Now a lot of people in the world are enjoying the Olympic games only on TV. But it is very strange not to go to see them. And we have the increasing number of people infected with coronavirus in Japan though I and my wife finished our vaccination in July. Though we would like to go to Europe, we wonder when we will be able to go there. Since we are very old now, we don’t have a lot of time to spare. We hope this coronavirus will disappear from the world within 2022.
Since I had been very busy in June and July and we had a lot of rainy days, I finished pruning the garden trees at the end of July. Therefore, I renewed this web site so hastily that I think it may have a lot of errors. And I am not sure that you can be interested in my sentences and photos.
We are enjoying the white and pink flowers of crape myrtle trees. They continue to flower for a long time. Therefore, we call it Hyakujikko which means that it continues to have the red flowers for one hundred days. And we have 5 varieties of fringed orchid which have flowers now. Amanokawa is a rare variety which is very vulnerable to disease and doesn’t make large bulbs in my garden. These flowers give us a sensation of coolness in summer.
Sorting of the cuttings
When we have been growing satsuki trees in the pots, we often have an accident or error of giving a great damage to them. Since they don't have any tongues and cannot move to escape the dangers, we always have to take good care of them. But, sometimes, we may make a mistake or misjudgment in one of a lot of kinds of conditions: typhoon, frost, snow, vermin, disease, giving of water and fertilisers, dilution ratio of agrochemical, repotting.
I have had a lot of errors and misjudgments since I began to grow satsuki trees in 1972. And I think they are my intellectual property which I can tell to the foreign enthusiasts of satsuki bonsai lest they should make the same errors and misjudgments as I did. Now I would like to introduce Miyamamangetsu of which I could succeed in repairing the great damages. The back branches of the top were broken by the strong wind of typhoon.
And I introduced “A plan to grow satsuki trees from the cuttings” in this web site whose date is 1st August 2020 and “The cuttings of 5 varieties of satsuki” on 1st December 2020. Though I took 20 cuttings of 5 varieties that have malticoloured flowers at random to show the result of their flowers, since I inserted them into Kanuma soil on 25th June, a lot of cuttings of weak varieties died because they didn’t have good roots. Though I put them under the black nets and gave a lot of water to them, since the maximum temperature was 38 degrees C in the mid-summer, they couldn’t endure the severe heat.
Though a lot of the rest had flower buds last year, only 29 trees of them had flowers. Therefore, when all of them will have flowers next year, I will be able to judge the result of blooming. But now I would like to sort 29 trees lest I should grow the trees which didn’t have good flowers.
I often introduced 8 young Kogetsu in this web site. It is because they give me a lot of interesting materials which I can write, and at the same time I don’t have a lot of them in my garden. And I like the variety of Kogetsu because it has beautiful flowers though it is difficult to make it have the good colour-arrangement of flowers. Please enjoy them and judge whether it is good for you to repot your satsuki trees after blooming or not.
Section 1. An accident of Miyamamangetsu
Though a typhoon approached to Japan on 23rd September 2019, fortunately, it didn’t pass near us. Though I put down a lot of small bonsais under the shelves and brought the rest of them and all cascades into the garage, I didn’t bind any large bonsai pots to the shelves with wires. And the strong wind blew down only one satsuki tree on the ground from the shelf. It was this Miyamamangetsu of which some back branches were broken by it. Since it had been repotted on 1st April 2019 and already had a lot of leaves, I think it didn’t have greater damage.
But when it had flowers in 2020, I could see a lot of shoots on the trunk near the cuts and branches. And they had so many flowers in 2021 that I couldn’t see the cuts. After blooming, I wired some shoots to make branches. When I took the photos of this tree on 1st August, since the basic styles of branches were completed, I hope I will be able to see the good whole style in three years.
Since this Miyamamangetsu isn’t very old, though it could have a lot of new shoots from the trunk and branches, if it was very old, since we cannot expect that it would have a lot of new shoots from the trunk, I think it will be unable to recover the style of the tree in a short period or that we will have to graft some long shoots on the trunk after buying them.
The left photo is the roots which were washed. These roots are so good that this tree is strong. The middle one is the front side of this tree. An the right one is the back side. The height is 58 cm and the trunk girth is 19 cm.
The left photo is the whole figure of the front side, which was taken on 25th September 2019. The middle one is the whole figure of the back side. And the right one is the upper part of back side. You can see how this tree was given the damages.
The left photo is the front side of this tree when it had flowers in 2020. Though it doesn’t have a lot of flowers because I repotted it in the previous year, the whole figure isn’t bad. And a lot of new shoots came from a lot of places on the middle photo. And we can see a lot of new shoots on the right one.
The left photo is the front side of this tree when it had flowers in 2021. And the back side has a lot of flowers on the middle and right photos.
The front side of this tree on the left photo isn’t bad when it was taken on 1st August. The second photo is the back side which looks like a bonsai now. But the new branches on the right photo are still short. I hope they will have a lot of flowers in two years.
Section 2. Sorting of the cuttings
Last year I introduced how to make saplings of satsuki by inserting cuttings in the Kanuma soil in my web site. But since it was late to insert them, I don’t have a good result. A lot of cuttings died and a lot of them didn’t have any flowers because a lot of flower buds had died. Since I took a lot of cuttings at random, I would like to introduce how to choose good cuttings.
Part 1. Kogetsu
The tree of the left photo has so good flower that I would like to keep it as a good sapling. Two trees on the second photo aren’t bad. These flowers have large parts of white. But it is difficult to judge whether this cutting is good or not by judging only from the flower on the third photo. It is because it may have a lot of red flowers and fukurin in the future. The flower on the right photo is good. Since I can expect that this tree will have a good colour arrangement of flowers which I like when it will grow large, I would like to keep it.
Part 2. Komei
Five cuttings on these photos are very good because they have only pink-striped flowers and a tree has a good swelling flower bud. Now they are the best as the saplings of Komei. But though one or two of them may have a lot of pink flowers in the future, I will be able to remove the branches which will have only pink flowers.
Part 3. Yama no hikari
The cutting on the left photo is very good now. But it may have a lot of white flowers in the future. These four cuttings on other photos have only red flowers and swelling red flower bud. Therefore, a lot of satsuki enthusiasts are afraid that they may have only red flowers when they will grow large. Generally speaking about the varieties of satsuki trees, if a variety of satsuki tree has only red flowers when it is a young sapling, it is said that it won’t have any white flowers in the future.
But Yama no hikari is the exception of them. Since I think that three of them will have white flowers in 10 years, I will keep them. I have such experience that the tree which had had only red flowers when young had white flowers when it grew large. Therefore, I would like to grow these four cuttings large as an experiment.
Part 4. Byakuren
Since Byakuren is a bud sport of Karenko, I think that it is difficult to make a lot of good saplings of Byakuren because a lot of saplings of this variety don’t have white flowers. It is because Karenko of the parent doesn’t have any white flowers.
I have only two cuttings that had flowers. A lot of flower buds of them died and besides several of them died. These two trees are good as cuttings. Since I haven’t grown this variety from cuttings, I would like to grow the rest of them.
Part 5. Hibai
This variety of Hibai is said to be two-coloured blooming. But it has three colours of red, pink and white. This is Japanese bonsai usage of words. Since I haven’t grown this variety from cuttings, I don’t know how to choose the cuttings of Hibai.
I have only three cuttings of Hibai that had flowers. A cutting on the left photo has a red flower. And one of cuttings on the right photo has a pink flower and other one has a red flower. And a lot of flower buds of them died and besides several of them died. Therefore, I will grow all of them.
Part 6. Disposal
We have to dispose of all cuttings that we think won’t be good saplings of each variety of satsuki after we saw their first flowers. We mustn’t grow them as saplings for bonsai. If someone makes a lot of them to sell them, it will lower the price and dignity of satsuki as bonsai. And such a satsuki bonsai never get any rewards at any big satsuki flower shows. But we can enjoy them as garden trees.
I disposed of these five cuttings. If some cuttings of Yama no hikari and Kogetsu have only white flowers, it means that they won’t have any red flowers.
On the contrary, the cutting of Komei on the left photo has a swelling pink flower bud and the right one of Komei on the right photo has the pink flower. They will never have any white flowers in the future. Therefore, I had to disposed of them. But though the left one on the right photo had two red flowers, since it is Yama no hikari, I decided to keep it.
Section 3. Young Kogetsu
I often introduced 8 young Kogetsu in this web site. Since I was so busy in March that I couldn’t repot 6 young Kogetsu. And I repotted them after pruning them, removing the soil and washing the roots on 4th June. Since I repotted other two trees last year, I pruned them after blooming.
I took their photos on 1st August. Comparing them, the difference of growth between them is clear. Especially, since the maximum temperature in Ise has been much higher in these years, I knew that if I had repotted them in June, it would have given great damages to them in summer even if I had shadowed them with black nets. Therefore, I decided to continue to repot them in March after pruning them, removing soil and washing the roots.
Please enjoy their flowers in 2020 and 2021 on the left and middle photos. And see their present figures in summer on the right photos.
Kogetsu A
This colour-arrangement of flowers in 2021 is very good. Though the parent trunk was broken with very strong wind several years ago, the taper of the trunk isn’t bad now. Seeing the whole figure on the right photo, I am afraid whether it will have good flowers or not.
Kogetsu B
This colour-arrangement of flowers in 2021 is very good, too. Since I repotted it last year, the whole figure on the right photo is good. I can hope that it will have a good colour-arrangement of flowers.
Kogetsu C
I like this colour-arrangement of flowers though this tree has a lot of white flowers. Since I repotted it last year, the whole figure on the right photo is good. I can be sure that it will have some red flowers in the future.
Kogetsu D
Though this tree doesn’t have a lot of pure white flowers and any red flowers in 2020 and 2021, I like this colour-arrangement of flowers. But I had better make it have a few red flowers in the future. When repotting it, I broke the pot and planted it in the white pot. Seeing the whole figure on the right photo, since the pot is shallower than the previous one, I am afraid whether it will have good flowers or not.
Kogetsu E
I like the colour-arrangement of flowers in 2021 better than that in 2020. Even if I pruned the branches of Kogetsu after blooming very carefully, the colour-arrangement of flowers changes every year. Though the whole figure on the right photo is poor now, you can see the movement of this tree so clearly that you can judge whether it has a good style or not.
Kogetsu F
Though the colour-arrangement of flowers in 2020 isn’t bad, the whole figure isn’t good when it had flowers in 2021 though they are beautiful. It is because the whole figure on the right photo isn’t good. And the style isn’t very good.
Kogetsu G
The colour-arrangement of flowers in 2021 is better than that in 2020. You can see the style of this tree clearly on the right photo now because it doesn’t have a lot of branches and leaves. Do you think it is good? I think I had to cut the trunk very short to make it have a good style several years ago.
Kogetsu H
The colour-arrangement of flowers in 2021 is better than that in 2020. And the flowers are beautiful. But the style of this tree isn’t good. And I cannot restyle it to make it look like a bonsai. I have grown it as one of materials for this web site and can enjoy only these flowers.
The archives
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