I would like to show you three photos of the flowers of satsuki trees which I have grown from the cuttings. Perhaps these trees are 16 or 17 years old. Since they are short and the trunks are not very thick, they are very portable and save spaces. Therefore these types of bonsai are very popular in Japan. And everybody can make these types of trees from the cuttings easily for a short time and enjoy seeing beautiful flowers even if they were 5 or 6 years.
The left photo is the flowers of Nikko. You can see the flowers which have the large white stripes and the small red stripes. Therefore this tree has a good colour-arrangement of Nikko and these flowers are very beautiful. The middle one is the flowers of Hakurin which has some pink flowers and some flowers have small pink stripes. Therefore the colour-arrangement is very neat and pretty. The right one is the flowers of Korin. Since I like this shape of flower, I have a lot of Korin and other varieties of satsuki trees.
The coloured leaves of satsuki trees
I would like to show you the beautiful coloured leaves of satsuki trees on the photos. Though I hadn’t seen them for a long time, I could saw them in the middle of December in 2019. I think it is because I didn’t give any fertilisers to all satsuki trees in the garden in October though I had given them to them at the start of September and it had begun to be cold suddenly at the start of December though it continued to be warm in the daytime to the middle of it. I was very happy to have had these good chances.
Since I am 77 years old, I had some plans to reduce the number of satsuki trees in the pots and nursery last summer, that is, to sell any tree which some ones would like to buy. And I decided to stop growing any satsuki trees in the pots and nursery except the small number of small satsuki trees in the pots at the age of 85. Since I wouldn’t like to make the satsuki bonsai have a lot of long new shoots to keep the good styles, I didn’t give any fertilisers to them in October.
But since I gave a lot of fertilisers to all satsuki trees at the start of September, a half of them had a lot of long shoots. Therefore I cut them short or removed them and trimmed all branches to keep the style good at the middle of November so that all leaves might have the enough sunshine and have a lot of beautiful coloured leaves. And I think my intent was successful.
And I wrote letters to two persons who have the satsuki shops in Nagoya city and Sakai city. They have been to our house to see my satsuki trees. Of course I have been there some times with the members of Ise Satsuki Society to see satsuki bonsai and buy them. And I asked them to introduce my intentions to their customers and friends.
I know that since Ise city is very far from these big cities, Tokyo and Kanuma city it is very difficult to reduce the number of my satsuki trees, that is, for me to bring some satsuki bonsai in the car there by myself. Therefore I have to find out some other good plans, too.
Sueji Baba, who is a childhood friend, bought two large trees as garden trees and a lot of rose trees last March though I gave him some satsuki trees which were grown in the nursery. And I finished growing satsuki trees and my wife did the same thing about rose trees in the second nursery. And we got a lot of sweet potatoes and some pumpkins though some monkeys gave them some damages.
And he bought 36 rose trees in the rose garden for 2,000 yen per a tree last December. And Mr. Kondo, who lives in Nagoya and has managed Tenpaku satsuki garden for a very long time, came here with his customer who wanted to buy some satsuki bonsai and trees in the nursery at the end of December. Fortunately he bought 15 trees in the nursery though they were very cheap.
Section 1. The beautiful coloured leaves of satsuki trees
We had a lot of coloured leaves of a lot of trees near our houses last autumn, which were not very beautiful. Since each species of trees has each time when the leaves begin to turn the colour to red, yellow and brown in autumn, we could see the very beautiful coloured leaves of some species of trees. And we could enjoy the coloured leaves of every tree longer than usual. To my surprise I could see a lot of coloured leaves of some species of trees including my satsuki trees on Christmas day.
It was very hot in September, hot and very warm in October, very warm and warm in November and begun to be cold suddenly at the start of December though it continued to be warm in the daytime to the middle of it. These changes of colours of leaves depended on the conditions of weather. Since I was very busy, I could not go to any famous scenic spots for autumn leaves. But I could enjoy them near our houses and in our garden longer than usual.
Though these photos were taken on December 14th 2019, some trees on the shelves still have a lot of spring leaves which are green or yellow. But the whole view of my satsuki trees on the shelves is the most beautiful in these 20 years. To my sorrow, these colours of leaves on the photos are less beautiful than they really are. Especially they are most beautiful when they have the morning dew though I cannot take photos of them.
The trees of the left photos are Togenkyo which I have used as the material for this web site. Since I didn’t give any fertilisers to them in October, these coloured leaves are beautiful. But since we can see a lot of red leaves, these trees will have a lot of flowers which Kinsai has. And two trees which were repotted last March don’t have beautiful coloured leaves. Since the soil in the pots of them couldn’t keep fertilisers earlier than that in the pots of other trees, the colours of autumn leaves fade earlier. But since these trees are young, I can think I had to give them a lot of fertilisers in October to make the trunks thicker.
You can see a lot of coloured leaves of a lot of satsuki trees on the second photo. It is interesting that three cascades have different colours of autumn leaves. The right tree is Togenkyo and the middle is Hikorin. The left tree is questionable. Though it has the same form and size of leaves and the same form and colour of flower as Hikorin has, the size of flower is larger. Though I have called it Hikorin, it may be wrong when we see the coloured leaves on the photo. It is because they are near those of Korin. But the size, form and colour of flower are different from those of Korin. To tell the truth, I found a seedling under a large Korin in the very large terracotta pot about 15 years ago. Watching the autumn leaves of satsuki trees, we often can identify a variety of satsuki.
The third photo is three cascades which have beautifully coloured leaves. The left and middle trees are Hikorin. The right tree is Togenkyo which has a lot of red leaves but doesn’t have a lot of yellow leaves. It means that it will have a lot of flowers of Kinsai next May. If you could see the photo of the flower of this tree in the Archives of my web site whose date is July 8th, 2018, you can understand that this tree had a very good colour-arrangement of flowers.
The right photo is a cascade of Nikko which has only yellow leaves. You cannot see any red-striped leaves from the front side of this tree. And though you can see the photo of flowers of this tree in my web site whose date is December 22nd, 2017, it did not have any red-striped flowers. But since I could see only a flower which had a more than half part of red colour and two red flowers in 2019, I hope that several red flowers will be scattered in the near future.
The left photo is the front side of Kusudama. The second is the back side. Since the leaves of this tree are weak in summer, I always cannot see a lot of beautiful autumn leaves. And if I gave it a lot of fertilisers in October, I always cannot see any beautiful leaves, neither. But you can see a lot of beautiful coloured leaves on the photo. It means that this tree has been in the good conditions since last summer. If I took a photo of the side view of any tree which has a lot of coloured leaves in autumn, it isn’t better than that which was taken from above. Therefore I often take photos of coloured leaves from above.
The third photo is the front side of Nyohozan. The right is the back side. The lower branches don’t have beautiful coloured leaves. It means that these leaves didn’t have a lot of sunshine because they had a lot of long new shoots. Since I removed them to make this tree tidy or cut them short, you can see a lot of green or yellow leaves on the photos.
The left photo is the front side of Korin. The second is the back side. Though the lower branches of this tree don’t have a lot of beautiful coloured leaves, other branches have them. Therefore this tree is beautiful after I trimmed it. Since this tree has the monochromatic flowers of purple, the autumn colour of leaves is same except those which didn’t have a lot of sunshine.
The third photo is the front side of Shuho no hikari. This side has a lot of branches which don’t have beautiful coloured leaves. It is sure that they had a lot of long shoots and perhaps I forgot to turn a turntable once. Therefore the whole figure of the back side is very beautiful on the right photo.
The left photo is the front side of five-trunked Kusudama. Since it was repotted last March, it doesn’t have a lot of leaves. Therefore all leaves turned the colour almost simultaneously, so that they are beautiful. And the back side is much more beautiful because I took the second photo from above.
The third photo is the front side of Nikko. The right is the back side. Compared with this tree, though the trunk is very thick, the bonsai pot is a little bit larger than a suitable pot and the soil in it is larger in quantity, so that one fifth of spring leaves hasn’t turned the colour yet. But after I trimmed it, it shows a beautiful autumn figure.
The left photo is the front side of Kazan. The second is the back side. The autumn figure of this tree is most beautiful since I bought it in 1992 though I haven’t trimmed it yet when I took these photos. But to my sorrow, though it was a good exposed root style when I bought it, it has the straight clumsy clump of roots in 2019.
The third photo is the front side of Asuka. The right is the back side. The colour-arrangement of flowers is very good though the style of this tree isn’t good. And the back side is much more beautiful because I took the right photo from above. Especially you can see some kinds of good colours of leaves and some red-striped leaves.
The left photo is Kinka which has a beautiful coloured leaves. Since this tree has monochromatic flowers, the autumn colour of all leaves is same. To my sorrow, it had more than four fifths of flowers whose form was that of Kinsai about 40 years ago.
The second photo is three-trunked Nikko. Though all spring leaves are pure yellow, the whole figure is beautiful. If I had given it a lot of fertilisers in October, the colour of leaves would have been dirty yellow with parts of brown. And if it had had some red leaves or some red-stripped leaves, it would have been very good because it had had some red flowers and several red-stripped flowers last May.
It is sad to see this Togenkyo on the third photo, which has a lot of red leaves. It means that it will have a lot of flowers of Kinsai next May. The right photo is Hoshi no kagayaki whose spring leaves are red and yellow. It means that this tree is very weak.
These three trees are small sizes of satsuki bonsai. The left photo is Nikko, the second is Nyohozan and the third is Nikko. The right is the root connected group of Korin. These four trees keep the best views before the coloured leaves will fall when I took these photos.
You can see the beautiful coloured leaves of 7 Benigasa on the left photo. The second photo is Benigasa which was repotted last March. Therefore though it doesn’t have a lot of flower buds, all spring leaves turned to red. But since Benigasa on the third photo was repotted in March 2018, it has a lot of flower buds and about a half of the spring leaves are still green.
The right photo is the large tree of Kogetsu. Though I didn’t give it any fertilisers in October, this tree has a lot of green leaves on December 14th. This is my first experience. Though I had given it a lot of fertilisers in October till 2018, it had coloured leaves and a lot of them fell down by about December 20th. I think that it is because it continued to be warm till last December and I dug out this tree from the second nursery and planted it in the bonsai pot in March 2017, which is about 38 years old.
The summation about the coloured leaves of satsuki trees in autumn
Even if you grew several satsuki trees of a variety under the same condition, they begin to have coloured leaves at different times if they were not repotted at the same year. And the beauty of coloured leaves in autumn depends on the weather in summer and autumn much more largely than on the quantity of fertiliser and water.
Therefore I think it is very difficult that we make our satsuki trees have very good coloured leaves in autumn every year. But it is the same about all trees in pots if they are deciduous trees. Especially it is more difficult to make Japanese maples have a lot of very beautiful coloured leaves in autumn. But the view of the coloured leaves of plants in the pots in autumn always gives us a lot of pleasure.
Section 2. The coloured leaves of young Kogetsu
I have used these 8 trees of young Kogetsu as the materials in this web site, so that I think you are very familiar with them. Though I didn’t give them a lot of fertilisers last October, since they are very strong, I removed a lot of long shoots or cut them short, so that they don’t have a lot of flower buds. But they have a lot of good coloured leaves on these photos which I took on December 21st. Therefore I would like to contrast them with the flowers which they had last May. It is very useful to watch the colours of leaves and flowers on the photos to study the genes of colours of each young Kogetsu.
Red-striped leaves mean red-striped flowers. Red leaves mean fukurin (white jewel border) and sokojiro (white throat). But to my sorrows, yellow leaves mean red and white flowers. And we cannot distinguish the flower buds which will have red flower from those which will have white flowers. Therefore we have to remove the shoots which had red flowers during flowering.
A. Kogetsu A
Though the main trunk of this Kogetsu was broken by the strong May storm in 2017, I restyled it by wiring the new shoot. The left photo is the front side of this tree and the second is the back. And now that it has a good style, I keep a long shoot to make the thin trunk thicker as soon as possible. Though it has red leaves on the three branches, it is a suitable number.
You can see a lot of small and large stripes on the yellow leaves on third photo. These coloured leaves make me hope that it will have a better colour-arrangement of flowers than that on the right photo which was taken in 2019. Though I like the tree of Kogetsu which has a lot of white flowers, this tree will be much better if it will have some red flowers and several colour-ring type ones when it will completed.
B. Kogetsu B
The left photo is the front side of Kogetsu B. The second is the back side. Though this tree has a lot of long shoots, the style is good. But these coloured leaves aren’t beautiful yet. It is so strong that I removed a lot of very long shoots or cut them short, so that you can see a lot of pale green and yellow leaves on the photo of the front side.
Taking a photo of the back side from above, the colour-arrangement of coloured leaves is very good on the third photo. It is because it had the very good colour-arrangement of flowers in 2019 on the right photo though it didn’t have any red flowers.
C. Kogetsu C
The left photo is the front side of this tree and the second is the back side. Though the style is good, these coloured leaves aren’t beautiful yet. It is so strong that I removed a lot of very long shoots or cut them short, so that you can see a lot of pale green and yellow leaves on the photo of the front side and cannot see a lot of flower buds. And you can see only one branch which has red leaves on the back side.
But, you can see some red-striped leaves. The flowers in 2019 on the right photo are very beautiful though it doesn’t have any red flowers. Since I have removed some branches which had red leaves in autumn, it will never have any bad colour-arrangement for ever if I will continue to do so.
D. Kogetsu D
The left photo is the front side of Kogetsu D and the second is the back side. The style is good and these coloured leaves are very beautiful. Since you can see red leaves on the three branches, the colour-arrangement of coloured leaves is very good. I had the first experience of seeing the nice view of this tree in autumn of 2019.
Taking a photo of the back side from above, the colour-arrangement of coloured leaves is very good on the third photo. But you can see red leaves on 5 branches though you can see them on the three branches on the second photo. I like the colour-arrangement of flowers in 2019 on the right photo. Therefore judging from the flowers in 2019, perhaps I will see more colour-ring type flowers next May than last year. Since I don’t like this colour-arrangement, I have to remove a lot of shoots which have them during flowering.
E. Kogetsu E
The left photo is the front side of this tree and the second is the back side. The style is good and these coloured leaves are very beautiful. The coloured leaves of the back sides of 8 young trees of Kogetsu are much more beautiful than those of the front sides. It is because I hadn’t turned the turntables one week before I trimmed them. This is one of my errors. We have to do anything to do at the suitable time.
Though a lot of red leaves are scattered on the third photo, the number isn’t so many that the colour-arrangement of autumn leaves is very good. Therefore it means that this tree will have a good colour-arrangement of flowers next May. It is because I removed some shoots of first back branch which had had fukurin during flowering. Though a lot of people may judge that the colour-arrangement of flowers of this tree in 2019 is very good on the right photo, I think it is dangerous if I continue to prune it after blooming without removing the shoots which have red leaves in autumn or which have colour-ring type flowers. It is because I think that it has the strong gene of red colour.
F. Kogetsu F
The left photo is the front side of this tree and the second is the back side. Though the style is good, these coloured leaves aren’t beautiful yet. Since the whole figure is smaller than other young Kogetsu, it has more green leaves than other trees, that is, the soil in the pot is keeping a bit of fertiliser yet.
But, since I took the third photo of the back side from above, you can see several red-striped leaves and some red ones. It means that this tree will have a good colour-arrangement of flowers next May. But judging from the right photo of the flowers in 2019, since it doesn’t have a lot of pure white flowers but has a lot of red-striped ones, I have to think that it has the strong gene of red colour.
G. Kogetsu G
The left photo is the front side of Kogetsu G and the second is the back side. Though the style is not very good, these coloured leaves are very beautiful. But since a large part of branch and a whole one have a lot of red leaves, though I would like to remove the latter now, I have to continue to keep it if I won’t see a good new shoot in the near future.
Comparing the third photo with the right one, you can recognise the difference between them. Since the former was taken from above, you can see a branch of upper part of this tree whose leaves are red. But you cannot see a lot of colour-ring type flowers on the right photo. I know that the branch of red-striped flowers turned to one which has colour-ring type flowers or red ones. I think it is because it has the strong gene of red colour. This branch may have turned so. I will be able to see the result when it will have flowers next May.
H. Kogetsu H
The left photo is the front side of this tree and the second is the back side. The style is not good and these coloured leaves aren’t beautiful yet. But the colour-arrangement of leaves is very good. Therefore I can hope that it will have a good colour-arrangement of flowers next May.
Seeing the third photo of the back side of this tree which was taken from above, you can see several red-striped and red leaves which are scattered. It means that it will have a good colour-arrangement of flowers next May. In fact, since it had the very good colour-arrangement of flowers in 2019, the whole view of flowers is very beautiful on the right photo. If it had a good style, it would be one of my favorites.
The summation about the colour-arrangement of flowers of young Kogetsu in autumn
Though I wrote the long sentences about this article in my web site whose date is August 15th 2019, I would like to do so again. If you are much interested in growing satsuki trees from the cuttings and making them bonsai, please read some necessary archives in my web site again and again. You can apply the knowledge to a lot of satsuki trees which have multi-coloured flowers. And if you would like to buy these trees, you had better buy them when they have flowers or coloured leaves in autumn. If you choose them by your knowledge, you will never regret.
If you already got some of them, you can check the colour-arrangements of multicoloured flowers twice a year. Therefore if you can watch the colours of flowers and autumn leaves of them carefully, you can get the better knowledge about them.
Though it is very easy to make satsuki trees which have single-coloured flowers have a lot of flowers, it is very difficult to make those which have multi-coloured flowers have good colour arrangements of flowers. It is a fact that we can never see these trees of a variety having the same colour-arrangement of flowers every year.
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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