I was surprised to know that the patients of the coronavirus in Japan was more than 2,000 people on 18th November. Though the number of them is much less than those of USA and other European countries, it is increasing day by day. Since we had 17 patients in Mie prefecture on the same day, I wouldn’t like to go to any public places. Just 40 % of my both lungs hasn’t worked since I had a serious pulmonary embolus at the age of 29. Therefore, if I was infected with it, I think it means my death. I hope that some good coronavirus preventive vaccines will be invented as soon as possible.
I dug out three large satsuki trees from the nursery in March 2019 and planted then in the very large wooden pots. The left photo was Sangosai whose height was 54 cm and whose trunk girth was 52 cm. The middle one is Nikko whose height was 50 cm and whose trunk girth was 52 cm. The right one is Yakushimatsutsuji whose height 62 cm and whose trunk girth was 38 cm. And these photos were taken in 2020 when they had a lot of flowers.
I have grown this Sangosai since 1972 when I married Miyoko. It was a piece of root which had been separated from the large roots of Sangosai which I introduced here sometimes. After I had inserted it in Kanuma soil, it had a lot of new roots. Therefore, the age is more than 50. And I planted it in the nursery in 1991. I bought this Nikko when it was a young tree. And I planted it in the nursery in 1990. Therefore, the age is about 37. I have grown this Yakushimatsutsuji from the cutting which I took from its parent in 1948, which had been given by a lady of guest house in Yaku island which is located between Okinawa and Kyushu when I had travelled around the southern islands with a friend. Therefore, the age is 47. I planted it in the nursery in 1991. Since this variety was designated as one of the national natural treasure long years ago, anyone cannot bring out any tree of this variety from this island.
The Black Pine Trees and the Cutting of Satsuki
I repotted all pine trees on 24th, 25th and 26th of February. It is said in Japan that if any pine trees were repotted in February it is OK. Since they had a lot of short leaves and good shapes in summer, I took their photos on 3rd and 4th of August after removing brown needle leaves. I am sorry to tell you that these photos which I took on 4th are not good. Perhaps my old camera might have some trouble when I took them. Therefore, I bought a new camera to take photos in the garden. But since this cheap camera cannot be connected with the personal computer by the cable, I have to remove the SD card from it and put it into the personal computer to keep the data there. Therefore, sometimes I use the old camera to take photos in the garden because I often dirty it or make it have scars.
I introduced my methods about cuttings in my web site whose date is August 1st 2020. Though I had inserted them into the small grains of Kanuma soil on 25th June, when repotting them in the small plastic pots, I knew that I failed in my trials to get good cuttings. Though I saw a lot of cuttings dead or dying at the end October, I gave a very small quantity of perfectly organic fertilisers to them after removing the dead and dying cuttings. I would like to write why I did so lest all bonsai enthusiasts in the foreign countries should have same errors as I did.
Section 1. Removing of old needle leaves of the black pine trees in August
I sowed a lot of seeds of black pine in two large pots in March 1973. I cut the trunk of seedlings and inserted them in the soil to make them have good nebari in April. I succeeded in getting about 40 good saplings in 1974. But since I could not buy any good guide books about growing pine trees from seedlings when I began to grow them, a lot of them didn’t have good style. And I gave several trees to my friends and broke a lot of trunks when I bent them with thick wires to make them have good styles. Therefore, I have 16 trees now. And though I added two small trees of “yamadori” to them in 1974, I cannot distinguish them now. I haven’t given them a lot of fertilisers because I wouldn’t like to make them large bonsai. Therefore, their trunks aren’t thick though they are 47 years old.
It is said in Japan that pine trees don’t have any troubles if we repotted them in February. Therefore, I repotted all of them on 23rd February 2020. And when I removed a lot of old leaves on 4th August, since they have short new needle leaves, the whole figures look more beautiful than those before I removed them. Though I introduced these trees in my web site whose date is 2nd February 2011, I would like to introduce them again.
A. Pine tree A and B
Pine tree A happens to have a good style and nebari. I succeeded in bending it with wires. And it has a good taper of the trunk. But though I had succeeded in bending very young Pine tree B with wires, I didn’t bend the upper half of this tree with wires when it was young because I was very busy. Therefore, it doesn’t have a very good style. And though the it has the very good taper of the trunk, since the branches are not horizontal, it looks like yamadori. The left photo is the front side of Pine tree A and the second one is the back side. The third one is the front side of Pine tree B and the right one is the back side.
B. Pine tree C, D, E and F
Though the style of Pine tree C isn’t very good, if I could make the branches horizontal by wiring them, the whole style would be much better. And if I remove the left first branch, how does the whole figure change? If I had succeeded in bending Pine tree C with wires perfectly when it was very young, I think it would have been a very good idea to remove it. The decision is annoying. Though Pine tree D has a vertical trunk, since each branch isn’t horizontal, the whole style isn’t very good. But the taper of the trunk is very good. I think it was the best plan to make the young trees the vertical style because I had inserted the cuttings into the soil vertically.
Pine tree E looks like a bonsai because it is an old pine tree. If this tree had been a satsuki tree, I might have burned it when it was young. The nebari and taper of the trunk are good. And it is good that the trunk base line isn’t straight. But this rectangular pot had better be changed to a round or oval pot. The style of Pine tree F isn’t good. Especially the trunk base line isn’t good. Since I didn’t succeed in bending it with wires when it was young, the lower part of trunk has only small bends. It was my fatal error concerning this tree.
C. Pine tree G, H, I and J
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Pine tree G is a formal upright style. Since the taper of this tree isn’t better than that of Pine tree D and the trunk girth is thinner than that of the latter, the whole style isn’t very good. And since the trunk of this tree isn’t perfectly straight, I might have failed in bending this tree with wires when it was young. And though the taper of the trunk is good, the whole figure isn’t good. The whole figure of Pine tree H isn’t good because the stream of the trunk isn’t good. It is because I didn’t bend the upper part of this tree with wires when it was young. If I lean it a little to the left when repotting it, the style will be better.
Originally, we can see a lot of pine trees in the natural world several of which are the models of our bonsai. Therefore, if a pine tree continues to be planted in a pot for more than 30 years as a bonsai, it looks like a bonsai. In case of pine trees, long years grow them into bonsai. And besides, the taper of this tree is good and the lower half of the trunk is very good. But satsuki bonsai are grown from cuttings or made from garden trees by us and don’t have any models in the natural world.
Though Pine tree I looks like a bonsai, since the trunk base line isn’t good, the style isn’t good. It is my failure which was caused from planting the cuttings vertically in the soil. Therefore, I couldn’t bend the trunk base line with wires when the trunk was a little bit thick. I would like to keep what it is. If I wire the branches and make them horizontal, I think the whole figure will be more artificial. Though Pine tree J doesn’t have a good trunk base line, the whole figure isn’t bad because the trunk has some bends. If I lean it a little to the left when repotting it, the style will be better.
D. Pine tree K, L. M and N
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Though the trunk base line of Pine tree K is vertical, the trunk isn’t straight. This is one of my failures. But it is strange that it looks like a bonsai. It is because we often can see such a style of pine tree in the natural world. But I will never restyle this tree because I will unable to make the trunk straight with wires. The style of Pine tree L is good. But three branch pads aren’t good because their small branches died. Since any new sprouts don’t come there, I have to keep what it is as long as I continue to have it.
The style of Pine tree M is good. And the taper of the trunk is very good. But since the whole figure isn’t very good, I cannot decide whether I have to remove the left first branch which come from the very lower part of trunk or not. Do you think which is better? I don’t have any plan to restyle this tree drastically after removing it because I don’t have any good skills and experiences about restyling pine trees. Pine tree N looks like a bonsai. And the taper of the trunk is good. But the trunk base line is bad. If it had been a satsuki tree, I would have burn it when it was young. But since we often can see such a style of pine tree in the natural world, I can keep it.
E. Pine tree O, P ,Q and R
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Pine tree O has the good style and nebari. And besides, the taper of the trunk is very good. If I wire the branches and make the horizontal, the style will be much better. The style of Pine tree P isn’t good. And the trunk base line is vertical. But the taper of the trunk is very good. Since I don’t think any plans to restyle it, I have to keep what it is.
Though the taper of Pine tree Q is good, the whole style isn’t good. And besides, it doesn’t have any roots on the right side of the bottom of trunk. Therefore, I cannot lean it to the left when repotting it. Now I cannot decide whether I restyle it like a Literati style or not. Though I had given Pine tree R to one of my friends about 10 years ago, he handed it to me because he broke the top several years ago. And I tried to restyle it by wiring a branch to make the top, but I didn’t succeed in doing so. But now it looks like a pine tree in a rock mountain because the pater of the trunk is good and the branches are short. I think that I don’t have to burn it.
Section 2. The Cuttings of 5 varieties of satsuki.
I introduced the cuttings of 5 varieties of satsuki in my web site whose date is 25th June 2020. When 40 days had passed since I had inserted a lot of cuttings into the soil in the large bonsai pots, I decided to plant them in the small plastic pots and bought two packs (2 kg) of sphagnum. And when I removed the soil from the large pots and saw the cuttings on 7th of August, I was much surprised to see a lot of them which didn’t have good white roots. Several of them didn’t have any roots.
And I had a conclusion that I errored in making good cuttings. The first error was to think that even if I used the large bonsai pots it would be OK because I had planted a lot of strawberry in 4 large seedling trays. I should have used a lot of large terracotta pots or seedling trays or wooden pots and put a small quantity of Kanuma soil in them. The second one was to spread the sphagnum thickly on the bottoms of the pots to get the good nebari. I should not have done so if I had used these large bonsai pots. It is because they keep the water in the soil well if a lot of sphagnum was spread on the bottoms. The third one was to insert them into the soil on 25th of June. I should have done so at the start of June. Therefore, I would like to show you the bad results of my trial to get a lot of good saplings.
I didn’t spread the sphagnum on the soil in the pots lest it should be over-humid in the soil. Judging from these cuttings in the large bonsai pot A and B on the left and third photos, they didn’t look so bad that I decided to plant them in a lot of small plastic pots. Judging from the second and right photos, you can understand that these cuttings didn’t grow.
I put the small nets on the bottoms of small plastic pots, prepared sphagnum on them and put the middle grains of Kanuma soil in them. When I saw these cuttings, I recognised that I had taken a bad course to grow a lot of good saplings. Though a lot of them have a lot of white roots, they don’t have any roots at the bottoms of them. It means that they won’t be good saplings. I thought I had to cut the parts which didn’t have any roots to get the good saplings.
Though the cuttings on the left photo had a lot of white roots, since they weren’t strong, I planted them in the pots without cutting the bottoms of them. And a considerable number of them did only a few new roots and some of them didn’t have any new roots on the other photos.
After planting them in the pots, I spread the sphagnum on the soil. And I put them in the basket and put them on the shelves under the shading nets.
Section 3. Giving the cuttings a very small quantity of fertilisers
Since I understood that my trial to get a lot of good saplings of satsuki had been an error, I decided to do so again next year. But I would like to select 5 good cuttings from each of 5 varieties immediately after I will see good flowers and insert them in the Kanuma soil in a seedling tray. Therefore, I gave the cuttings a very small quantity of perfect organic fertilisers to make the strong ones grow and the weak ones die on 9th of September. If they had been in the good condition, I would have given them to them at the start of October, but when I did so on 27th of October, the number of the dead cuttings was 24. Though I have 90 cuttings now, several of them may die. Though a lot of them had flower buds, I didn’t remove them to see their flowers.
A lot of cuttings in the left basket A on the left photo have dark green leaves except some ones. And you can see a few of weak or dead cuttings in the right basket B on the left one. Seeing them from the side, they don’t have any new sprouts on the tops of them on the second one. But, more than a half of cuttings in the left basket C on the third photo are strong, but others aren’t so. A lot of cuttings in the right basket D are weak, and several ones are dying and died. Seeing them from the side, a lot of them lost the leaves.
Since I put 24 cuttings of a variety in each basket, judging from these facts, we can understand that the rooting rate of satsuki under the same condition depends on each variety. And besides, these cuttings haven’t grown since I planted them in the pots on 7th of August, judging from the right photo which was taken from the side of them on 27th of October.
I removed the pots of dead cuttings and dying ones from each basket and put the cuttings on the empty places of each basket, which I had grown in the small plastic pots in the basket E. Since a lot of cuttings died, the basket D had an empty place. Therefore, it is clear that I failed in the trial to make a lot of good saplings. But, since I decided to grow them, I gave them a very small quantity of perfectly organic fertilisers on 27th of October.
These cuttings in the basket A and B on the left photo are strong and have green leaves except some ones whose variety is different from those of them. Seeing them from the side, a lot of them have the new sprouts on the second photo. If I would like to grow them large, I have to remove them. But I keep them so that I may make them small bonsai though the variety of Yama no hikari has large flowers. Though about a half of these cuttings in the baskets C and D on the third photo are strong, another half of them are not so. Seeing them from the side, a lot of them don’t have any new sprouts on the right photo. Some of them may die in winter.
Since these cuttings in the basket A on the left photo are strong, they have new sprouts from the bottoms and trunks. But since they have flower buds, they don’t have any new sprouts from the tops. Though three cuttings in the basket B on the second photo have new sprouts from the bottoms, they don’t have them from the trunks. But the right cutting has only one small new sprout from the top. Though three cuttings in the basket A on the third photo don’t have any new sprouts from the bottoms, their trunks have very small new sprouts. But the number of very small new sprouts of three cuttings in the basket B on the right photo is less than that of then in the basket A.
Though these cuttings in the basket C on the left photo aren’t strong, they have good leaves. But they don’t have any small new sprouts. Though three cuttings in the basket C on the second photo have only some leaves, they don’t like weak. But three cuttings in the basket D on the third photo are smaller than other cuttings and have only a small number of leaves. And three cuttings on the right photo died.
It is a fact that these cuttings have been growing under the difficult conditions since I planted them into the Kanuma soil in the large bonsai pots on 25th of June. Since I had two great errors at first and it was extremely hot in summer, it is natural that I shouldn’t have any good results in my trial to get a lot of saplings. At the same time, I can know that the rooting rate of satsuki under the same condition depends on each variety. Since I always planted cuttings into Kanuma soil in some shallow terracotta pots or seedling trays at the end of May or at the start of June in Ise, I could made them have a lot of roots and get good saplings. But at that time the maximum temperature wasn’t more than 33 degrees C in Ise. It was 35 degrees C in 2019 and 38 degrees C in 2020.
When I styled satsuki trees which I had bought as araki in November about 25 years ago, I inserted some shoots in the Kanuma soil to sell these saplings at our flower show. And I could make all of them have roots though I couldn’t make them have good nebari. Therefore, I cannot believe that I couldn’t make all of above cuttings have good roots. And I would like to try to make good saplings under the good condition next year again after getting 5 good cuttings from the new shoots by the good flowers of each of 5 varieties at the end of May. But since I haven’t grown the variety of Hibai from the cuttings, which has flowers of two colours, red and pink, I don’t know how to select good cuttings of this variety. As I introduced the flowers which we cannot call Karenko, Eikan and Asuka before in my web site, even if I selected a lot of good new shoots by the small red-striped flowers as cuttings, sometimes I may have some red-coloured flowers.
But as a special case, Yama no hikari has the strong gene of white. Therefore, we mustn’t grow any trees which have a lot of white flowers. Though a young tree which I had grown from a cutting had had only red flowers for a long time, it had a white flower and a few red-striped flowers about at the age of 15. When a beginner would like to grow satsuki trees in pots and make them bonsai, he or she had better get as much knowledge of satsuki as possible. Now I am 78 years old and have grown an extremely many satsuki trees since I was 30 years old. And I have a lot of them on the shelves and in the nursery and our garden, and a lot of experiences about them. But I think that I still have a lot of things which I don’t know. Therefore, I would like to continue to introduce my experiences of errors and success concerning satsuki trees in English in my web site lest a lot of foreign people should have the same errors as I had, who would like to grow satsuki trees and enjoy the flowers.
The archives
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