Though we greeted the new near 2021, we still continue to have a lot of people in the world who were infected with the coronavirus. Therefore, any meetings cannot be held in a lot of countries. I hope that a lot of satsuki societies will be able to hold their satsuki flower shows this year.
Since I had decided to stop growing large and middle satsuki trees in the pots and in the nursery at the age of 85 in November 2019, I began to sell a lot of satsuki trees on the shelves and in the nursery, but I decided to keep them till the disease will subside because I and the satsuki shop keeper cannot hope that they will be bought. Though I am 78 years old, since I can do anything about all my satsuki trees now, it is no problems. But since my best friend died of cancer suddenly on 29th last November who had been very intimate from our childhood, I continue to have the deep grief for his death. Especially, when he and his wife came to our house on 6th last November, he handed me a lot of money, telling me to use it because I am a day trader of the stocks. Since I could only invest a small sum of money, I think he would inspire me to work the brain more fluently in order to make me live longer. I have to thank him very much for his kindness and would like to pray that his soul may rest in peace.
Since we continue to have a lot of sad news in the world, I would like to melt your heart with the good photos of Ume (Prunus mume) flowers for a while because it is said in Japan that they herald the arrival of spring. Therefore, we Japanese expect to see them as soon as possible when we are enduring the very severe winter. We have a lot of varieties of Ume and they continue to have flowers for quite a long time. Though the ume trees begin to have flowers at the start of February in my garden, these photos of ume flowers were taken on 10th March 2017 when we went to see them in Suzuka Forest Park which is open only while they have flowers. Though it is located in Mie prefecture, since it is at the foot of the Suzuka Mountains, it is much cooler than in Ise. Since a lot of huge ume trees have been planted, everybody will be amazed at the beauty of the flowers and the spectacular view of the trees if they enter there.
The flowers of the satsuki trees which I sold in 2020
Since I decided to finish selling the middle and large sizes of satsuki bonsai and the satsuki trees in the nursery by the age of 85 in November 2019, I sold a lot of satsuki trees in the nursery in December, January, February and March, and a lot of small, middle and large satsuki bonsai in March. Since the satsuki bonsai which I sold had had the beautiful flowers, they continue to live in my memory and I can see the photos of them. I would like to introduce them. And I selected the good photo of the flowers of each tree, and wrote the sizes of height and trunk girth which I had measured when I had repotted the large and middle satsuki bonsai.
Chapter 1. The flowers of the large satsuki bonsai
I paid a lot of money for these satsuki trees except Kogetsu which I had grown from the cutting. But they are very cheap now. Especially a lot of satsuki enthusiasts cannot buy the expensive satsuki bonsai because the coronavirus has restricted their freedom of action and given the great damages to their purses. Therefore, I would like to write the prices of them to show how I have lost a lot of money. But I never regret the loss. It is because I have thought that my satsuki trees and fishing have made me live much longer than I thought when I had left the hospital at the age of 30 after staying in bed for more than 5 months. Immediately after leaving the hospital, I couldn’t go upstairs and continue to sit on the chair for an hour. After ten years, since I continued to grow satsuki trees and go fishing in the sea and river, I could sit on the chair for a long time and study hard to publish theses. And when I was 50 years old, though I couldn’t run, I could do everything that I would like to do in the garden.
Section A. Asahi no izumi A and B
I bought these trees for 50,000 yen in October 1994. These photos were taken on 27th May 2017. When I bought Asahi no izumi A, the height was 73 cm, the trunk girth was 18 cm, and the height was 67 cm and the trunk girth was 28 cm in 2018. Though the height of Asahi no izumi B was 70 cm and the trunk girth was 16 cm in 1994, the heigh was 74cm and the trunk girth was 25 cm in 2018. When I bought them, since the trunks had been cut short, the tapers of the trunks weren’t good and the tops were clumsy. Since I continued to grow them in the pots for a long time, the trunk didn’t grow thicker and I couldn’t make them have good tapers of the trunks. Asahi no izumi A has a good colour-arrangement on the left photo which was taken on 27th May 2017, and Asahi no izumi B has only two red flowers on the right photo which was taken on 27th May 2019 though it has a lot of red flowers on the back side. It was an error of my pruning it after blooming.
Section B. Section B. Ai no tsuki and Kinsai A
I bought this Ai no tsuki for 20,000 yen in October 1988. The height was 62 cm and the trunk girth was 15cm. And the height was 62 cm and the trunk girth was 25cm when I repotted it in 2019. When I bought it, since the trunk had been cut short, the taper of the trunk wasn’t good and the top was clumsy though the whole style was very good. Although I continued to grow it in the pot for more than 30 years, the trunk didn’t grow very thick. If the thick trunk of a tree which was very tall was cut short like above Asahi no izumi A and B, it seems that it won't have grown thicker than we think even if it has good flowers. The left photo was taken on 17th May 2017.
I bought this Kinsai for 350,000 yen on February 1997. The height was 57 cm and the trunk girth was 25cm. Since the style was good and the trunk was thick as the variety of Kinsai, the price was very expensive. And when I repotted it in 2019, the height was 58 cm and the trunk girth was 34cm. I had to remove the considerable number of formal flowers every year because I don’t like them though the variety is allowed to have them. After removing them, the whole figure of this tree was good when the right photo was taken on 6th June 2019.
Section C. Korin A and Shuho no hikari A
I bought this Korin A for 400,000 yen in 2003. Though the height was 52 cm, the trunk girth was 38 cm and the whole figure of this tree whose thick trunk hadn’t been cut short was good, the price was much cheaper than that in 1990s. When it was repotted in March 2018, the height 53 cm and the trunk girth was 46 cm. When I repotted it in March 2018, the height 53 cm and the trunk girth was 46 cm. Since I sold it last March, if the owner will repot it after considering the length of each branch, it will be completed as a big bonsai. The left photo was taken on 6th June 2019.
I bought this Shuho no hikari A for 280,000 yen in 2001. Though the height was 43 cm and the trunk girth was 37 cm, since the nebari wasn’t very good, the price was much cheaper than I thought. When it was repotted in March 2018, the height was 48 cm, the trunk girth was 49 cm and the nebari was much better. Since each branch is good, if the owner will trim it better after blooming, it will be completed as a big bonsai. The right photo was taken on 6th June 2019.
Section D. Nyohozan and Kakuo
I bought this Nyohozan for 90,000 yen in 1997. Since the trunk wasn’t very thick and the variety was very popular, the price was cheap. The height was 43 cm and the trunk girth was 27 cm. I planted it in the very large wooden pot to make it have a very thick trunk as soon as possible. And I planted it in the large bonsai pot in March 2012. When I repotted it in March 2017, the height was 57 cm and the trunk girth was 42 cm. The left photo was taken on 6th June 2019. Though the trunk doesn’t have a very good shape, the whole figure is good.
When I bought this Kakuo for 20,000 yen in June 1999, since the height was 60 cm and the trunk girth was 19 cm, I planted it in a very large terracotta pot to make it have a very thick trunk as soon as possible. Since the trunk of this tree didn’t have a good shape and the nebari wasn’t very good, the price was very cheap. And I repotted it in the bonsai pot in March 2010. When I repotted it in March 2019, the height was 58 cm and the trunk girth was 32 cm. The right photo was taken on 19th May 2017.
Section E. Shinnyo no hikari and Kogetsu
Though I bought this two-trunked Shinnyo no hikari for 34,000 yen in June 1995, since it was weak and didn’t have a good nebari, I planted it in a very large terracotta pot. When I repotted it in March 2000, the height was 38 cm and the trunk girth was 38 cm. And I repotted it in a large bonsai pot in March 2012. When I repotted it in March 2019, the height 46 cm and the trunk girth was 48 cm. Since three fourths of all leaves are variegated, the colour contrast of leaves is special in summer. The flowers are very beautiful on the left photo which was taken on 5th June 2017.
After making a lot of cuttings, I inserted them into the small grains of Kanuma soil in 1980. Since I didn’t have any nursery, I grew them in the pots. This Kogetsu was one of them which had a good style. I planted it in the nursery in 1990. Though I had grown it there for 27 years till I dug it up from there, when I planted it in a large bonsai pot in 2017 after washing the roots, the height was 55 cm and the trunk girth was 31 cm. If a sapling of satsuki had been planted in a pot and grown there for a long time, we couldn’t hope that it would grow much thicker than we thought even if it had been planted in a nursery.
Section F. Nikko A and B
I bought the young tree of Nikko A for 10,000 yen in 1988 and planted it in the nursery. After digging it up from the nursery in April 2008, I planted it in a large terracotta pot. The height was 54 cm and the trunk girth was 36 cm. I could make it have much thicker trunk in the nursery for 20 years. And when I repotted it in a large bonsai pot in March 2013, the height was 59 cm and the trunk girth was 40 cm. The height was 53 cm and the trunk girth was 41 cm when I repotted it in 2016 and this tree was almost complete as a bonsai. But though the whole figure is good when it has a lot of flowers, the colour-arrangement of flowers isn’t good. The left photo was taken on 6th June 2019.
After buying this Nikko B in April 1992, I planted it in the nursery. I forgot to record the price and measure the sizes of this tree. After digging it up from the nursery in April 2014, I planted it in a large round bonsai pot. And since this tree didn’t have any good roots on the right side, I planted two saplings there to make roots by grafting. The height was 38 cm and the trunk girth was 40 cm. And when I repotted it in March 2019, the height 38 cm and the trunk girth was 43 cm. It will take a long time that the owner will complete it as a good bonsai. The right photo was taken on 3rd June 2017.
Chapter 2. The flowers of the middle satsuki bonsai
These 6 satsuki trees were cheap except Korin B when I bought them because their trunks were thin. Small and middle satsuki trees began to be more expensive than large ones at the beginning of 21st century. It is because a lot of satsuki enthusiasts begin to be old and a lot of residents in condos and apartment houses began to buy them. Therefore, Korin B may be the most expensive satsuki bonsai in my satsuki trees.
Section A. Korin B and Kinsai B
I bought this Korin B for 160,000 yen in November 1994. Though the height was 29 cm and the trunk girth was 23 cm, I planted it in a large terracotta pot. When I repotted it in a good bonsai pot in April 2007, the height was 32 cm and the trunk girth was 40 cm. And I repotted it on 27th March 2018, the height was 36 cm and the trunk girth was 42 cm. Since the bottom of trunk is very thick, this tree is an example of my success in growth of satsuki trees in the pots. The whole figure is very good. Though the left photo was taken on 2nd June 2012, it is the best one of all photos of this tree that I took.
When I bought this Kinsai B for 30,000 yen in 1993, I didn’t measure the height and the trunk girth after planting it in the large terracotta pot so that the trunk might be thicker as soon as possible. When I planted it in a bonsai pot in 2009, the height was 47cm and the trunk girth was 25 cm. When it was repotted in March 2017, the height was 48 cm and the trunk girth was 29 cm. The right photo was taken on 2nd June 2019. Though these flowers are beautiful, the whole style isn’t very good.
Section B. Hakurin A and Juko
I bought this Hakurin A for 15,000 yen in January 1997 when it was a young tree. And I planted it in the nursery. When I dug it up from there and planted it in a bonsai pot in 2014, the height was 37 cm and the trunk girth was 38cm. This tree is an example of my success in growth of satsuki trees in the nursery. When I repotted it on 24th March 2019, the height was 38 cm and the trunk girth was 40cm. The left photo was taken on 29th May 2017. The whole figure and the colour-arrangement of flowers are very good. It was one of my favourites.
I don’t have the strict memory of this Juko. But it is true that it was one of saplings which I had made in Kobe city in 1973. Since I got the regular job at Kogakkan University in April 1976, I lived in Kobe and Ise. Therefore, I could not repot about 100 young tall satsuki trees though I could repot a lot of small ones. When our family moved to Ise in 1978, I began to wind them with wires. But after I had broken a lot of tall thick trees, I restyled them. Though I had sold a lot of them at our flower show, I continued to grow some of them which I hadn’t sold in terracotta pots. And making two nurseries in 1989, I planted this Juko in one of the nurseries. After digging it up from the nursery in 2011, I planted it in a large terracotta pot.
When I repotted it in a bonsai pot on 8th April 2016, the height was 33 cm and the trunk girth was 25 cm. We can understand that if we had continued to grow young satsuki trees in the pots for a long time, even if we planted them in nurseries after that, the trunks wouldn’t grow very thick. The right photo was taken on 6th June 2019. Each of these flowers is very strong and beautiful, but since they are large, the whole figure isn’t very good.
Section C. Nikko C and D
After breaking the trunks of Nikko C and D when they were young, I restyled them about 45 years ago. Since I couldn’t sell them at our flower show, I continued to grow them in terracotta pots. And I planted them in the nursery in about 1990. When I dug up this Nikko C from the nursery in March 2011 and planted it in a large terracotta pot, the height was 32 cm and the trunk girth was 30cm. When I repotted it in the bonsai pot in March 2015, the height was 35 cm and the trunk girth was 32 cm. These flowers are very beautiful on the left photo which was taken on 4th June 2019. I was happy to see some red flowers.
When I dug up this Nikko D from the nursery in 2011, since the nebari wasn’t good, I didn’t measure the sizes of height and trunk girth. When I repotted it in the bonsai pot on 30th Match 2017, the height was 33 cm and the trunk girth was 25 cm. Though this tree had had some red flowers long years ago, I could not see them in 2010s. It is a pity. Did I lose my labours? Judging from the flowers on the right photo which was taken on 4th June 2019, it is sure that the variety of this tree is Nikko.
Chapter 3. The flowers of the small satsuki bonsai
I grew these satsuki trees from the cuttings except Chinzan which I bought for 5,000 yen in 1992. I made a lot of young satsuki trees to sell at our flower show. Since more than a half of the members of Ise satsuki society didn’t make saplings and young trees to sell, several members had to do so. And I had to continue to grow a lot of trees which I could not have sold. Therefore, some of them don’t have good colour-arrangements. I think that their ages are 20 to 25 though two trees of Hoshi no kagayaki are about 13 years old.
Section A. Nikko E and F and Goko
Fortunately, I could see only one red flower on the left photo of Nikko E but couldn’t see any red flowers on the middle photo of Nikko F though it has some red-striped flowers. It is a great pity that I see this whole figure of this tree when it is about 23 years old. Perhaps it may have had some red flowers in the past. It is sure that it has a gene of red colour because it has some red-striped flowers. The flowers of Goko on the right photo are beautiful because it has some white and white-striped flowers, and it has several white flowers on the back side. Therefore, the colour-arrangement is very good.
Section B. Hakurin B, C and D
Generally speaking, the genes of colours of red, purple and pink in satsuki trees are strong. But the gene of pink in Hakurin is very weak. If these trees of Hakurin had had good colour-arrangements, I might have sold them by 2002 when I resigned from the president of Ise satsuki society. But since I continued to grow them, they may not have had good colour-arrangements.
Since Hakurin B has several pink and pink-striped flowers on the left photo, the whole figure is beautiful. But since Hakurin C has only some pink-striped flowers without pink ones on the middle photo, we can hope that it will have some pink ones in the future. Now the whole figure doesn’t look beautiful to the people who know what the variety of Hakurin is. Hakurin D has only one pink flower. The owner has to keep the branch which has it when he prunes it after blooming.
Section C. Kegon, Kozan and Shuho no hikari
The variety of Kegon is so weak that we have to prune the trees after blooming very carefully. Especially we had better prune the lower strong branches drastically. The whole style of this Kegon is very good. But, though the colour-arrangement of flowers is good, this tree doesn’t have a lot flowers on the left photo. The middle photo is Kozan which has the flowers of paler colour near white. Since these flowers are simple and beautiful, this tree had better be placed by the tree which has a lot of gorgeous flowers. The right photo is the flowers of Shuho no hikari. Since the bottom of the trunk is thick, the whole figure is good.
Section D. Chinzan, Hoshi no kagayaki A and B
When I bought this Chinzan in 1992, the roots were good. But they united together in about 2010 because I had given it a lot of water and fertilisers. This is one of my errors. Now this tree may not be called an exposed root style but a formal bonsai though it has a strange trunk or root on the left photo. The middle and right photos are the flowers of Hoshi no kagayaki A and B which were about 13 years old. Since I sold them and a large tree in the nursery last March, I will be unable to see any flowers of this variety in my garden for ever. Though I have only one young tree which is about 8 years old, it is dying.
My elder sister who is 91 years old and lives alone in Nara city likes the flowers of Hoshi no kagayaki. Though I had brought 3 small satsuki trees and a lot of rose flowers to her at the end of May every year since her husband had died about 20 years ago, she refused to be given satsuki trees two years ago. She told me that she couldn’t look after them till she would return them to me. After the trees of this variety and other varieties had returned to our garden, they died at the start of winter or in a year or two. Since this variety is weak, I made the several saplings sometimes.
But I stopped making saplings when I was 70 years old because I thought I didn’t have any times enough to grow them large. But I took a lot of cuttings and insert them into the small grains of Kanuma soil in June last year to report their growth on my web site. And a lot of them died and others aren’t good because I did it in June and it was extremely hot in summer (38 degrees C). And I decided that I would try to do so again next May. But I have to select 10 good cuttings of 5 varieties to save the times and labours.
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.
If you would like to understand what Mack is a little more, please click here.
If you have any suggestions or impressions about my web site, please send your e-mail about them to my e-mail address.
Then I will surely answer them.