers is much better than in 2016. But any good new shoots did not come from the broken trunk. Therefore I decided to remove this trunk from the bottom and restyle it into the two-trunked tree after blooming. Though I wired the two trunks and took the middle photo on August 9th, the style is not good. Therefore I leaned the pot forward and took the right photo, but the whole style is not still good. I have to consider the angle of the trunks when repotting the tree next time.
Section 3. The flowers of satsuki trees in the terracotta pots in 2017
Now I have more than 38 small satsuki trees in the bonsai and terracotta pots which are more than 17 years old, and since they remained unsold at the flower show when I was the president of Ise Satsuki Society (2001 – 2004), I have grown them since then. I had to make a lot of saplings and young trees to sell them there at that time.
And I have grown a lot of saplings and young trees to give them to my friends and relatives. And though I had found a branch of Nikko in the large terracotta pot which had much smaller leaves than the parent about 15 years ago, after I confirmed its colours of flowers, I inserted a lot of cuttings into the Kanuma soil about 10 years ago. And I disposed of a lot of saplings which did not have any red and red-striped flowers. And I found a branch of Jukokan in the nursery which had much smaller leaves than the parent about 11 years ago. And I inserted several cuttings into the Kanuma soil about 8 years ago. Since these trees of both varieties have smaller leaves than their parents, their growth is slow.
And now I have 88 saplings and young trees in the terracotta pots and have kept 32 trees of them and 15 young trees in the bonsai pots as the materials for my web site. Since I introduced the flowers of large trees in the previous web site, this time I would like to show you the flowers of young trees in the terracotta pots. I think it would be useful if you compared them with yours because a lot of them are good in the style of trees and the colour arrangements of flowers but several of them are not good in both as materials for bonsai. These photos of satsuki flowers were taken from May 23rd to June 6th 2017.
The left photo is Kakuo which is more than 15 years old. Though this tree does not have a good style, it has a lot of beautiful flowers. The middle one is Koun. Though it is more than 15 years old, too, since it has been weak, the bottom of trunk is not thick. And besides, the flowers are not good without red flowers. The right one is Benigasa which is about 8 years old. Since the style of this tree is best of 9 trees of Benigasa that I have, I will plant it in the bonsai pot in March 2018.
The left photo is the two-trunked tree of Nikko which is perhaps 10 years old. Since the leaves are much smaller than those of the parent, the progress is also rather slow. And the flowers are not good without red and large-striped flowers now. But since it is Nikko, I can hope that it will have a good colour arrangement when it is old. Though I expected that this tree would be registered as a new variety, I am very sorry that it has not been accepted as a new variety by Japan Satsuki Association. The middle photo is the three-trunked tree of Nikko which has small leaves. And the right one is Asuka which is about 12 years old. Though these pink flowers are very beautiful and a lot of women like them, I am ashamed that I show you this photo. It is because this tree does not have other good flowers that this variety of Asuka has to have. I always show this tree as a sample of my error that I did not dispose of it when it was a sapling.
The left photo is Hoshi no kagayaki. Since the progress of this tree is very slow, the height is very short and I have not styled it yet. It is so short and the flowers are so small that we can style it into a very small bonsai or a small one. The middle photo is Jukokan whose age seems to be about 8. But since I have not styled it with wires yet, I have to style it drastically by cutting the trunk very short or changing the angle of the trunk after wiring it when repotting it. The colour arrangement of flowers is good. The right photo is Jukokan, too. The colour arrangement is good, and the style of two-trunked tree is good. Since both trees have smaller leaves than their parent, the progress of growth is slow, but I would like to plant the latter in a bonsai pot when repotting it next time.
The left photo is Hikorin whose red colour is a little bit near pink. I did not give a lot of fertilisers to it because the pot is small and I had to repot it after blooming. The middle photo is Yama no hikari whose age is more than 12. Though these flowers are very large, the height of this tree is so short that we can see only the bottom of trunk which is rather thick. Though the shape of the trunk is good because I often have cut it very short, these flowers are so large that this variety of Yama no hikari is not suitable for a very small bonsai if we make each branch and top have more than two or three flowers. The right photo is Shuho no hikari whose age is more than12. Since I often have cut the trunk very short, now the height of this tree is very short and the taper of the trunk is very good because its bottom is rather thick. It is one of the materials for my web site.
The left photo is Hikorin whose age is about 8. Though I cut the trunk short whenever repotting it, since the bottom of trunk is not thick yet, I have to grow the trunk thick by making it have a lot of branches. The middle photo is Togenkyo whose age is more than 10. I have cut the trunk short so often that the taper of this tree is good. And besides, this variety is so strong that the bottom of the trunk is very thick. But it has a lot of red flowers because I gave a lot of fertilisers to it or it has a lot of red gene. I have to continue to remove the shoots which have red flowers for next three years. The right photo is Togenkyo whose age is more than 10. Since this tree had a lot of red flowers last year, I decided to cut the trunk short. If I will do so next year, the style and taper of this small tree will be very good. And if the colour arrangement of flowers is good, it will be my favourite bonsai.
The left photo is Togenkyo whose age is more than 10. The bottom of trunk is very thick and the style of tree as a cascade is good. But though the colour arrangement of flowers is not good, I cannot cut the trunk drastically short because the style is a cascade. And I did not give a lot of fertilisers to it last spring because I had to repot it after blooming, but it has a lot of red flowers. Therefore I have to continue to remove the shoots which have red flowers whenever pruning it after blooming.
The middle photo is Togenkyo. Last year I cut the trunk of this tree very short after blooming because it had a lot of red flowers. But it has still a lot of red flowers. Therefore I have to make some saplings to graft them on the trunk and branches. And the right photo is Hoshi no kagayaki whose age is about 8. These flowers are so beautiful and pretty that a lot of women asked me to give one of them to them. Though the height of this tree is short, since it has a lot of flowers, you cannot see the style of trunk. The progress of this variety is so slow that we cannot get any tall saplings on the outside shelves.
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