Satsuki and Other Trees in Mack's Garden 69

Renewal Ist August 2022

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It is very sad that the number of people infected with coronavirus is rapidly increasing in Japan. It was over 200,000 on 25th July. Since I lost 40% of workings of both lungs at the age of 29, if I am infected with it, it means my death. Therefore, I cannot go to the public places except shopping. I think it is very stupid that Japanese government is treating the diseases like the influenza now. It thinks that the economy is much more important than the public health.
　
And it is very sad, too, that Putin doesn’t stop warring. How many people he will kill, including Russian soldiers? And the extreme heat killed a lot of people in the world this summer. But fortunately, I finished pruning the garden trees within July though I worked in the garden only in the early morning and evening. I would like to refuse to hear much sadder news except above ones.

Though I couldn’t take a lot of photos of the flowers of large trees, I could take only 4 photos of them. These photos are three of them. The left photo is the flowers of Komei and the middle is those of Shintaiyo. Since I removed a lot of rotten parts from both trunks about 45 years ago, they had large empty holes at the bottoms. Though they continue to live and have beautiful flowers, they are weak now. Perhaps they will die with me. The right photo is the flowers of Juko which I have grown from the cutting. After we moved from Kobe city to Ise city in 1978 with a lot of saplings of satsuki trees, I wired them and broke a half of them because the trunks were a little bit thick and restyled the trees whose trunks were broken. This Juko is one of them though I sold a lot of them at our flower show. Since it has a lot of beautiful flowers, I have kept it.


Satsuki flowers in 2022


I would like to show a lot of satsuki flowers. But almost all of them are those of young trees because I repotted 12 large trees last March after removing all flower buds. And all of them are not very good photos. Since it was warm in March and April, a lot of satsuki trees began to have flowers earlier at the start of May than the average. But since we had 6 rainy days in the second week and it was cooler than average, it took them much more days to be in full bloom. And a lot of satsuki trees in the pots had had withered flowers and dirty ones by the time that they were in full bloom. And we had a lot of rainy days in May. Therefore, I could not take any photos of the flowers of almost all large trees.

Section 1. The flowers of satsuki trees in the bonsai pots

After removing withered and dirty flowers, I could take a lot of photos of satsuki trees in the bonsai pots in 2022. But a considerable number of them may not be good. Since the satsuki flowers in 2021 were much more beautiful than those in 2022, please see them in the Archives of my web site. Since this is my first experience and it is a fact, I would like to hope that you may be interested in a considerable umber of them. And since more than half of these trees are young, I think they are the materials for your making satsuki bonsai. But the styles of a lot of them are not very good because I did not take cuttings to make them bonsai except some varieties. Since I wired a lot of them, a considerable number of them has good styles.

Part 1. Kogetsu A, B, C and D

Since I have introduced these 8 Kogetsu sometimes, you may be able to remember them. It may be natural that Kogetsu A and D on the left and right photos should not have a lot of flowers because they were repotted last year. And since I had repotted Kogetsu B and C on the second and third photos in 2020, they had to have a lot of them. It might depend on the heat immediately after pruning or deep pruning or both. But these colour arrangements are good.


Part 2. Kogetsu E, F, G and H

Since these trees had been repotted last year, they did not have a lot of flowers. And finding that one of them had a considerable number of red shoots in April, I removed some of them. Therefore, they have a lot of white flowers on these photos. I like these floral designs. But they don’t have any red flowers because I have removed the shoots which had them when pruning them after blooming since they were young. But I would like to make each of them have a few shoots which have a red flower if I will find them after next year.


Part 3. Nikko A, B, C and D

Though the red flowers are seen on the left and right photos, they aren’t on the second and third ones. And all of these trees don’t have any white flowers. Therefore, though they don’t have the perfect floral designs as the variety of Nikko, these flowers are beautiful because they began to flower at the start of the last decade of May. And these photos were taken on 27th.　But they don’t have the very good styles because they are the trees which I couldn’t sell at our satsuki flower show which was held in May 2002. And I retired from Ise satsuki society at the end of the year whose president I was.

I was so busy to publish a book to get a title of literary doctor that I couldn’t continue to be only a member of the society and have taken good cars of the satsuki trees in the nursery since 2001. I published the book whose title is “Hamlet Travelling Alone in His Life,” retired from Kogakkan University in March 2007 and got the title of literary doctor by writing the book in March 2008.

I was so free from the regular job in April 2007 that I could have a lot of time to work on the garden and in the garage and wire all of young satsuki trees which I hadn’t sold. Therefore, these trees look like bonsai.


Part 4. Nikko E and F, Nikko-no-hoshi and Unknown

Though Nikko E and F don’t have white flowers, their floral designs are so good that thee flowers are very beautiful on the left and second photos. But they don’t have a lot of flowers because I repotted these four trees last year. Though Nikko-no-hoshi doesn’t have a good style, the floral design is so perfect that it has the very beautiful flowers on the third photo. Unfortunately, you cannot see the red spots on some flowers which means “hoshi (star)”.

I found a small seedling on the soil under a tree in the nursery about 20 years ago. Though this Unknown didn’t have the large clusters of red flowers on the top of main trunk when it was young, they are very large on the right photo now. I couldn’t stop changing colours of flowers. I have the same experience about Hakurei, Kinsai, and Togenkyo as I have about this tree. Suddenly they changed the colours of flowers. Though I remove the red shoots and the shoots which had red flowers from Kogetsu when pruning them, this method is very useful to keep the good floral design.


Part 5. Banri-no-kagayaki A, Sangosai, Hakurei and Jukokan

I am very happy to see a red flower among a lot of white flowers on the left photo of Banri-no-kagayaki A because this variety has a few red flowers. I will be happier if it will have some in the near future. You may be surprised to know that this Sangosai on the second photo is at least 60 years old. I separated it from the parent whose large parts had died. But it is strong now and has a lot of flowers though a lot of rotten parts were removed from these trunks several years ago. Please read the detailed story of the parent in “Three Memorial Tres” in the Archives, if you are interested in it.

This Hakurei may die in some years. The main trunk already died and the central trunk is rotting. Since it was wired, it can stand and has a small number of flowers. Since it is good if this type of tree had odd trunks, I planted three saplings two years ago. I have a trouble about pruning this tree and others in the nursery. They have the flowers of Kozan every year. You cannot see them on the third photo. Though I removed the shoots and branches of them, two trees in the nursery increase the number of them every year. At last, one of them has only a half of white flowers. The last is Jukokan on the right photo. Though I removed the dirty and withered flowers, it has a lot of flowers without any red flowers. Since I have kept it in the garage for 5 days to take a photo of the flowers, the colours of these flowers are pale pink.


Part 6. Yama-no-hikari A and B, and Togenkyo A and B

The left and second photos are the flowers of Yama-no-hikari. Though these flowers look like beautiful because they are large and strong, since they were repotted last year, the number of the flowers isn't so large. Though they don’t have any red flowers on the front sides, each of them has some red-striped flowers and have a few red ones on the back sides.

Since these Togenkyo were repotted last year, they don’t have a lot of flowers. But these floral designs are good on the third and right photos because I removed several formal flowers. Though those of other 6 young trees are bad, I repotted them. I don’t know why they were much worse than they had been in 2021. Some of them were like Kinsai or Kinka. And their parent had a lot of formal flowers in 2022. The variety of Togenkyo may have unstable genes.


Part 7. Hikorin A and B, Togenkyo C and D

I would like to make this Hikorin A on the left photo into bonsai when I will repot it next time. Since I like the flowers of Korin, it is a little bit sad that the ends of flowers of Hikorin aren’t so sharp as those of Korin are. It takes me a long time to make Hikorin B a good bonsai because the lower part of the trunk is very weak. But it is very easy for me to make them into bonsai because they have only single-coloured flowers.

Now I am happy to see the flowers of Togenkyo C on the third photo, whose design is good after removing several formal flowers. But it is very sad that Togenkyo D on the right photo has almost all formal flowers. When I made a cascade of young tree several years ago, it had a good floral design as Togenkyo. Therefore, I cannot believe the rapid change of the colours and shapes of flowers.


Part 8. Benigasa A, B and C

These three trees had a smaller number of flowers than they had had in 2021. The very large Yama-no-hikari in the garden had one third of flowers which it had had in 2021. Since some other varieties had the same results, I think that it depended on the bad weather last summer. But these flowers are beautiful because they have almost same size and are strong. I repotted them after pruning them in June.


Part 9. Benigasa D, E and F

Since I had to repot a lot of young satsuki trees after pruning a lot of satsuki bonsai and young trees in June, I repotted these three trees at the end of March. And I removed one third of flower buds to test how they would have flowers in May. The result was good. They have the flowers on these photos, which I would like to make them have though the numbers of flowers of each tree are smaller than above the trees.


Part 10. Togenkyo E and Juko

It is very disappointing to me to see these flowers of Togenkyo E on the left photo. It has only one tenth of flowers of Togenkyo. Though it had had a lot of formal flowers last year, after I had removed them, it was Togenkyo. But now I cannot call it Togenkyo. This Juko begun to have flowers earlier than the average. And since it took it more than 10 days to be in full bloom, I had to removed a lot of withered and dirty flowers. Since it still has a considerable number of flower buds, these flowers aren’t very beautiful. Though I took 4 photos of large satsuki trees in 2022, the right photo is one of them. Since I had repotted 12 large satsuki bonsai in March after removing all flower buds and washing the roots and other large trees had a lot of dirty flowers, I couldn’t take any good photos of them. It is because we had a lot of rainy days in mid-May that they had a lot of dirty flowers which I couldn’t remove.


Section 2. The flowers of satsuki trees in the terracotta pots

These trees are young. And several number of them were saplings to make the roots of the trees in the nursery by grafting. If I graft a good material on the bottom of a tree in the nursery which I grew in the pots for three years, the rests are unnecessary. If some of them had good flowers, I grow them.

Though I gathered a lot of varieties of satsuki trees when I was at the age of 40s, how many varieties do I have now? A lot of weak varieties disappeared. And I sold a lot of trees at our flower show which I wasn’t much interested in. And when only one tree of a variety was dying, if it had been one of my favourites or memorial trees, sometimes I made saplings of them after taking some cuttings. It is very regrettable that I hadn’t taken any cuttings of Hoshi-no-kagayaki before I sold a large tree in the nursery and two trees in the bonsai pots in 2020. I like the flower of this variety.

Part 1. Kegon A and B and Nikko G and H.

I couldn’t sell these Kegon at our flower show. Since this variety is weak though it belongs to the family of Kozan which is a strong variety, their trunks aren’t thick. And this two-trunked Kegon A doesn’t have any white flowers on the left photo. Therefore, the floral design isn’t very good. Though the floral design of Kegon B is very good on the second photo, the style isn’t very good. But I planted them in the bonsai pots at the end of June because the number of satsuki trees in the bonsai pots is decreasing by selling.

This two-trunked Nikko G doesn’t have the good floral design as Nikko on the third photo. It is the rest of five-trunked tree whose three trunks died. Though the dead trunks had a lot of good-coloured flowers, since it has only red flowers on the third photo, it may be called Akakozan. Therefore, I planted it in the same terracotta pot when repotting it last June. Nikko H was one of saplings to make a root of the large Nikko in the nursery by grafting. Since I used the other sapling, it was unnecessary. Since it didn’t have a good floral design, why did I throw it in the refuse bin? Since it had a lot of beautiful flowers on the right photo, I planted it in the same terracotta pot when repotting it last June.


Part 2. Shuho-no-hikari A and B, Korin and Fujizakura

Since I couldn’t sell these Shuho-no-hikari at our flower show, I have kept them. Since Shuho-no-hikari A doesn’t have the good style on the left photo, I planted it in the same terracotta pot when repotting it last June. Since the trunk is thick, I would like to restyle it when it will have a good shoot as a trunk in the near future. Though Shuho-no-hikari B is very small, since the bottom of trunk is thick, I would like to make it a good small bonsai by growing the trunk much thicker.

I like the variety of Korin. Though I had several very large trees, I sold some of them. This Korin on the third photo was one of saplings to make a root of the large Korin in the nursery by grafting. Since I used the other sapling, it was unnecessary. Since I don’t have any small Korin, I have grown it into the two-trunked tree. And I planted it in a bonsai pot when repotting it last June. Since this Fujizakura has the very good floral design, these flowers are very beautiful on the right photo. Therefore, I planted it in a bonsai pot when repotting it last June.


Part 3. Namichidori A, B, C and D

Though I had two large trees of Namichidori which I had grown from the cuttings, when one of them begun to die, I planted it in the garden about 15 years ago. When the trunk of other one in the pot was broken by a great typhoon several years ago, I took some cuttings and inserted them into Kanuma soil. It is because I liked it though I didn’t know why. Perhaps I thought I had survived for more than 40 years with them. But it is a fact that this variety isn’t one of my best favourites. And I didn’t wire them except two-trunked Namichidori A. Therefore, Namichidori B, C and D don’t have any good styles though these flowers are beautiful.


Part 4. Banri-no-kagayaki B, C, D and E

Banri-no-kagayaki A, B, C, D and E were the saplings to make a root of the very large tree in the nursery by grafting. But since I sold it at the end of 2019, they were unnecessary. Though I have only one very large tree in the nursery, I will sell it in some years. Therefore, I would like to make two good bonsais of Banri-no-kagayaki. Since two-trunked Banri-no-kagayaki A has a good style and flowers on the above photo, I have to choose one of these 4 trees. Though Banri-no-kagayaki B on the left photo has two red flowers, C on the second photo has a red one, too. Since both of them have some red-striped flowers, they have a good floral design as Banri-no-kagayaki. Therefore, I decided to keep them and planted them in the bonsai pots when repotting them last June.

Though Banri-no-kagayaki D has two red-striped flowers on the third photo, since it doesn’t have any red flowers, Therefore, I planted it in a terracotta pot when repotting it last June. Though the tree on the right photo had some red-striped flowers when I had repotted it in June 2020, it doesn’t have any red and red-striped flowers. If it won’t have them next year, I have to decide it into the refuse bin or not. Or I may keep it as an error of my choosing cuttings.


Part 5. Wakaebisu and Banri-no-kagayaki F

Though this Wakaebisu has a lot of beautiful flowers on the left photo, this tree was a sapling to make a root of the very large tree in the nursery. But it was unnecessary because I sold it at the end of 2019. Since I don’t wire any saplings which I use to make some roots of large trees in the nursery by grafting, I didn’t wire this tree. Therefore, its style is natural. I planted it in the same terracotta pot when repotting it last June. If it will have a good shoot to make a new trunk after cutting the trunk, I will style it. This Banri-no-kagayaki F on the right photo is an error pf my choosing cuttings. Since these red flowers are beautiful and this is a rare case, I would like to keep it because the variety of Banri-no-kagayaki doesn't have a lot of red flowers.



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