I would like to show you the flowers of the three varieties of satsuki trees in 2019. The left photo is Korin whose trunk girth was 46 cm when I repotted it on March 27th, 2018. The middle one is Yama no hikari which has been grown from the cutting. Though these flowers are very beautiful, compared with the height, they are so large that they may look unstable or unsteady. The right one is Shintaiyo which has been grown from the cutting and is perhaps 47 years old. Since it has been grown in the pot for a long time, I think it will die in several years though it had a lot of flowers in 2019.
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 them in my last web site, please read them in the Archives.
Planting or Repotting Satsuki Trees in March…Part 2
I dug out Juko, Korin A, Nikko A, Nikko B, Nikko C, Kozan C and Hakurin from the main nursery in March 2014 and introduced 6 trees of them in the web site whose dates are March 30th, April 30th, July 7th, August 23rd and October 10th, 2014. A lot of trees in the main nursery grew so large that I had to dig several trees of them from there which had good shapes.
C. Juko
I bought this Juko for 33,000 yen in November 1993, whose height was 50cm and whose trunk girth was 20 cm, and planted it in the nursery in 1994. It was very cheap though all satsuki trees were very expensive at that time because it had been placed in the corner of the shop garden and did not have a lot of branches. It is as a material that I bought it, that is, I was not sure that I would be able to grow it very large. It is because it is said that satsuki trees cannot grow large once they are left alone without good cares.
But since it grew large, I dug it up from the nursery and planted it in the very large bonsai pot in 2014. The height was 58 cm and the trunk girth was 47 cm. And since I thought that this tree was a little bit weak, I repotted it in the very large wooden pot in March 2019. It has a lot of good roots on the left photo. And the roots of the front side on the second one are not bad. But a thick root of the back side seems to have the rotten part on the third one though it died completely. The right one is the front side of this tree. When I repotted it in 2014, it was strong. I wonder why my large satsuki trees do not grew strongly if they were planted in a Canton pot. Two large trees already died and the very large Koka is dying. They were very expensive.
D. Korin A
This Korin has been grown from the cutting. And its life is like mine. Therefore it is one of favorites. 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, “He may die tonight.” 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 couldn’t 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 father’s garden, planted them there though the labour was very severe, bought a lot of 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 hoped they would outlive me.
I planted this tree into the main nursery in 1990. And I dug it up from there and planted it in the very large bonsai pot in 2014. The height was 52 cm and the trunk girth was 42 cm. And I repotted it on March 30th, 2019. The height is 49 cm and the trunk girth is 45 cm. The roots on the left photo are perfect though I have to organise them. The second one is the front side of the whole figure of this tree after washing roots. The third one is the roots of the back side. They are very good. But if I do not organise them because it has so many roots, they will make Bankon near the bottom of the trunk in near future. The right one is the front side of this tree.
E. Nikko A
I bought this tree for 12,000 yen in Kanuma city and planted it in the nursery in March 1992. Since I had changed the core of top three times, when I planted it in the bonsai pot in 2014 after I had dug it out from the nursery and washed the roots, the height was 46 cm and the trunk girth was 46 cm. Though the height and the trunk girth were very good, this tree had some large scars.
Since it had passed 5 years since previous repotting, judging that the soil was rather hard, I repotted it on March 29th, 2019. The height is 47 cm and the trunk girth is 49 cm. The roots on the left photo are not very good. And though the nebari of front side on the second one is not very good and I have to organise them, this tree has a large hall between the roots and a lot of clearances between thin roots.
These conditions are good to make the tree grow strong. But you can see the black parts of some thick roots. Though they are not rotten, I think they are not in a good condition of health. Therefore I doubt that these Canton pots are not suitable to these satsuki trees. But since the roots of back side on the third photo have two large holes between the roots, I would like to be sure that they will grow strong. The right photo is the whole figure of this tree after repotting. Though it has some scars, I would like to complete it in 2023 when I will repot it.
F. Nikko B
I paid 3,000 yen for this Nikko B in Kanuma city in November 1993 to plant it in the nursery. It was very cheap because it had been placed in the corner of garden. And it was so poor that it had only a few branches. But I hoped that I would be able to grow it strongly if I planted it in the nursery.
The first branch of this tree was very low and the second one was very thick after I had pruned it drastically in 2004. And the bottom of trunk was not very large. Therefore it looked clumsy. Though I thought I should have removed all thick branches when I had planted it in the nursery, I could not do so because I could not imagine that it would grow so large in 10 years, that is, I did not have any experiences of growing such a tree as it in the nursery for long years. Therefore I had to remove some thick branches from the trunks when it had passed some years since I had retired from Kogakkan University.
And I dug out this tree from the nursery and plant it in the large round bonsai pot in March 2014. The height was 38 cm and the trunk girth was 40 cm. And I planted a young tree by the right side of the trunk to make a root by grafting. And I repotted this tree on April 1st 2019 in the same round bonsai pot. The height is 39 cm and the trunk girth is 44 cm.
The left photo is the roots which are very good. Judging from the second one the nebari of the front side of this tree looks good. But it does not have any thick roots on the right side of the bottom of trunk. This is a crucial defect as bonsai. Since I made a thin root by grafting, you can see a thin trunk between the thick branch and the thick root on the third photo. But you can see the large space between it and the trunk. I hope it will have a good result in 20 years or more. And I may be able to have a good plan to cover the defect in the near future. This is a sad story. The right photo is the front side of this tree after repotting.
G. Nikko C
I bought this tree for 12,000 yen in Kanuma city in November 1991 and planted it in the nursery in March 1992. The height was 49 cm and the trunk girth was 17 cm. And I dug it out from nursery and planted in the bonsai pot in March 2014. The height was 48 cm and trunk girth was 45 cm. Since it has passed 5 years since the previous repotting, I repotted it in the same pot. The height was 49 cm and the trunk girth was 45 cm.
The left photo is the back roots which are not bad. And the front nebari of this tree on the second one is not bad, neither. But reading these records of growth of this tree, you must wonder why the trunk girth in 2019 is the same as that in 2014. Though the style on the third one is not bad, the top of the trunk does not have 2 or 3 branches. If you can see the right photo, you can recognise the reasons. The fact that the back roots are not bad means that the inside of the lower part of trunk is not rotten. Therefore I can judge that the scars which I made when I cut two unnecessary thick branches caused the death of other branches. I think it is because two scars were near together. But now I cannot cut the trunk.
H. Kozan C
I paid 300,000 yen for this Kozan C in 1991 whose height was 35 cm and whose trunk girth was 27cm. At that time araki was very expensive. But now we can buy them for a half price or less. Since it had a scar on the front side of the trunk, I planted it in the very large wooden pot to cure it in 1994. And since the pot was rotten, I planted it in the nursery in 2001. Seeing the tree which did not have any large scars but good style, I dug it out from there and planted it in the a little bit deep bonsai pot in March 2014. But since it had a large clump of bump around the back thick branch, I remove it by using some carving chisels. The height was 45 cm and the trunk girth was 46 cm.
But two years later the branch began to die. And I cut it when it died in 2017. Since the water did not run down easily when I watered it, I repotted it in a Canton pot which is shallower than the previous pot in March 2019. The height is 48 cm and the trunk girth is 49 cm. The left photo is the back roots, which are not bad. And the front nebari of this tree on the second one is not bad, neither. The front side of the whole figure is good on the third one. But it is a pity that this tree does not have the necessary back branch on the fourth one. It means that this tree will be not completed as a good bonsai.
I. Hakurin
I paid 15,000 yen for this Hakurin in Sakai city, Osaka prefecture in January 1997, and planted it in the nursery though it was a good material for shohin. Though the trunk was not thick when I bought it, it has grown large rapidly. Since this tree had a good style, I dug it out from the nursery on March 22nd 2016 and planted it in the bonsai pot after washing the roots. The height was 37 cm and the trunk girth was 38cm.
And I repotted it on March 24th, 2019 in the same pot. The height is 38 cm and the trunk girth is 40 cm. The left photo is the whole figure before repotting. The second one is the back side of roots. They are very good. The third one is the front side of this tree. The right one is the back side. Since it does not have any large scars on the trunk, I would like to complete it as bonsai as soon as possible.
Section 3. Repotting the trees which have been grown in pots for a long time
I have a small number of trees which I have grown in pots for a long time since I bought, and a lot of trees which I have grown from cuttings. But two thirds of the large trees which I grew from cutting already died. And some trees are dying. I think that if a man continues to grow satsuki trees in pots from cutting for more than 40 years, they are weak or begin to die. Especially the maximum temperature in summer is 37 degrees C in Ise. It is more than 43 degrees C in some districts. Even if satsuki bonsai were shadowed in the daytime by black nets, it gives a great damaged to them.
A. Korin B
Since I sometimes introduced this Korin B in my web site, you may remember it. I bought it for 250,000 yen in 1997 and planted it in a large terracotta pot. The height was 35 cm and the trunk girth was 23 cm. Since then I have repotted it every 5 years. I planted it in a bonsai pot after cutting long thick shoots short in 2012. The height was 41 cm and the trunk girth was 42 cm. And when I repotted it in the same pot in 2016, the height was 42 cm and the trunk girth was 42 cm. To my surprise, the bottom of the trunk did not grow.
I think it was because the soil was less than one thirds and the long thick and thin roots were cut short when I repot it in the bonsai pot in 2012. When I repotted it in the large wooden pot in March 2019, the height was 41 cm and the trunk girth was 44 cm. Judging these records of growth about this tree, I decided to plant it in the large wooden pot. The size is 56 cm x 43 cm x 22 cm. The left photo is the back roots of Korin B. They are good. And the right one is the front side of the whole figure.
B. Kasugano
I dug this Kasugano from the bank of a lane by my grandfather's tea field when I got married in 1972. The height was about 15 cm, the toots were about 10 cm. Therefore this tree is my good friend which has seen the changes of the world with me. And I assume that it is more than 80 years old because he had planted it before I was born in 1942. And it sometimes had a lot of soil over the top and often was cut so shortly in a year that it couldn't have thick trunks and roots. Though I have grown it in the pots since then, I am very sorry to tell you that it is a little bit weak now. I hope that it will continue to live while I am on the earth.. The right photo is the back roots of Kasugano which are very good. But it is a little bit weak on the right one. I think it is because it continues to live in pots for 47 years.
C. Shinnyo no hikari
Shinnyo no hikari and Kusudama are brothers. The former has the large dots on the leaves. I bought this tree for 34,000 yen in the flower park in Gifu city where Flower Expo was held in 1995 and planted it in a large terracotta pot. When I repot it in 2000, the height was 32 cm and the trunk girth 38 cm. And though I repotted it in 2004 and 2008 in the same pot, I repotted it in a bonsai pot in 2012 . The height was 43 cm and the trunk girth 43cm.
And repotting it in 2016, the height was 46 cm and the trunk girth 45 cm. But repotting it in 2019, the height was 46 cm and the trunk girth was 48 cm. Judging from these records of growth about this tree, if a large tree was repotted from a large terracotta pot into a bonsai pot, it gives so much damage to it that it cannot grow strong for a while. The left photo is the back roots of this tree which are very good. The whole figure on the right one is rather good.
D. Kusudama
I bought this Kusudama for 1,500 yen from a member of Ise Satsuki Society when we held the satsuki flower show in 1987. Though it was a kind of bush, I made it into a five-trunked tree. Since then I have repeated to repot it. Therefore it is weak now. But the back roots on the left photo are not bad. The whole figure on the right one looks weak. It may be because I made it have flowers after repotting it in March several years ago. Since this trial had caused the death of some large trees, the results made me give it up though I sometimes make some trees have some flowers when I repot them in March.
E. Kakuo and Chikuho
Kakuo and Chikuho are the hybrid varieties between satsuki and Kurume Tsutsuji. Generally speaking, the nebari of satsuki is much better than that of tsutsuji and their roots are weaker than those of a lot of satsuki.
I bought this Kakuo for 20,000 yen in June 1999. The height was 60 cm and the trunk girth was 19 cm. And I repotted it in the bonsai pot in 2010. The height was 57 cm and the trunk girth was 29 cm, but when I repotted it in 2015, the height was 58 cm and the trunk girth was 31 cm. Though it had passed 5 years since the previous repotting, the bottom of the trunk did not grow thick. And when I repotted it in March 2019 because the pot was broken by freezing, the water and rain, the height was 58 cm and the trunk girth was 32 cm. Judging from these records, if this tree was planted in a shallow bonsai pot, it does not grow strongly.
The left photo is the back roots of this tree. Though you can see a 1ot of black roots, they live at full strength. The second one is the front side of the whole figure. Though the nebari is not very good, it has a lot of thick and thin roots. The third one is the back side of nebari which is very good. The right one is the whole figure after repotting. Since I removed a lot of roots and organised the nebari, I removed all flower buds after repotting. Though the style is not very good, the taper of the trunk and the arrangement of branches are good. But though the figure and size of the pot are suitable to this tree, I think the colour will not be suitable to it when it will have a lot of flowers in 2020.
I bought this Chikuho for 25,000 yen in 1999. The height was 58 cm and the trunk girth was 14 cm. Though it had been planted in the terracotta pot, I repotted it in the bonsai pot in 2006. The height was 62 cm and the trunk girth was 18 cm. And I repotted it in 2009, 2013, 2015, and on April 2nd, 2019. But to my great surprise, the height is 58 cm and the trunk girth is 19 cm.
This tree which has good roots has not grown large though it has passed 1 3 years since 2006. The left photo is the front side of roots. Since this tree has a lot of long thick and thin roots, I cut them short. It means that it is in a good condition of health. The second one is the back side of roots after cutting the long roots short. And the third one is the front side of the whole figure and the right one is the back side. Though the style is not very good, the taper of the trunk and the arrangement of branches are good.
F. Ai no tsuki
I bought this Ai no tsuki for 20,000 yen and planted it in a training pot in 1988. The height was 62 cm and the trunk girth was 15cm. Though a satsuki grower had cut the very long trunk at the 48 cm, the style was good. But since the large scar has not been cured yet, the taper of the trunk was very bad. And I hoped it would be cured in 5 years. When I repotted it in 1993, since the first back branch had a long shoot, I could inarch it to the trunk to make the second left branch. Since I succeeded in it, this tree has a good arrangement of branches. I repotted it in 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009. And when I repotted it in a bonsai pot in March 24th, 2012, the height was 63 cm and the trunk girth was 25 cm. Though I repotted in the same pot it on April 6th, 2016, and March 24th, 2019, the height is 62 cm and the trunk girth is 25 cm now. Judging from these records, the bottom of the trunk has not grown for 7 years.
But judging from the back roots on the left photo, they are good though they are not very good. And besides, the nebari and the roots of the front side on the second one are good. The third one is the front side of this tree. The style is good because the left second branch is large now, which I made. But the taper of the trunk is not good though a lot of people may not recognise the defect when it has a lot of flowers. You can see the old scar on the bottom of the trunk on the right photo though it has covered with the bark now. Though the bottom of the trunk has not grown for 7 years, I think it means that this tree has something wrong in the trunk. But I have not made any large scars since I bought it.
G. Kinka, Ukigumo no tsuki and Kozan D
Kinka is the tree of my error. When I made a lot of cuttings in Kobe city in 1974, I took several ones from Kinsai. This tree had more than 70 % of flowers which had the figures of tassel about 30 years ago. Sometimes I sold it at our satsuki flower show in Ise but I could not do so. And the formal flowers increased in number every year. At last all of flowers were formal about 15 years ago. When I repotted this tree on March 24th, 2019, the height was 64 cm and the trunk girth was 19 cm. It has not grown large for 45 years. Fortunately Kanuma Satsuki Society accepted this Kinka as a variety about 10years ago. But Japan Satsuki Association has not accepted this variety.
I inserted a lot of cuttings of Ukigumo no tsuki into Kanuma soil in a pot in Ise city in 1979. At that time we had the satsuki boom. Since I already was a member of Ise Satsuki Society, I had to make a lot of saplings of satsuki to sell them at the satsuki flower show. Though I had made a good informal upright form of this variety by wiring, this tree had the long cleft part on the bottom of trunk in the winter of about 1990. I thought I gave up growing it because the scar was very long and large, but carved the rotten part by carving knives and crammed Purashiru in it in about 1995. It was because the colour arrangement of flowers was very good. When I repotted it on March 24th, 2019, the height was 66 cm and the trunk girth was 20 cm.
I dug out Kozan D from the second nursery and planted it in a large terracotta pot in March 2011. I cannot remember whether I bought this tree when it is a young tree or I had grown it from the cutting. The height was 51 cm and the trunk girth was 33 cm. When I repotted it on April 1st, 2019, the height was 54 cm and the trunk girth was 35 cm. Though it had been planted in a large terracotta pot for 8 years, it did not grow large. It is because it has a large scar on the bottom of trunk. Since I carved the rotten part with the carving tools, it had a large empty hole there. And I crammed a lot of Purashiru into it. Therefore I am not sure that it will grow strong and large.
The left photo is the front side of Kinka. The style is not good. The middle one is the front side of Ukigumo no tsuki. Though the style is good, each branch is weak. And the right one is the front side of Kozan D. The style of this tree is not good and it does not have necessary branches.
I planted three trees in the large wooden pots after I had dug them out from the nurseries, removed the soil and washed the roots, and repotted 19 trees in large wooden and bonsai pots after I pruned them, removed the soil and washed the roots.
I began to do so on March 8th and could finish doing so on April 3rd. During these days, it took me one day to dig out a lot of satsuki and rose trees for a friend of mine and to plant them in his garden, one day to take a rest after that, two days to give fertilisers to young satsuki trees in the pots, about 70 rose trees and all satsuki trees in the nursery, one day to go to Nara city to attend the Buddhist ceremony of my young brother, and one day to write the manuscript of the web site because it rained, and 4 days to do other things.
When it rained, since I could prune some satsuki trees and remove the soil in the garage, happily these workings of repotting were on schedule. But since I am 77 years old now, I wonder how long I will be able to do them. It is my great problem now.
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