Satsuki and Other Trees in Mack's Garden 45

Renewal May 15th, 2018

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I would like to introduce some beautiful photos of satsuki flowers which were chosen from the collection of their photos whenever I renew my homepage.




The ways to completion of satsuki bonsai --- Part 3


The following articles are the continuance of those in my last web site. Therefore if you were interested in them, please read these sentences. Or if you did not read my last web site, please read it in the Archives.

Section 3. Semi-finished bonsai which have been grown in pots from araki


Though I introduced Korin D and Shuho no hikari whose trunk girths are very thick, I have other two trees whose trunk girths are not so. They are hybrids between satsuki and miyamakirishima. And since their flowers and leaves are small, I had not seen any huge trunk girths at that time when I bought them.

C. Kakuo

I bought this Kakuo for 20,000 yen in Kanuma when I went to Tokyo and Kanuma to see the big satsuki flower shows at the start of June in 1999. Though the style was not very good, since the trunk girth was 19 cm, I planted it in a large terracotta pot. It is because I could not find out any good araki of this variety there. At the same time I planted other araki of Kakuo in the garden because the style, trunk base line and nebari were not good. And when the bottom of trunk grew thick, I repotted it in a bonsai pot on April 20th, 2010. The height was 57 cm and the trunk girth was 29 cm. And when I repotted it on March 13th, 2015, the height was 58 cm and the trunk girth was 31 cm.

The left photo is flowers of this tree whose photo was taken on May 20th, 2011. Since this variety has small flowers, the whole figure does not look gorgeous because it is very tall. The middle one is the whole figure before trimming on November 21st, 2011 and the right one was it after trimming. Generally speaking, if a satsuki tree has a gene of miyamakirishima (tsutsuji), the roots are so weaker than those of pure satsuki trees that it does not grow strongly. But this tree has a lot of long shoots. Therefore I could hope that the bottom of trunk would grow thicker and the whole style would be much better.



The left photo is flowers of this tree, which was taken on May 28th, 2012. Since I pruned it drastically after blooming in 2011 to make the branch pads as soon as possible, it has a small number of flowers. But the whole figure is better than that in 2011. The middle one is the coloured leaves whose photo was taken on December 17th, 2013. These branch pads are still weak. The right one is the whole figure before pruning it to repot it, which was taken on March 20th, 2015.



The left photo is this tree which was pulled out from the pot and put on a turning table to remove the soil. Though it has passed 5 years since repotting in 2010, the front side of root ball is not so back that it is easy to remove the soil. Therefore you cannot see any grains of soil on the roots on the middle photo after I had washed the roots. And the condition of roots which were washed is very good. But the trunk girth was not what I had expected. I think it is because this tree has small leaves. The right one is the whole figure after repotting. And the branch pads are still not much better than that in November of 2011. These photos were taken on March 20th, 2015.



The left photo is the whole figure of this tree in March, which was taken on April 25th, 2015. Though the style is not bad, the left side of the nebari is weak. Therefore you may feel that this tree looks a little bit unstable. You can see a lot of flowers on the middle photo which was taken on May 14th, 2016. Though they are beautiful, some branches have to have more small branches. The right one is flowers of this tree in 2017. The whole figure is as same as that in 2016. And besides, you can see the small part of dead branches on the top. Perhaps it means that this Kakuo had a lack of water in summer of 2015 when it had been repotted in March or in that of 2016. This variety and other hybrid varieties which have genes of miyamakirishima and other azaleas must be given less water than pure varieties of satsuki which do not have such genes. If we do not have such special care about them, they will not grow strong and healthy. I think it is a good idea that we put the larger grains of Kanuma soil on the bottoms of pots when we repot them so that the water may drop from the pots easily.



D. Chikuho

I bought this Chikuho for 25,000 yen in Kanuma when I went to Tokyo and Kanuma to see the big satsuki flower shows at the start of June in 1999. Though the price of this tree was more expensive than that of above Kakuo, the trunk girth was 15cm. It meant that the style of the former was much better than that of the latter. I planted it in a terracotta pot. And I repotted it in a bonsai pot on April 5th, 2006. The height was 62 cm and the trunk girth was 18 cm.

And though I repotted it on April 1st, 2009, the height was 63 cm and the trunk girth was 18 cm. But though it had passed 3 years since the previous repotting, since the soil was considerably soft, I did not wash the roots. And washing the roots after removing the soil perfectly, I repotted it on March 26th, 2013. The height was 59 cm and the trunk girth was 19cm. And I cannot remember the reason why I repotted it on March 17th, 2015 because it has passed only 2 years since the previous repotting and I used the same bonsai pot. The height was 58 cm and the trunk girth was 19 cm.

Judging from the fact that the trunk girth extended only 4 cm in 16 years, we cannot make any trees of this variety grow large in pots rapidly even if we gave them a lot of fertilisers. When I washed the roots in 2015, since this tree had very good roots, it never was weak. It seems that this variety has the same nature as above Kakuo has.

The left photo is the whole figure of this tree after repotting on April 1st, 2009. Since the sphagnum is not put on the soil, you can see it have a good nebari. You can see a lot of flowers on the middle photo which was taken on May 20th, 2011. These flowers are larger than those of Kakuo. Therefore the whole figure of this Chikuho is much better than that of above Kakuo. Since largeness of flowers of these varieties differs in the quantity of fertilisers which are given to them, large trees have to be given more fertilisers than small ones which are suitable for small flowers. The right photo is the whole figure of this tree before blooming, which was taken on May 4th, 2013. It is rather good. Though I repotted it in March, I did not remove all flower buds to make it have a considerable number of flowers.



The left photo is flowers of this tree whose photo was taken on May 23rd,, 2014. These flowers are so crowded that you cannot see the stream of the trunk. Therefore the whole figure is a little bit clumsy. The middle one is it before repotting on March 17th, 2015. Though it has a lot of flower buds, I did not remove them to make it have flowers if the condition of the roots was good when they were washed. The right one is it which was pulled out from the pot and put on a turning table to remove the soil. Though the bottom of the front side of root ball is yellow, the surface and rest of the side are black. It meant that I had to remove all soil from the roots.



The left photo is the roots which were washed. They were so good that I could decide to keep flower buds to make this tree have flowers. The middle one is the whole figure after repotting on March 17th, 2015. Though the style is good, the taper of the trunk is not good. It is because this tree which had been very tall was cut short long years ago. The trunk near the top is very thick. But when you see the whole figure in a month after repotting on the right photo which was taken on April 25th, 2015, you may not feel unpleasant sensation about it.



The left photo is the whole figure of this tree after trimming, which was taken December 11th, 2016. Since I removed a lot of long shoots from the lower branches, they have a lot of yellow leaves which did not turn red because of lack of sun shines. Therefore the coloured leaves of the back side on the middle photo are more beautiful than those of the front side are. But these spring leaves will fall down from the branches. The right photo is the flowers, which was taken on May 19th, 2017. Though these flowers are beautiful, I have to complete branch pads and decide the length of each branch.



Section 4. Satsuki trees which have been grown in the pots from the cuttings

When I married Miyoko at the age of 30 in Kobe city, I could not go upstairs easily because I had had a serious disease in both lungs. They had lost 40 % of faculty of them and have done so even now. Fortunately since our flat had a small garden, I began to grow vegetables there, and satsuki trees and other plants in pots which my father had given me so that I might walk easily by working for a few hours per a day. And I bought a lot of cheap satsuki trees and made a lot of saplings by inserting a lot of cuttings into Kanuma soil. I thought that even when I died, if I gave a lot of satsuki saplings to our friends and other persons, at least one thirds or one fourths of them would continue to live.

I made two wooden seedling trays, placed a thin layer of wet sphagnum moss on each bottom, filled them with small grains of Kanuma, soaked the cuttings in the rooting hormone for two hours to encourage quick root production and potentially good nebari, inserted them into each holes that I had made with a bamboo stick, and put wet sphagnum on the soil.

When the cuttings had the white roots, I planted them one by one in a small plastic pot. And since I continued to give them the very small quantity of fertilisers every week, I got about one hundred sapling whose height was more than 100 cm in a year. And I planted them in sallow terracotta pots. At the same time I made a lot of small and middle sizes of saplings of satsuki, too. But since I got the regular job at Kogakkan University in Ise city at the age of 34, I had to leave our flat in the early morning of Thursdays and come home in the evening of Mondays. And we moved to Ise in two years with all trees which I had been growing in Kobe. The total number of my trees in pots was more than300.

Since we bought an old house in August 1978 which had a large garden, I could make a lot of bonsai shelves and put a lot of trees in pots on them. But my tall satsuki trees were so thick that I could not make a lot of them have a good styles by wiring them and broke the trunks of about a half of them. Therefore I had to restyle them.

Fortunately at that time when I became a member of Ise Satsuki Society, I could sell a lot of satsuki trees which I did not like to keep and a lot of saplings which I had made at our satsuki flower show. Since at that time Japan had been boiled to boom, we could sell almost all trees which we wanted to sell though we could not sell those some flowers of which had withered.

But when I was a chairman of Ise Satsuki Society about 20 years ago, we could sell only a half of trees that we wanted to sell and one fourths when I retired from it in January 2005. And though I did not make any saplings for a while, I have grown a lot of trees that I could not sell at our flower show. Therefore these trees of my small satsuki trees are about 22 years old. But since I had retired from Kogakkan University on March 31st, 2007, sometimes I made several or more saplings whenever I needed some to make roots by grafting and to give them to my brothers, sisters, relatives and friends.

Recently some of my oldest trees which are about 45 years old died or are very weak. When I decided to keep these varieties, I made several saplings. And since I had found the smaller leaves on the branches of Nikko and Jukokan more than 15 years ago, I expected for several years that they would have good flowers. But though I could not find them out, I took more than 20 cuttings from the branches and inserted them into Kanuma soil. And I pulled several saplings out of the seedling trays because these saplings of Nikko had a single colour of flowers and several saplings of Jukokan did not have good colours of flowers. Therefore now I have several trees of each variety. Though I had hoped that these would be authorised as new varieties by Japan Satsuki Association, I gave up my hope. It seems that a tree is not authorised as a new variety of satsuki even if it had much smaller leaves than the parent has.

Here I would like to introduce the trees which I have grown in pots from the cuttings and the araki which I dug out in 1972, and the small size of completed trees which I have grown from the cuttings. Now though I have 83 young trees in terracotta pots except 9 trees of 3 special azalea varieties (Yakushima azalea and two varieties of smelling azalea) which I do not make into bonsai, I will repot about ten of them into bonsai pots after blooming this season if I can find them which are suitable to each tree. And I have the small size of 53 trees in bonsai pots. Therefore since I cannot introduce all of them, I would like to choose a considerable number of them. All following photos of flowers except one were taken in 2017.

A. The oldest trees which I have grown in pots since 1972

If a satsuki tree had been planted in a pot for more than 30 years since the cutting, it is natural that it would be weak. And besides, since I had lent more than10 good-shaped satsuki trees to the university president and my friends when they had flowers, almost all of them died in one or two years though the former gave me some money of the sum which he had to pay when he bought them at a bonsai shop in 1990s. It is because they were not given a lot of water. Therefore now I have none of trees that are strong and healthy and have good shapes except the trees which have been planted in the garden.

The left photo is the whole figure of Shintaiyo before repotting, whose photo was taken on March 25th, 2015. The height is 88 cm and the trunk girth is 24 cm. The middle one is the flowers in 2017. Since this tree has a lot of large and beautiful flowers, it seems to look healthy. But in fact it has a lot of small rotten branches. The right photo is the whole figure after repotting on March 26th, 2018. I had to remove a lot of small rotten branches. The height is 89 cm and the trunk girth is 24 cm. This trunk was not thicker than I thought because the trunk girth was 23 cm when I had repotted it in April 2008.

Judging from these facts I think this tree will die within 10 years. Of course other large trees will die before this Shintaiyo will do because they are weaker than this tree. These facts tell us that if large satsuki trees continued to be planted in pots for more than 20 years they will be very weak and die in the near future. Therefore if a large tree continued to be planted in a pot for more than 20 years, it has to be planted in a very large pot or nursery or ground for a few years.



This Osakazuki is my memorial tree. The trunks and roots are so strange that it is difficult for me to decide the front. I dug it up from the bank of a lane in my grandfather's tea tree field with other trees when I got married in 1972. And I planted it in a terracotta pot. The height was about 15 cm and the root girths were about 3 - 4 cm. Though I have grown a lot of satsuki trees since then, it is one of my best friends which have seen the changes of the world with me. I assume that it is more than 90 years old, and that he had planted it before I was born in 1942, and that it sometimes had a lot of soil over it and often had been cut so shortly with other weeds every year that it could not have thick trunks and roots. But recently it has a lot of rotten shoots or small branches. Therefore it tells me that it is so weak that it will die within several years.

The left photo is the whole figure of this Osakazuki after trimming, whose photo was taken on April 20th, 2011. It is so splendid that some of you may have seen this photo with the photos of Kasugano and Sangosai in April number of The Satsuki Kenkyu in 2011 and in the archives of my web site whose date is January 15th, 2011. And it has still a lot of flowers on the middle photo which was taken on May 28th, 2012. But recently since it has a lot of rotten shoots and branches, I had to remove them when I repotted it. You can see the whole figure after repotting on the right photo which was taken on April 6th, 2017.

When it is very strong, even if I pruned it drastically like an araki, it would be OK. And besides, though this variety is apt to have some rotten shoots even if it was strong, this condition is a little bit miserable. Therefore I have to take good care of it. Now Kasugano is keeping a good style though it is a little bit weak. You can see its photos in the archives of my web site whose date is February 5th, 2018. But I am very sad to tell you that Sangosai was divided into two parts and planted in terracotta pots after the rotten parts of roots and trunks were removed when I repotted it last year.



B. The small sizes of completed trees which have been grown in pots from the cuttings

I have grown the following trees since we closed our flower show in 2004, for I retired from Ise Satsuki Society in January 2005. Since I could not sell a lot of young trees there, they vary in age from 18 to 22. Therefore though they have considerably thick bottoms of trunks, some of them do not have a good style and good nebari. Though some of them are the varieties which have variegated flowers, some of them do not have a good colour arrangement. And since I had made them to sell at our flower show, they are small. But, though they were not my favorites at first, as I have grown them for a long time, I began to have strong attachments to them. Now some of them are my favourites.

The left photo is the front side of the whole figure of tree-trunked Nikko E. Though any red flowers cannot be seen, you can see some red–striped flowers on the middle photo of the back side. Though the colour arrangement is not very good, the flowers are beautiful. And the style is good. Since the pot was a little bit small, I repotted it in a larger rectangular bonsai pot after blooming in 2017. This pot is more suitable to the tree on the right photo which was taken on April 19th, 2018 than before.



The left photo is the front side of the whole figure of tree-trunked Nikko F. Though any red flowers cannot be seen there, you can see two red flowers on the middle photo of the back side. Therefore I can hope that I will be able to see some red flowers on the front side. Since the pot was a little bit small, I repotted it in a larger rectangular bonsai pot after blooming in 2017. But this pot is not more suitable to the tree on the right photo which was taken on April 19th, 2018 than before. The points of small problems are the place where it was planted and the front side of this tree. Though it has the small problems, if it has flowers, it will have a beautiful shape.



The left photo is the front side of the whole figure of Nikko G. These flowers are very beautiful and you can see a lot of red flowers. And since several white flowers are seen on the middle photo, the colour arrangement will be perfect as the variety of Nikko. I repotted it after blooming in 2017 and the right one is the whole figure whose photo was taken on April 19th, 2018. The style is good. This tree is one of my favorites.



The left photo is the flowers of Nikko H. Since this tree has one white flower and some red ones, the colour arrangement is perfect as the variety of Nikko. Though it is not in full bloom, everybody can expect that it will have wonderful flowers. The middle photo is the flowers of the front side of Nikko I. Though it has a lot of red flowers on the left first branch, one on the top and one on the first right branch, you cannot see any white ones. And it does not have any white ones on the right photo of the back side, neither. Therefore though these flowers are very beautiful, the colour arrangement is not perfect.



The left photo is the front side of Nikko J. Though this tree is not in full bloom, you can see a red swelling flower bud. But any purely white ones cannot be seen on the middle photo of the back side. Some flowers which seem to be white are not purely white ones. It is because the colours faded. Therefore I can hope that the colour arrangement will not be perfect but good. You cannot see any red and white flowers on the right photo of the front side of Nikko K and it does not have them on the back side, neither. It has only two red-striped flowers. Therefore I cannot hope that it will have a good colour arrangement.



The left photo is the front side of the six-trunked tree of Nikko K. It has no red flower. You had better know that if the variety of Nikko does not have any red flowers, it will never have a white one. But you can see the scar on the bottom on the front side. I cut the trunk which had died some years ago. And some red and red-striped flowers can be seen on the middle photo of the back side. But I never can change the front and back sides. The problem which I have now is which trunk I have to cut to make this tree into a five-trunked tree. It is because we Japanese like odd numbers.

The right photo is the flowers of Nikko L. Though this tree does not have any white flowers, since it has several red flowers, the colour arrangement is good. But the style of the parent trunk is not good. Though this is a completed tree, it is not a good bonsai even if these flowers were very beautiful, that is, since it is 20 years old or more, I have lost my labour, fertilisers, water, Kanuma soil and others for it. We must not grow any trees as bonsai which are not good materials. But now I cannot throw this tree into a garbage can. It is because I have a strange attachment to it because I have grown it for 20 years or more.



The left photo is the flowers of Nikko M. Though you can see a few red-striped flowers, the colours are thin, that is, I cannot hope that the colour arrangement will be improved because it is about 20 years old now. Though you can see a few red-striped flowers among the flowers of Nikko N on the middle photo, the colours are thin, too. But you cannot see any red-striped flowers on the left photo of Nikko O. However beautiful their flowers are when they are in full bloom, anybody cannot exhibit them on the shelves at any flower show. It is a sad story.



The left photo is the flowers of Hakurin B in which you can see one pink flower and two pink-striped flowers. Judging from a fact that his tree has these three flowers on the front side the colour arrangement is no problem because any tree of Hakurin does not have a lot of them. And since I repotted it last year, you can see the good taper of trunk. And besides, since this tree belongs to the small class of satsuki bonsai, the whole figure is good on the middle photo which was taken on April 8th, 2018. And you can see three pink flowers and a pink-striped flower on the right photo of the front side of Hakurin C. And besides, since this tree belongs to the very small class of satsuki bonsai and the bottom of trunk is thick, if you wold like to buy such a tree, it is very expensive.



The left photo is the flowers of Asuka. Though these flowers are beautiful, this trunk base line is not good. It is because this tree is one of trees which I made to give several seedlings to my brothers, sisters, friends and relatives. Therefore it was impossible to make it into a good style of bonsai. The middle one is the flowers of Kegon where you can see several white flowers. Therefore the flower arrangement is perfect. Since the leaves are small, though the bottom of trunk is not very thick, the whole figure is very good. This tree is one of my favorites. The right one is the flowers of Karenko where you cannot see any purple-striped flowers. Though these flowers are beautiful, the flower arrangement is not good, but I can hope it will have some.



The left photo is the flowers of the front side of Kobainishiki where you cannot see any white flowers. This tree is one of trees which I made to keep some in pots and give several seedlings to my brothers, sisters, friends and relatives. Though this tree has a lot of beautiful flowers and large purple-striped flowers among them, the colour arrangement is not good. Since the gene of white flower in this variety is weaker than others, I cannot hope that it will have some white flowers. It is very difficult to take the good cuttings from this variety and to get good saplings.

The middle one is the flowers of Kokinsai. When I was given a sapling of this tree by a member of Ise Satsuki Society about 30 years ago, it had a lot of good flowers. But 90% of flowers are formal ones which even its parent Kinsai does not have. Therefore though the leaves are very small, I think that this tree is not Kokinsai no more. The right one is the flowers of Koun A where you cannot see any red flowers. Since there are only two small red-striped flowers, though I can hope that this tree will have red flowers because the gene of red flower often is stronger than that of white one, this variety does not have a lot of red ones.



The left photo is the flowers of the front side of Sachi no hana where you can see only one red flower. Though this tree has a lot of pale colours of flowers, I can hope that it will have more red flowers than now. The middle one is the flowers of Shuho no hikari B. And right one is the flowers of Kozan B. Since these two varieties have the same sizes and colours of flowers, the colour arrangement of flowers is no problem. Therefore if one of them has a good style, it is a good satsuki bonsai. Satsuki enthusiasts can grow these varieties easily.



Since I have a lot of satsuki trees which do not have good colour arrangements of flowers in the pots and nursery, I would like to make them have them by grafting. Therefore I have to make a lot of saplings of them if I could have good plans in the mind.

C. The young trees which I have grown in pots from the cuttings

Now I would like to introduce a lot of young satsuki trees which I have grown in pots from the cuttings. It is because I think that it is very useful for you to read following sentences if you would like to grow them. Since I have grown a lot of satsuki trees since 1972, I have a lot of experiences of errors, mistakes, failures and success. I think these are my treasures and am happy if I could help you to grow satsuki trees well by telling about them.

Since I did not have any trees of Hikorin in pots on the shelves, I took several cuttings of this variety which was planted in the nursery and inserted them into Kanuma soil about 10 years ago. The left photo is the flowers of Hikorin A. And since the soil in the pot was a little bit hard, I repotted it into a larger bonsai pot after blooming. When you see the whole figure on the middle photo, comparing it with the bonsai pot, you can feel that the hanging branch is much shorter than the ideal image that you have. Therefore I have to make it much longer year by year by wiring new shoots than now. The right one is the whole figure of Hikorin B. Since the size of flowers of this variety is middle, I cut the trunk very short to make a small bonsai when I repotted it several years ago. Therefore the bottom of trunk is much thinner than that of above Hikorin A.



The left photo is Hoshi no kagayaki A in the bonsai pot which is about 8 years old. This tree is one of trees which I have grown to keep some in pots and give several seedlings to my brothers, sisters, friends, relatives and some persons. Since a lot of people asked me to give them this tree, sometimes I had to make several saplings. But since the trees of this variety have the curled leaves, they grow very slowly and are so weak that some of them die. And we must not give them a lot of water and fertilisers. Therefore though these flowers are beautiful, this tree is so small and weak that it does not have a lot of flowers.

But the middle and right photos are Hoshi no kagayaki B and C which have a lot of flowers. Since they were planted in terracotta pots, they are stronger than Hoshi no kagayaki A though they are the same age. But they have not grown large in pots. I will repot these two trees into bonsai pots after blooming. I am not sure that they will grow large because all trees in pots that were older than these trees already died though I have a very large tree in the nursery.



The left photo is the flowers of Jukokan A where you can see some colour-ring type flowers (white). Therefore the colour arrangement of flowers is good and these flowers are beautiful. Since I did not have any trees of this variety in pots on the shelves, I made some saplings about 10 years ago. Therefore the trunk girths of this two-trunked tree in a bonsai pot are rather thick. But the middle and right photos are Jukokan B and C in terracotta pots whose flowers are beautiful. It is because they are younger than Jukokan A and they have smaller leaves than it.

About 15 years ago I found a branch of Jukokan in the nursery which had much smaller leaves than the parent tree. And I took several cuttings from it in about 2010 and have grown them. Though Jukokan B has not been styled, I will wire it after pruning to repot it at the end of May. Though these flowers belong to the middle size of flower as satsuki bonsai, if their size is compared with the height of this tree, you may feel that they are larger. But though Jukokan C which is two-trunked tree has a lot of flowers, you can feel that they are not large because this tree is much higher than Jukokan B. You must consider the size of flower, the number of flowers and the height of the tree when you make small or middle size of satsuki bonsai.



Since I did not have any trees of Kogetsu in pots on the shelves, I made more than 10 saplings about 13 years ago. And using some of them as the materials, I often introduced how to grow them in my web site. Therefore you may remember these two trees. The left photo is Kogetsu A in the bonsai pot, whose colour arrangement of flower is perfect because I removed all shoots that had red flowers when pruning it after blooming last year. And the middle one is Kogetsu B, whose flowers are beautiful. Since this tree had been planted in a terracotta pot, I repotted it into a bonsai pot on March 18th, 2018. This two-trunked tree has a good colour arrangement of flowers and the good style after wiring on the right photo.



About 17 years ago I found a branch of Nikko in the large terracotta pot on the shelve which had much smaller leaves than the parent tree had. And though the branch had had only flowers of pink ground (jiai) for several years, when it had red-striped flowers in about 2010, after taking a lot of cuttings, I inserted them into Kanuma soil. It was because the flowers of the branch were not good in respect of colour. Therefore I had to remove a lot of saplings from the seedling tray, which did not have good flowers.

The left photo is the two-trunked tree of Nikko E. Though you cannot see any red and red-striped flowers on the front side of this tree, it has two red-striped flowers on the back side of the tree on the middle photo. Therefore I can hope that it will have a good colour arrangement of flower. I repotted it into a bonsai pot after blooming. And the right photo is the whole style, which was taken on April 18th, 2018. Though it is about 10 years old, the bottom of these trunks is not thick. It is because the leaves are small and I had not given it a lot of fertilisers lest it should die.



The left photo is the three-trunked tree of Nikko F. There is only one red-striped flower on the front side of this tree. Therefore I can hope that it will have a good colour arrangement of flower. But I think it will not be very good. And I pruned it after blooming and repotted it into a bonsai pot after wiring the left trunk. The middle one is the whole figure which was taken on April 18th, 2018. Since the style is not good, I have to make the left trunk much shorter or the centre trunk much higher. But since it does not have a good colour arrangement of flower, I have to do so after confirming the colours of flowers. For example, I must not make the left trunk very short if the top of it has even only one red-striped flower. It is because it will be a precious flower.

The right photo is the whole figure of Nikko G. Since I cut the trunk very short to make small bonsai or mini bonsai 5 years ago when I repotted, it does not have any good-coloured flowers and these flowers are very large, compared with the height of this tree, though the flower of Nikko belongs to the small size of flower as satsuki bonsai. Therefore in this case, I must not give it a lot of fertilisers when completing it.



The left photo is the whole figure of Togenkyo A in full bloom. This tree is one of trees which I made to keep several trees in pots as materials for my web site and give several saplings to my brothers, sisters, friends and relatives. Therefore I have more than 10 trees of various types and sizes of this variety now. The colour arrangement of flowers of this tree is perfect. And this style of cascade is good. And besides, though the leaves are small, the bottom of the trunk is very thick because it is very strong. Since it has past four years since repotting it into a bonsai pot in June 2014, I have to repot it after blooming.

The middle photo is the flowers of Togenkyo B. Though the whole style of cascade is good, the colour arrangement of flowers is not very good. Since it had been planted in a terracotta pot, I repotted it into a bonsai pot after blooming in 2017. Though the whole figure after repotting on the right photo is good, since it is not very good, I would like to consider the angle and place of planting when I will repot it next time.



Since these three trees of Togenkyo and above two were introduced in my past web sites, you can remember each of them. The left photo is the two-trunked tree of Togenkyo C. The slim style and colour arrangement of this tree are very good. Since the flowers are strange, if it has a lot of branches and flowers, the whole style will be clumsy. The middle photo is the whole figure of Togenkyo D which is not good. It was because the trunk of this tree was so thick that I could not bend the trunk into a good style with thick wires when I restyled the two-trunked tree into a single-trunked one on January 25th, 2015. Therefore it will take me a long time to make it have good branches.

Since these flowers of this variety are classified in the middle size of flower, though I cut the trunk of Togenkyo E very short to make a small bonsai when I repotted it several years ago, the bottom of trunk on the right photo is thick. Therefore the taper of the trunk is very good. And the colour arrangement of flowers is good though this tree is small.



The left photo is the flowers of two-trunked Yama no hikari A. Since the red and red-striped flowers can be seen there, the colour arrangement is very good. It is because I removed all shoots that had white flowers when I pruned it after blooming. Though these flowers are very beautiful, the trunk base line of the main trunk is not good because I cut the trunk which had white flowers very short. Since it has a strong curve, the stream of trunk is not smooth. Since the flowers of Yama no hikari are classified in the large size of flower as satsuki bonsai, they are not suitable for the tree which is shorter than this tree.

The middle photo is a two-trunked Yama no hikari B. 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 4 years ago.

Though this tree had been three-trunked tree at first, the main trunk was broken by the very strong winds two years ago. But since it had had a lot of white flowers, I was happy that I could restyle it into a two-trunked tree. But since the whole figure on the right photo is not good, it will take me a long time to make it into good bonsai.



The left photo is the flowers of Koun B where you cannot see any red-striped flowers except some red-blotched flowers. Therefore the colour arrangement of flowers of this tree is not good. Though I think the gene of red flower is stronger than that of white flower, I have not seen any red-striped flowers since it began to have flowers. And besides, though it is about 12 years old, the bottom of trunk is not thick.

The middle photo is the flowers of Benigasa. Though these flowers are beautiful, the whole style is not good. Though I have 9 trees of this variety which are about 8 years old, I cannot give any tree of them to my brothers, sisters, friends, relatives and some persons whom we already gave them, and sell them at the flower show of Ise Satsuki Society because I retired from it about 14 years ago. Therefore they will occupy wider spaces on the shelves every year.

The right photo is the flowers of Shuho no hikari B. Since these flowers are classified in the middle size of flower, though I cut the trunk very short to make a very small bonsai when I repotted it several years ago, the bottom of trunk is thick. Therefore the taper of the trunk is very good. And the colour arrangement of flowers is no problem because this tree has a single colour of flowers.



At the end of this series, I would like to introduce two trees of Kusudama and the wisteria whose photos you can see at the top page of this web site. It is because I forgot to introduce these two satsuki trees in my web site whose date is February 5th, 2018.

The left photo is the flowers of five-trunked Kusudama A which I bought for 1,500 yen. Though the colours of these flowers are fading by the strong sunshine, they are beautiful. Since a member of Ise Satsuki Society could not sell it at our satsuki flower show in 1988, he asked me to buy it. Though it had a lot of trunks and shoots, I made it into five-trunked tree by removing some trunks and lot of shoots and bending trunks with thick wires and planted it in a large terracotta pot. And I repotted it into a bonsai pot in April 2011. When I repotted it on April 3rd, 2016, the height was 58 cm and the bottom of trunks was 29cm.

The middle photo is the flowers of two-trunked Kusudama B which I bought for 34,000 yen when I went to see the International Garden and Greenery Exposition (Gifu prefecture) in 1995. These flowers are very beautiful. After coming home I planted this tree in a very large terracotta pot. When I repotted it in March 2000 in a very large terracotta pot, the height was 32 cm, trunk girth was 38cm. And I repotted it into a bonsai pot in March 2012. When I repotted it on April 3rd, 2016, the height was 46 cm and the trunk girth was 45 cm.

The right photo is the white flowers of wisteria which my father gave me when I got married in 1972. Since he had dug it out in the mountain and grew it in a pot for about 10 years, I think that it is more than 75 years old. When I removed the clusters of flowers after blooming, the number of them was 186 though each of them was not very long. This photo was taken on April 8th, 2018.

Since I introduced a lot of my main satsuki trees in this series, you may remember some of them whose photos you saw in my past web sites. I used the same photos and wrote the same sentences. And recently I cannot remember a lot of things and English and Japanese words and sometimes may have wrong memories. Therefore strictly speaking, I may have written wrong sentences in my web sites. But I think they are small errors. When I can recognise that they are serious, I have to stop writing my web site. If you could see and read them delightfully, I would respect you. Thank you.


The archives

The archaives are the back nukmbers of my web site. If you are interested in them, please read them. I am sure that it is very useful for you to grow satsuki trees and to make them into good bonsai.


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