I would like to show you three photos of satsuki flowers. The left one is the flowers of Shintaiyo. When we bought an old house in Ise city in 1978, I dug it out from the garden. Though I planted it in a large terracotta pot after washing the roots, I could not remove the rotten parts from the trunk. After I had removed all of them with a knife and a chisel in 1981, the lower part of trunk was hollow and the tree was like standing on two legs. It was so strong that I planted it in the bonsai pot in 2010. Since then, it has had a lot of flowers.
The middle photo is Nikko. And the right one is Juko. When we moved to the old house from Kobe city, I had to ask my younger brother and a friend of mine to bring a lot of plants in pots there by two trucks. Since a lot of saplings of satsuki were 5 years old, the very long trunks were so thick that I could not wind them into good shapes with wires. And I broke the trunks of about a half of them. Though I sold a lot of them at our flower show after having reshaped them, I could not sell these trees. Since they had good shapes, I planted them in the nursery in 1992.
I dug them out from there in 2011 and planted them into large terracotta pots. And when I planted this Nikko in bonsai pot in 2015, the height was 35 cm, and the trunk girth was 32 cm. When I planted this Juko in 2016, the height was 33 cm, and the trunk girth was 25 cm. Though these trees have been grown in the same conditions, we can know that they have the difference of growth between them. Why?
The preparation for the 19th typhoon
At first I would like to pray the souls of a lot of the dead and missing persons in the 19th typhoon. And I have to apologise for the articles about my satsuki trees in the previous web site. Since I wrote about three satsuki trees which I thought would die in the near future, I may have given the serious anxiety of growing satsuki to a lot of bonsai enthusiasts in the foreign countries. Please don’t stop growing satsuki trees and making good satsuki bonsai.
Section 1. An apology for the article in my previous web site
It is a fact that all plants never have the eternal lives. Therefore it is natural that we should give the best cares to the plants in the pots because their lives depend on our hands. And though I introduced my three trees in my last web site as some real parts in my garden, which would die in the near future, I fear that I emphasised the death of satsuki trees too much. If this article gave you the impression that it is difficult to grow satsuki trees, I have to apologise for it.
My Shinnyo no tsuki and Shintaiyo have the large rotten parts in the trunks which were caused by the large scars which I had made when I had cut the large branches about 30 years ago. I took the cuttings of Shinnyo no tsuki in 1973 and those of Shintaiyo in 1979. And my Sangosai had had the large rotten parts in the trunks and roots when I dug it out in 1972. Therefore I removed the rotten parts with a knife and a chisel and put the cutpaster on the scars after applying the medicine to them in about 1975. Judging from these conditions, is't it very wonderful that these trees are continuing to live in the pots for 46, 40 and 47 years? Though I do not know when my grandfather had planted this Sangosai in the bank of the lane beside the tea field, perhaps it lived there for more than 30 years. Since he already had died when I was born in 1942, it is sure that it is much older than I am.
The left photo is the whole figure of Sangosai after I repotted it in March 2012. Though some large scars are seen on the trunks and bottoms of trunks, this tree looked strong. But some thick branches began to die in 2014 and you can see the miserable figure of this tree before pruning in April 2016. The second photo is the front side of this tree and the third one is the back side. The right one is the whole figure after I removed a lot of rotten parts with a knife and a chisel. These three photos were taken on April 10th, 2016.
The left photo is the roots of this tree after I washed the roots. I removed one-fourth of them because the roots had been rotten. After I had cleft the root ball into two parts, I planted them in a large terracotta pot and a middle one. The second photo is the large part of this tree. And the third one is the flowers of the large part of this tree. The right one is those of the small part. These two photos were taken in 2019.
But though Kasugano was dug out at the same time of 1972 at the same place where above Sangosai was done, since it does not have any large scars, it still is strong. Though it is not in full bloom on the left photo which was taken in 2017, it has a lot of flowers. And it has kept the same figure for very long years. Therefore you can see a good style of this tree on the second photo immediately after I trimmed it in January 2018. And the third one is the roots after I washed them in March 2019. They are so good that they show that this tree is good in health. The right one is the whole figure of the tree which I was ready to plant in the pot.
And though I had made a lot of saplings from the cutting in 1973 and 1974, the good-shaped and healthy trees were one-third of the trees which I had kept on the shelves in 1990s. Therefore though I wanted to sell the rest at the flower show, I had to keep a considerable number of them which had large scars. When the good-shaped and healthy trees grew large in 2000s, I was asked to lend the trees which had beautiful flowers by the wife of the administrative director of our university and a friend. At the same time I was asked to sell some of them by the members of the Ise satsuki society who wanted to put them on the tables at the flower show.
And though I asked them to give the trees a lot of water, since they put them in the rooms or entrances, they lacked in water. And I changed them every 7 days. Though I could predict that these trees would die, I continued to do so for several years. Therefore almost all of them died within a year and in two or three years. But I could not refuse to lend them to them because I had a lot of satsuki trees and began to buy a lot of expensive araki. At the same time I had been given a lot of money by them though the sum did not reach the total value of them. And when she died, I stopped lending the trees to other people.
And since I did not wanted to put the trees on the table at our flower show for which I had paid a lot of money as araki, I continued to put the good-shaped trees there for three days which I had grown from the cuttings. Though some of our members watered all trees on the tables, the air conditioners were switched on in the hall because it was a part of big supermarket. Therefore my trees often lacked in water because I always had given them a lot of water. And I put the trees there which I had bought for up to 200,000 yen as araki. To my misery almost all of them died within three years or so.
Though you can see a lot of beautiful flowers of four trees on these photos which were taken in 2012, since I had put them on the tables at our flower show before then, they were weak. And though their trunks already grew very thick because it had passed about 20 years since my styling of araki, all of them suddenly died in a year or two years. You can see the beautiful flowers of Shinkyo on the left photo for which I paid 6,700 yen in Osaka in 1987. Though the trunk girth had been 13cm when I had bought it, it was 31 cm in 2012. The second photo is the very beautiful flowers of Yama no hikari. And this tree was given the first prize at our flower show in 2012. I bought this tree for 15,000 yen in Kanuma in March 1989. The height was 58 cm and the trunk girth 11 cm.
The third one is those of Kaho. When I bought this tree for 100,000 yen in Kanuma in November 1989, the height was 72 cm and the trunk girth was 22 cm. Since the colour arrangement and style were very good, this tree was one of my favorites. The right photo is those of Korin whose style was very good. When I bought this tree for 60,000 yen in Kanuma in 1991, the height was 48 cm and the trunk girth was 18 cm. Before I put them on the tables at our flower show, they had been very strong and healthy.
I have 21 trees now which I have grown in the pots from the cuttings since 1973 and 1974. Though a lot of trees are very weak because they have large scars or some of them were put on the tables at the flower show, they continue to live. But large Shinkigen is so strong that it had a lot of flowers in 2019. Since other trees have large scars, they will die in the near future.
The left photo is the flowers of Reiyo in 2012. Though it had a lot of beautiful flowers, it already began to be weak. Since it had the beautiful colour arrangement and the style was not bad, I put it on the table at the flower show. But the second photo is the whole figure of the tree in October 2019 whose right second branch already died and was cut. Though it will die in the near future, it is 46 years old now because I have grown from cutting since June of 1973. You can see the whole figure of Komei on the third photo which was taken on October 26th, 2019. Though this tree will die in the near future, it is 45 years old now because I have grown from cutting since June of 1974. Since it has had the very long scar in the lower part of trunk for more than 20 years, it is a wonder that it continues to live. The right photo is the flowers of Shinkigen in 2019 which is the only one healthy large tree which I have grown in the pots from the cuttings since 1973.
But, a large tree of Daigokuden A has been healthy and strong because it was planted in the garden between our house and the garage when we built them in 2001 though it had a large scar on the bottom of the trunk at that time. But since this scar has been small now, it is so strong and healthy that it always has a lot of long shoots and flower buds every autumn. Now I have 6 large, strong and thick-trunked trees which I have grown from the cuttings since 1973 or 1975. After they had been grown in the pots for a long time, they were planted in the nursery in 1990. One of them is Daigokuden B which was planted in a very large bonsai pot after it had been dug out from there in 2017. It is so strong without large scars that it has a lot of long shoots whose longest shoot is 43 cm at the end of October, 2019. The following Kogetsu has the same background as this Daigokuden B has.
The left photo is the whole figure of Daigokuden A in the garden in October 2019. The second one is the whole figure of Daigokuden B after I planted it in the pot after washing roots in March 2017. The style is not bad. The height was 65 cm and the trunk girth was 49 cm. You can see the flowers of this tree in 2019 on the third photo though the number of them is small. You can see the whole figure which is very strong and healthy on the right photo which was taken on October 23rd, 2019.
Of course I have very healthy and strong trees which I had planted in the nursery when having bought them, dug up from there and planted in the bonsai pots, too. You can see the whole figure of Juko on the left photo which was taken on March 25th, 2019. The height was 61 cm and the trunk girth was 50 cm. When I had dug it out from the nursery in March 2014 and planted it in the large bonsai pot, the height was 58 cm and the trunk girth 47 cm. And when I bought it for 30,000 yen in Kanuma in 1993, the height was 50 cm and the trunk girth 20 cm. Judging from there records, since I would like to grow the trunk as thick as possible, I repotted it in the very large wooden pot.
The second photo is the flowers of Kogetsu in 2018. Since the colour arrangement of flowers is very good and I have grown it from the cutting since 1975, this tree is one of my favorites. When I repotted it on March 26th, 2017, the height was 55 cm and the trunk girth was 31 cm. The third is the flowers of Takasago which was dug out from the second nursery with Daigokuden B in March 2017. Though it has a large hole in the bottom of the trunk, it is very strong. You can see the very good style of Nikko on the right photo which was taken on March 12th, 2019. I dug out this tree from the main nursery and planted it in the very large wooden pot. The height is 50 cm and the trunk girth is 52 cm. When I planted it in the nursery immediately after I had bought it for 20,000 yen in 1993, the height 53 cm and the trunk girth was 18 cm. This is the best of all my satsuki trees and I think it is the most expensive tree.
My summation about the deaths of satsuki trees
Though I continued to write about the satsuki trees which died, is dying and will die in the near future, about nine-tenths of the trees on the shelves are strong and healthy now. Though I have about 210 satsuki trees in the pots, I would like to make all of them live as long as I live.
Generally speaking, a lot of varieties which have multi-coloured flowers are weak. And though a lot of satsuki trees died on the shelves, I think my errors caused the deaths of them except the trees which some huge typhoons had destroyed. Of course it is a fact that about a half of trees died because they had had the rotten parts in the trunks when I had bought them as araki. But since I had been unable to see through the conditions of those araki, it was my errors that they died.
And it is true that I had so many trees that I wanted to cut the large branches and do other things to get a lot of results of my working about satsuki trees at the age of 40s and 50s. And now I have a lot of trees which will die in the near future because about two-thirds of them have large scars and the rest was put on the tables at the flower show. These were my experiences, that is, I have a lot of success and failure examples. Therefore I can answer a lot of questions about satsuki trees.
Section 2. The 19th typhoon
The eye of the 19th typhoon passed far from the shore of Toba city next to Ise city on the Pacific Ocean on October 12th. And it was very huge and the storm zone was much wider. And besides, the barometric pressure was 945 hectopascals. It landed the Shizuoka prefecture and passed through Tokyo to the Pacific Ocean on 13th. Though the barometric pressure was 965 hectopascals in Tokyo, since it passed very slowly, they had more than 900 mm of rain for 48 hours in some districts and they had 800 mm of rain in a lot of districts.
The 19th typhoon gave us the great damages on October 12th and 13th, 2019. It was the hugest typhoon in the east and north Honshu (main land) in my life. Therefore, a lot of embankments of 71 rivers broke and the extreme quantity water went over the embankments of a lot of rivers. And a lot of water began to be poured out from several dams in the evening of 12th lest they should break down. Therefore a lot of water went over more than 200 embankments of rivers on 13th. This is our first record in these districts. Though three matches of Rugby World Cup were cancelled, I think all fans in the world were willing to accept the cancellation of them.
To our misery, according to NHK news, the number of the dead was 92 and 3 persons are missing. And several houses were washed away by the floods or destroyed by the landslides. A lot of people died in the cars because the roads were destroyed by a lot of water or some cars were flooded. And a lot of houses had the floods under or above the floors. But the announcers of every TV and radio often repeated the warnings of evacuation form the houses to the places of shelters to save the lives. Therefore I think the number of the dead was much less. But I am very sad to know that some persons continued to remain in their houses and died though they had the evacuation orders by their cities. And it is very sad that some of them could not leave their houses when they saw the great floods in the dark.
I was very lucky on 12th because the eye of the typhoon passed far from the shore on the Pacific Ocean. Though the storm zone was much wider and the barometric pressure was 945 hectopascals in Ise, any plants in the very large pots in the gardens do not have any severe damage. Only the leaves of egg plants and rose trees had some damages. It was because the maximum speed of the winds was about 30 m per second.
Ise city is defended from the south-east and south winds by the mountains. Therefore even if a strong typhoon took this course, we do not have very strong winds. It is because it is anticlockwise. But we had more than 400 mm of rain for 24 hours because this typhoon passed very slowly. Therefore about 15,000 people in Ise left their houses by the evacuation order because their houses had the floods under the floors and it was supposed that the water would go over the embankments of the rivers of Isuzu and Seta. But luckily it did not do so.
Section 3. My preparation for the typhoon
Whenever a typhoon is approaching to our district, I have to do a lot of things in the garden. Especially I have to have a lot of special cares for the plants in the pots. I have not only a lot of satsuki trees in the pots but also a lot of other plants in the pots: pine trees, Japanese maple tree, fringed orchids, wisteria, cherry trees, gourds and a lot of accent plants.
My bonsai shelves of satsuki on the left photo are defended perfectly from the south winds by the small hill which is in front of our garden. Since it is not high, all of my trees on the shelves can have the sunlight through a day. They on the second photo are protected from the west winds by the neighbour’s house and defended from the north winds perfectly except both ends of them by our house. If I put small satsuki trees under the west ends of shelves, they have the strong north winds through the space between our house and the garage which you can see on the third photo. Therefore I cannot put any small plants in the pots there. And they on the right photo are protected from the east winds by the woods which are not far from our house. You cannot see any small and middle trees on the shelves because I put about a half of them under the shelves and brought the rest into the garage.
Since the walls of concrete blocks under the shelves are the fences which can defend a lot of things from the east and west winds, I can put a lot of small and middle trees and the small plants in the pots on the ground under the shelves. The left, second and third photos are small and middle trees under the shelves. But I cannot put them under the east ends of shelve because they have the very strong winds from the north. I put some turn tables there because they are heavy.
And I can bind a lot of very large bonsai and wooden pots to the shelves with wires without removing the very large turn tables. They are so heavy that I cannot lift them up and remove them. But I have to bind a lot of large bonsai pots to the shelves with wires after removing the turn tables which they are put on. Since these turn tables are much lighter than the very large turn tables, the trees on them may be blown with them by the very strong winds even if I bound the pots to the shelves with wires. The left and second photos are the very large wooden pots and the very large bonsai pots which were bound to the selves with wires. The third and right photos are the large bonsai pots which were bound to the selves with wires after I had removed the turn tables.
I gathered the pine, quince and Japanese maple trees on the shelves lest they should be blown by the very strong winds. Since they have been planted in the mountain soil, they are very heavy. And the pine trees do not have a lot of new shoots and leaves because I pruned them last August. And besides, they are defended from the north winds perfectly by the garage, from the south winds by the hill which is in front of our garden and from the west and east winds by our and neighbour’s houses. But the rest of small plants were put under the shelves or brought into the garage.
The left and second photos are the pine, quince and Japanese maple trees which were gathered. And the third photo is small shelves on which three young cherry trees were put, and a Kawazu cherry tree in the very large and deep bonsai pot on the ground, which is protected by three very large terracotta pots and a large bonsai pot. A lot of small satsuki trees were brought into the garage. You can see a large wisteria in the very large and deep bonsai pot on the right photo, which is protected by five very large terracotta pots. Since this Kawazu cherry tree and the wisteria were planted in the mountain soil in the very large and deep bonsai pots, they are so heavy that I cannot bring them to other places and I think they will not be blown even by the very strong winds.
And I brought tall young trees, kengai, a lot of small trees and plants in the pots into the garage. Since I could not put them under the shelves, I had to bring them into the garage. And I put several middle satsuki trees on the east corner under the eaves. Since they are protected from the east, west and north winds perfectly by the house, I put them there to save my power. But I feared that the leaves would have some damages from the strong south winds. Though you can see a lot of plants in the pots on the left photo, they are not all plants which I had to bring into the garage. The number of all plants that I brought there was 71 on the second and third photos. The right one is the middle satsuki trees on the corner under the eaves.
And I had to bring all of them in the garage back to the original places on 13th and 14th. After I had picked up the turn tables on the shelves, I lifted up the middle satsuki bonsai from the ground under the shelves and put them on the turn tables. And I replaced a lot of small trees on the shelves from the ground under them on 14th.
I unwound the wires with which I had bound the very large bonsai and wooden pots to the shelves on 15th. And I replaced a lot of large satsuki bonsai on the turn tables after I had unwound the wires and picked up the turn tables on the shelves.
These workings were very hard. And I brought a lot of wet soil in the washing place to the second nursery by a winnowing basket on 10th and 11th to put a lot of terracotta pots of plants there. And since my wife had an operation of left eye on 9th, I cut all shoots of rose trees short, which had flowers. And after I cut the shoots of swelling flower buds, I gave a half of them to our friends and put the rest into the vases. Therefore after I had finished all jobs in the garden to prepare for the typhoon without her help, my left knee began to hurt in the evening of 11th. Since I have placed the medical plaster there, the pain reduced gradually. But I continued to feel the slight pain for about fortnight.
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