I had the operation of the cancer of left ear on 8th September. Though I had left the hospital on 13th, I saw the doctor on 21st to have him pull out the surgical treads from the ear. And he told me that I would have to have some tests to know whether I have other cancer or not. Since I have the complete medical checkup and a visiting of the neurosurgery including MRI examination of the head and an echo examination of the carotid arteries every year, after I had had these examinations at the ends of September and October, I saw him again on 12th November.
I think I seem to have been a heavy afflicted since I had the operation of cancer because it gave me a great damage in the head, not in the body. Therefore, I haven’t had very good care of all bonsai though I have done all things that I have to do since then. I had the last spray of two kinds of agrochemicals on 15th. But if it will continue to be very warm, I may have to spray them again at the start of December.
Since the number of persons which were infected with coronavirus is decreasing sharply in Tokyo now, we can live with it freely. Though the number of them is under 200 persons in Japan, I cannot go to the public places because the infection means my death whose both lungs have lost 40% of workings since leaving the hospital in 1972. I hope that I will be able to go to the places which I would like to go next year. Especially, I would like to go to the United kingdom. One of the reasons is to change the old notes of starling to the new ones, which we bought 35 years ago in Japan to go there so often. Though we went there several times, we couldn’t spend all of them.
The dying satsuki trees whose trunks are very thick
We have had the irregular and strange weather since about 2004, especially, the extreme heat in summer. Recently a lot of people lost their lives and fortunes in Japan when they continued to have the very heavy rain for some days. And the very great floods and heats afflicted a lot of people in the world. And all plants in the pots continued to have the great damage on the shelves in summer. Though I have the shadowing structure over satsuki trees in the pots on the shelves, some of them died every year. I think it is strange that some young trees or seedlings died because they are very strong when they are under the black nets in summer, if they had the same cares every year. Though my experience of satsuki trees is 49 years, I think it no longer may work. When I was at the age of 40s, I thought who made satsuki trees die and said so to my friends. Since my satsuki trees were young, they were so strong that they didn’t die even if I lent them to two persons.
But when I was at the age of 50s, I made several good satsuki bonsai which I had grown from the cuttings die because I lent them to them and put them on the tables at the flower show of Ise satsuki society. The reason of their death was lacking of water. Though I gave them a lot of water every day through a year, they didn’t do so. But though I knew these conditions, since I had the reasons why I had to lend them to them and besides they gave me a lot of money, I continued to lend them to them. But I didn’t put the very expensive satsuki bonsai on the tables at our flower show, for which I had paid a lot of money.
A few good satsuki bonsai continued to die because I put them on the table at the flower show in the large room whose air was cooled down with air-conditioners. Especially, satsuki trees don’t like the cool winds of air-conditioners. Since I was the president of the society for several years, I continued to put several good satsuki bonsai on the tables at the flower show and couldn’t give a lot of water only to my trees. After I had retired from Kogakkan University at the age of 64, I could take good care of plants in the pots. But sometimes, the very expensive satsuki trees died, which I had bought as araki in Kanuma.
And as I introduced the flowers of satsuki trees which had died in my web site whose date is 1st April 2021, a lot of satsuki trees died. Though I didn’t know the reasons why one third of them died, I knew the reasons why the rest died. When I was 70 years old, I began to have drastic restyling and repotting of clumsy or weak satsuki trees to make them much better or die. And if satsuki trees continued to be planted in the pots for more than 30 years from the cuttings, they would begin to die. The trees which I have grown from cuttings are more than 45 years old. Therefore, I have several dying trees now.
When I couldn’t make a good plan to renew the web site, since a friend of mine asked me why the large satsuki trees had had a lot of very small leaves, I decided to write about three very large satsuki trees which are dying. I know the reasons why Juko and Nikko are dying but I don’t know why Korin is dying. Please read these sentences as a story of my satsuki life.
Part 1. Juko
Since I found this Juko in the corner in the satsuki shop in Kanuma in November 1993, I thought it was very cheap. And I bought it for 30,000 yen, whose height was 50 cm and whose trunk girth was 20 cm. At that time, I had a magnificent haughtiness that I could grow any tree well even if it had had large scars. I should have bought much better tree because I had had a plan to plant it in the nursery. This may have been my first error about this tree.
Though I had planted it in a very large terracotta pot, I planted it in the nursery in 1994, which I made in 1991. When we built the new house in 2000, after I had dug several satsuki trees out of the nursery and made it small, I transplanted it in other place of the nursery again. When five years passed since this transplanting, the trunk girth began to grow much thicker.
The left photo is the whole figure of this Juko in the nursery after drastic pruning on 11th February 2014. The style and taper of the trunk were so good that I decided to dig it out from the nursery and plant it in a very large Kanton bonsai pot. The second one is the whole figure of the front side before washing the roots. The third one is the back side. The right one is the whole figure of the front side after removing the soil and washing the roots. The nebari is good. These photos were taken on 18th March 2014.
The left and second photos are the back sides of the root ball. Though a lot of fine roots were removed, the nebari is good. The third one is the front side of this tree. The right one is the back side. Looking at it from the above, you can see the trunk tilting to the right. It means that the root ball of the right side is weak. But though the nebari isn’t very good, it isn’t bad.
The left photo is the front side of this tree after repotting. The second one is the back side. The whole figure of the tree which was planted in a very large Kanton pot is very good as bonsai. The height was 58 cm and the trunk girth was 47 cm. This Juko began to have flowers on the third photo which was taken on 6th June 2016. Since the leaves are dark green, this tree is strong and healthy. And the flowers are in full bloom on the right one which was taken 5 days later and very beautiful. And the colour-arrangement of flowers is very good.
When I repotted this tree on 25th March 2019, the nebari of the back side of the root ball wasn’t very good on the left and second photos. And since I was afraid that this tree wouldn’t have a lot of fine roots in the same Kanton bonsai pot, judging it on the third and right photos, I decided to plant it in a very large wooden pot.
The whole figure after repotting is very good on the left and second photos. The style and taper of the trunk are very good though the top of the tree is a little bit small. Hoping that it would grow strongly, I planted it in the very large wooden pot that I had asked a person to make. The height was 61 cm and the trunk girth was 50 cm. And the whole figure after pruning is good on the third and right photos which were taken on 14th December 2019. Judging from the repotting in March, it still looks strong and healthy.
But at first, after this tree had passed a winter, the top of this tree began to be weak. I thought that it meant that the roots under the trunk were rotten. Since I always give a lot of water to all bonsai once a week in winter, I don’t know that the cause of weakening depended on lacking in water or over-humidity. Or it may have depended on other causes. Though it looked strong and healthy at the end of 2019, since the trunk was very thick, it only continued to have a lot of leaves by exhausting the energy which was stored in the trunk.
After I had made it have flowers in 2020, its upper part began to be weaker. Therefore, I was prepared for it to die in 5 years and decided to make it have flowers in 2021, too, because I would like to see a lot of flowers. And I can see the miserable figures of the front and back sides on the left and second photos which were taken on 19th November. Though I can see several green leaves on its top on the third photo, they will fall in winter. Judging from the bottom of the trunk on the right photo, I think the very thick root whose colour is dark brown on the above right photo which was taken on 25th March 2019 was weak. Since you still can see the large scar on the bottom of the trunk, it means that this tree hasn’t cured it for a long time since it was planted in the nursery. My conclusion is that we have to continue to plant a satsuki tree in the nursery till the large scar will be cured completely.
Part 2. Nikko
I bought this Nikko for 12,000 yen in Kanuma in 1991 and planted it in the nursery. The height was 49 cm and the trunk girth was 16 cm. The left photo is the whole figure after I pruned it drastically to grow it large as soon as possible in March 2011. You can see some large scars on the trunk and four thick branches though they have good treatment. I cut a lot of the large branches very short to make them have good tapers. And since I had decided to dig it out to plant it in a large bonsai pot, I didn’t prune it drastically in February 2013. Though the style is not very good, the taper of the trunk is very good on the middle photo. Since it had a lot of long shoots on the right photo which was taken on 26th January 2014, it was very strong and healthy.
I dug it out from the nursery after drastic pruning on 18th March 2014. The left photo is the whole figure. The second photo is the front side of the nebari after I washed the roots. Judging from this photo, it doesn’t have any defects in the nebari. But looking at the nebari on the third photo from the right side, you cannot see a thick good root on the bottom of the trunk. And seeing the right enlarged photo, you can see the condition in detail.
The left photo is the back side of nebari after cutting of the vertical roots. It doesn’t have any great problem. The second photo is the whole figure after washing roots completely. You can understand that this tree doesn’t have a very good nebari. The third one is the front side of this tree after repotting. Though the style is good, you can understand that the left side of the bottom of trunk is weak. Therefore, I decided to make some saplings to make the material which I would make a root by grafting it to the bottom of the trunk after planting it there. The right one is the back side. The height was 48 cm and the trunk girth was 45 cm.
The left and second photos are the whole figures of the front and back sides of this tree before and after pruning. Seeing these photos which were taken on 26th March 2016, the style, the taper of the trunk and the nebari look good. And the front side on the third one has a lot of flowers whose colour arrangement is very good, but that of back side on the right one isn’t good. I decided to graft the shoots on the trunk and branches, which would have good flowers in the future. These photos were taken on 26th May 2017.
Since you can see thin and fine roots on the back side of the nebari on the left and second photos which were taken on 31st March 2019, this tree still seemed to be healthy. And since it has a lot of large spaces between thick roots on the third and right photos, I prepared the sapling to graft it to the bottom of the trunk.
When I planted this tree in a large bonsai pot, after shaving the bark of the bottom of trunk, I planted a small sapling beside the bottom of its right side to make a root. The left photo is its front side, and the middle one is its back side. Since I cut two thick branches of the top because they had white flowers, the whole figure isn’t very good. Though the taper of the trunk is very good, the style isn’t so. And you can see several large scars on the right photo.
Since I already had cut two very thick branches below them, my new cutting was my error of thinking about the plan to make this tree have a good colour arrangement of flowers. Since the height was 49 cm and the trunk girth was 46, I shouldn’t have cut them, that is, I should have prioritised the life of this tree instead of my preference. Though I knew the fact that the bottom of the trunk was only 1 cm thick even if five years had passed since the previous repotting, I prioritised my preference. Since I decided to sell all middle and large bonsai and all trees in the nursery by the age of 85 in 2018, I had a strong desire to hand over satsuki trees as good as possible to satsuki enthusiasts. But now I think that this was my haughtiness because it is dying now.
You can see the miserable figure of this tree on these three photos which were taken on 3rd November 2021. It began to die after the summer of 2019 though it was thought that a lot of energy had been stored inside the very thick trunk. And a lot of thin branches died in 2020. My conclusion is that the satsuki trees whose trunks are very thick are very weak when it was planted in a large pot if they had been grown very large in the nursery for the short period. I have thought that I made a lot of very thick araki which I had bought and grown die and they didn’t die by themselves. I shouldn’t have bought any araki which had had large scars, especially, whose very thick trunks had been cut short. And I should have planted them in large wooden pots for several years though it may have been OK unless the conditions of weather changed a lot in summer. I don’t know well how I should treat them in summer though I made the structure which make shadows over them. Over 45 years of my experience is useless.
You can see a lot of much smaller leaves on the above middle photo. If you can see them on any branch of your satsuki trees, it is a dangerous sign that it may die though the trees which were repotted have them. But you can see some flower buds of the tree which I planted beside the bottom of the trunk to make a root. Since this Nikko was weak, I didn’t graft it to the bottom of the trunk in the previous year. Therefore, you can see it growing tall on the above left photo. This means that a lot of young satsuki trees can grow strong and healthy under the shadowing nets in summer.
Part 3. Korin
I have grown this Korin from the cutting. I broke the trunk when I wired it immediately after we had removed from Kobe to Ise in 1978. Though it was very tall, I cut it short and wired it again. Since I had a lot of such broken trees, I could not sell all of them at our flower show. Therefore, I continued to grow it in a terracotta pot. But since it was short, the trunk didn’t grow very thick. When I made the nursery in 1991, I planted it there. Though the trunk didn’t grow very thick for about 5 years, it began to grow very thick suddenly. I think that the roots around the bottom of the trunk became strong and healthy. You can see the whole figure after drastic pruning on 13th February 2013, whose nebari is very good on the left photo. Since you can see a lot of very long shoots on the second one which was taken on 26th January 2014, this tree was very strong and healthy.
When I dug out this tree from the nursery on 26th March 2014 after pruning drastically, the style looks very good on the third photo because the taper of the trunk is very good though the trunk doesn’t have very good windings. When I washed the roots after removing the soil, the nebari is very perfect on the right photo.
Since the nebari has a lot of small spaces between thick and thin roots on the back side of the root ball on the left photo, it has the perfect condition about a nebari. After I had washed all roots, this tree had so many roots on the second photo that I had to remove one tenth of them. And I planted it in a very large bonsai pot. The third photo is its front side and the right one is its back side. The whole figure is very good. The taper of the trunk is perfect, too. The height was 52 cm and the trunk girth was 42 cm. I thought that this tree was the best one that I had grown from the cutting.
The left photo is the front side of this tree and the second one is the back side after I pruned it lightly on 13th March 2015. I made it have some long shoots to make the trunk grow thicker. The third photo is its front side before pruning and the right one is that after pruning on 26th March 2016. Though its top is a little bit small, the style is good because the taper of the trunk and the nebari are very good.
This tree began to have flowers on the left photo which was taken on 18th May 2016 and the flowers are in full bloom on the second one which was taken on 24th though it doesn’t have a lot of them. When it began to have some flowers on the third one which was taken on 19th May 2017, since it has a lot of deep green leaves, it means that it is very strong and healthy. And when the flowers are in full bloom on the right one which was taken on 29th, the whole figure is very beautiful.
The whole figure on the left photo is the front side of this tree and the second one is the back side before I pruned it on 4th January 2018. Its whole figure in winter doesn’t look beautiful because these leaves aren’t red . But since it has a lot of long shoots, I can know that it is strong and healthy. And the third one is the front side and the right one is the back side after pruning. The whole figures are very good because its top became larger. It looks a very good satsuki bonsai.
When I washed the roots of this tree on 30th March 2019, the back of the nebari is perfect because it has a lot of young roots even under the trunk and several spaces between thick roots on the left and second photos. And seeing the nebari from above, the front side is very good on the third and right photos.
But not seeing any scar on the trunk of the front side on the left photo, you can see a large scar on the bottom of the trunk of the back side on the second photo. Since I made it by cutting the very thick branch several years ago, it hasn’t been cured yet. Since the nebari was very good, I planted it in the same pot. The whole figures of the front and back sides of this tree are very good on the third and right photos though you can see the scar on the bottom of the trunk on the right photo. The height was 50 cm and the trunk girth was 45 cm. Since the bottom of the trunk was 3 cm thick since repotting in 2014, I thought that its growth had the average which that of a large tree has when it continued to be planted in a bonsai pot.
The top of this tree began to be weak in autumn in 2019. Since the nebari had been very good when I had repotted in March, I couldn’t understand why it began to be weak. Generally speaking, if only a top of the bonsai was weak, it means that the roots under the trunk had some troubles. And it began to die in the autumn in 2020. Therefore, I could understand that this tree has some troubles in mid-summer, but I couldn’t resolve them though I did all that I could do, judging from the experience of 47 years. And other branches began to die.
You can see the miserable figures of the front and back sides of this tree on the left and second photos which were taken on 3rd November 2021. Though some branches died completely, you can see a lot of green leaves on the top. Therefore, it means that the roots under the trunk haven’t caused the dying of the top. Looking at these photos carefully, the branches of its right side and the right side of the top died. Judging from this fact, it may be pointed out that I didn’t turn the turn table under the pot so often in mid-summer. If a lot of smaller leaves are seen on weak branches, it means a dangerous sign that the tree will begin to die. You can see a lot of them on the third and right photos. In case of Korin, the leaves began to be dark red.
You can see a lot of strong shoots which have flower buds on the top of this tree, and some of them are long on the left photo. I think it is because a lot of energy has been stored in the very thick trunk or a part of the left side of nebari is all right. Seeing the coloured leaves on the thick branch on the second photo, I can know that this branch will die completely next year.
Though a large scar is seen on the bottom of the trunk on the third photo, you cannot see any one on the right photo. Since the branch above the scar died, it may have caused its dying. Since the trunk of this tree is the thickest of all satsuki trees that I have grown from the cuttings and one of my most favourite bonsai, my sense of loss is great. But I have to give up to make it grow strong now.
The archives
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