Satsuki and Other Trees in Mack's Garden 70

Renewal Ist October 2022

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The supremely large typhoon that I haven’t experienced landed to Kagoshima prefecture on 18th September. Since it was 935 hPa and passed extremely slowly, it gave a lot of people the greatest damages. Therefore, I bound a lot of large bonsai to the concrete shelves with the wires after removing the turn tables. put the middle bonsai and the half number of small bonsai under the shelves and carried the rest of small trees, tall bonsai and all kengai into the garage. And I gathered all the pine trees on the shelved. Fortunately, it passed over the Japan sea and my house was in the strong wind zone.

And since we still have a lot of people who were infected with the coronavirus, I cannot go to any public places except shopping. It is because it means my death if I am infected with it. I lost 40 % of the function of both above lungs in 1972. Therefore, it is amazing that I still continue to live and can work in the garden though I am 80 years old now.

I had the very strange experience last summer. Since we have had a lot of rainy days since the rainy season ended on 27th June, I haven’t watered garden trees. This is my first experience. And I often didn’t water the plants and satsuki in the pots on the shelves and satsuki trees in the nursery. Therefore, I could save a lot of money and time: I always water all plants in the pots on the shelves every day when it is fine, the satsuki trees in the nursery every two days and garden trees on Sundays. It takes me about 10 hours to water all of them. I begin to do so at 5 o’clock. Since the water pressure is very high in the early morning, it saves me 15 minutes. And I use 3 water faucets to water garden trees.

But I have some serious problems: since we had a lot of rainy days, a lot of satsuki trees have long and thin shoots and a lot of them don’t have a lot of flower buds. Especially I cannot see them on the tops of shoots in the garden. And the over-humidity by rain gave great damages to some satsuki trees and fringed orchids. Since I have a lot of pots in which a lot of orchids were planted, please see three pots of them.


Repotting in spring



It began to be said that the best season of repotting of satsuki bonsai is March about 30 years ago. Satsuki bonsai of a lot of satsuki enthusiasts began to die in a lot of districts in Japan. But at that time, I had only the trees that I had grown from the cuttings and their trunks were thin. Therefore, I continued to repot them after blooming. But, after I had begun to buy some araki whose trunks were very thick about 30 years ago, I thought I had to repot them in March. And I began to repot them after pruning them, removing all flower buds, removing the soil and washing the roots in March and the start of April about 25 years ago.

Though it was a fact that I thought the workings were good, I had to do so because I couldn’t repot all satsuki trees after blooming, that is, a lot of the trees which I had grown from the cuttings became large and their trunks thick, and a lot of which, too, I repotted in the start of April after pruning and removing all flower buds.

Since a few trees on the shelves began to die, I asked my brother to make the shadowing scheme by iron pipes and black nets in 2009. He always makes a lot of the schemes over the tea trees in all his tea fields on about 10th of April and removes the black nets in about 10 days. He is one of green tea makers whose green teas are called “Uji tea” which is very famous and expensive.

I spread the black nets at 8 o’clock in the morning, fold them at 4 o’clock in the afternoon in summer and stop doing so on about 23rd of September which is the autumnal equinox. But a few trees on the selves die every year and recently some trees died in the nursery. I think it is because the maximum temperature is over 38 degrees C.

Though I put a lot of satsuki trees in the pots on the turning tables on the concrete slaves, I think that the reason why those in the nursery died was that they could not endure the heat. Several years ago, I planted some satsuki trees which had been grown in the terracotta pots in the nursery from which I had dug some satsuki trees to plant them in the bonsai pots. Though they were not strong, they continued to live. But at last, they died.

I think repotting is the most important working when we grow satsuki trees in the pots. I hope that my readers will know the reason why we have to repot them and the way how to repot them. Therefore, I would like to explain the details as easily as possible.

Section 1. The memorial trees


Sometimes I introduced my memorial trees which Kasugano, Osakazuki and Sangosai in the web site. Though Kasugano is a little bit weak, Osakazuki is weak and Sangosai has a miserable figure now, whose repotting you can see in “Satsuki and Other Trees in Mack’s Garden 68” in the web site

Part 1. Kasugano

I always repot a lot of satsuki trees in the pots every 3 years. Though this whole figure of Sangosai on the left photo is good, you cannot see a lot of long shoots. I always prune it with a handy electric lawn mower on the 2nd photo. The third photo is the whole figure after pruning, which was seen from the front side. The right photo is that from the above.


Though this tree is a little bit weak, since a lot of thin branches and leaves were seen after pruning, I removed a considerable number of them. You can see a lot of spaces between branches on the left photo. Though you can see yellow Kanuma soil in a small space on the bottom of root ball on the second photo after this tree was pulled out of the pot, this root condition isn’t bad. Therefore, I removed almost all soil. A lot of good thin roots are seen on the third photo. Being seen from the side, the roots are good on the right photo.


The left photo is the front side of this tree after washing the roots. The second one is the back side. These roots are good. You can see the good figure of the front side after repotting on the third photo. The right photo is that of the back side.


Part 2. Osakazuki

Osakazuki often has some dead young shoots. But this Osakazuki had some dead old branches. After I removed them, it doesn’t have a lot of leaves and branches of the front side on the left photo. It means that this tree is weak. And being seen from the back side, it doesn’t have a lot of them on the second photo. Having pulled it out of the pot, I couldn’t see a lot of good roots on the side of the roots ball on the third photo. Therefore, I thought I didn’t have to repot it this year. The right photo is the back side of this tree. You cannot see a lot of good roots there, neither.


But you can see a lot of good roots on the root ball of the front side after washing the roots. The back side of the root ball is same on the second photo. It means that it won’t die in the near future. The whole figure of the front side of this tree is a little weak on the third photo, but the back side is good on the right photo though you can see the large scar on the bottom.



Section 2. Repotting of large satsuki bonsai on the shelf

Since I am an old man now, I cannot carry the very heavy things. Therefore, I have to repot the very large trees in the very heavy bonsai pots on the shelves. But if I can put the tree with the bonsai pot on the beer box on the wheelbarrow, I can carry it to the washing place. Since this wheelbarrow kas four wide tires, it is very safe and convenient. I can carry heavy things to other places by it which is my best assistant.

Part 1. Nikko

I have to wash the middle grains of Kanuma soil lest the fine dust should pour out of the holes of the pot on the shelf. After putting them in the mesh bag, I wash them by shaking it. You can know how to do so on the left photo. And I dry them in the bags by hanging them. You can know how to do so on the second photo. The third photo is the front side of the very large Nikko and the right one is the back side.


The left photo is the tree and the wheelbarrow. You can see the tree on the washing machine on the second photo after it was pulled out of the pot. Since I couldn’t see a lot of roots on the side of root ball, I thought that I didn’t have to repot it. It is because it means that it is weak though three years have passed since the last repotting. It was very easy for me to remove the soil. The third photo is the roots after washing, which looks good. But seeing them from the above, you can see a lot of black roots on the right photo. Though they haven’t rotten, they are the dangerous sign.


After fixing the small nets on the holes of the pot, I prepared two wires to bind the tree. You can know how to do so on the left photo. And I put washed Kanuma soil. Since it is very difficult to guess the quantity of the soil to use when we repot a very large tree in the very large bonsai pot on the shelf, we have to remember it which we used in the last repotting. The second photo is my way how to use Kanuma soil. The third photo is the front side of this tree after repotting. And the right one is the back side. The whole figure is very good.

I bought this Nikko for 12,000 yen in Kanuma in 1991 and planted it in the nursery. The height was 53cm and the trunk girth was 17cm. When I dug it out from there and planted it in the very large bonsai pot in 2014, the height was 48 cm and the trunk girth was 45 cm. Now the height is 46 cm and the trunk girth is 49 cm.


Part 2. Kozan

After I bought this Kozan for 300,000 yen in 1991, I planted it in the very large terracotta pot. The height was 35 cm and the trunk girth 27 cm. I planted it in a very large wooden pot to make the trunk very thick in 1994. And since the wooden pot rotted, I planted it in the nursery in 2001. When I dug it out from there and planted it in the very large bonsai pot in 2014, the height was 45 cm and the trunk girth was 46 cm. After I had removed the very large lump around the thick back branch which was very clumsy, I painted the medicine on the scar and put the Cutpaster on it. It was so large that I was afraid that the branch would die in the near future.

And this branch began to die in 2017 and it died completely when I repotted it 2019. Therefore, maybe this weak tree didn’t need to be repotted in 2022 because only three years had passed since then.

The left photo is the front side of this tree. You can see the empty hole in the trunk of the back side on the second photo. Though it has a lot of leaves and shoots, a lot of roots cannot be seen n the side of the root ball on the third photo. Therefore, I didn’t remove all Kanuma soil. After washed it, I saw a big hole in the root ball on the right photo. It means that the centre of the bottom of the trunk rotted.


I began to remove the rotten part of the trunk and cleared the large hollowed trunk. This cavity is so large that I was afraid that it would die in the near future because it lost a lot of woody parts. You can see the long chopstick which I pushed into cavity on the left photo. The second photo is the whole figure of the front side of this tree after repotting. The third one is the back side. You can see the miserable figure of the cavity on the right photo. But it has a lot of strong leaves and shoots on 24th September.


Section 3. Repotting of large satsuki trees in the terracotta pots

When I didn’t have the nursery, I would plant large satsuki trees in the large terracotta pots to make them grow large. Therefore, I have a lot of very large terracotta pots. It is a good way to grow them large. But recently I knew that it isn’t good to transplant large satsuki trees in the nursery, which had been planted in large pots for a long time. A few of them died and others are weak. Therefore, I will continue to keep them in the terracotta pots.

Part 1. Shuho-no-hikari

When I dug this Shuho-no-hikari out of the nursery and planted it in a large terracotta pot after washing the roots in 2011, the height was 51 cm and the trunk girth was 33 cm. The left photo is the front side of this tree before pruning. The whole style of the front side isn’t very good on the middle photo after the roots were washed. Therefore, when I repotted it, I had to think of the planting angle. The height is 53 cm and the trunk girth is 36 cm. The whole figure before repotting on the left photo is better than that after repotting on the right one.


Part 2. Subaru

When I dug this Subaru out of the nursery and planted it in a large training pot after washing the roots in 2011, the height was 53 cm and the trunk girth was 23 cm. The left photo is the front side of this tree before pruning and the second one is back side. After washing the roots, I planted it in a very large terracotta pot. It is because it hadn’t grown larger in this training pot than I had thought. The whole style of the front side isn’t very good on the right photo after repotting, neither. Therefore, when I repotted it, I had to think of the planting angle. The height is 50 cm and the trunk girth is 27 cm. But the planting angle is no problem because it is in a very large terracotta pot.


Part 3. Hikari-no-tsukasa

Since I have grown this Hikari-no-tsukasa from the cutting, it is about 48 years old. Though I had planted it in the nursery in 2001, I dug it from there and planted it in a large terracotta pot after washing the roots to see the results of grafting in 2018. Since this tree didn’t have good flowers on the top, I grafted a shoot on the top to make a new top trunk about 10 years ago. And I grafted three shoots on the trunk and branches in 2016. The height was 38 cm and the trunk girth was 36 cm. The left photo is the front side of this tree before pruning and the second one is back side.

But since this variety is weak, it doesn’t have a lot of strong and long shoots on these photos though it was planted in a large terracotta pot. I succeeded in grafting two shoots but haven’t succeeded in grafting one of them. It is a pity that you cannot see them clearly on the third enlarged photo. The whole figure of this tree isn’t very good on the right photo, that is, the taper of the trunk isn’t so. Therefore, I have to cut the top trunk short when I will complete the grafting of this tree. I hope that it will be a good satsuki bonsai. The height is 36 cm and the trunk girth is 41 cm.



Section 4. Repotting of young satsuki trees


Since I have 7 young trees of Benigasa, I tried to repot three of them to test how they would have flowers after I made them have about half of flower buds when I pruned them in the start of April. But I removed all flower buds of other trees because I have a lot of them.

Part 1. Benigasa A

The left photo is the whole figure of Benigasa A before pruning. And I removed about a half of flower buds after pruning. The middle one is this tree after repotting. Though you can see the flowers on the right photo, they aren’t strong dark red. But since I could enjoy them, I would like to repot several young satsuki trees in March and enjoy their flowers in May. It is because I cannot repot so many young trees after blooming because of my age and other jobs.


Part 2. Benigasa B

The left photo is the whole figure of Benigasa B before pruning. And I removed about a half of flower buds after pruning. The middle one is this tree after repotting. The style of this two-trunked tree isn’t very good because I didn’t wire it when it was a sapling. Since this variety has very large flowers and this tree isn’t high, the style is no problem when it has flowers. Therefore, I think it is better to make it have a small number of flowers. When you see these flowers on the right photo, you may have a heavy impression to the whole figure.


Part 3. Benigasa C

The left photo is the whole figure of Benigasa C before pruning. And I removed about a half of flower buds after pruning. The middle one is this tree after repotting. The style is better than above two trees are because it doesn’t have very low branches. Therefore, it is better on the right photo when it has flowers.


Part 4. Jukokan A, B and C

Since I have several young trees of Jukokan, I removed all flower buds of these trees when pruning them. After washing roots, though I planted Jukokan A in the same bonsai pot, I planted Jukokan B and C in the bonsai pots. The left, second and third photos are Jukokan A, B and C.


Part 5. Nikko and Korin


Pruning young Nikko, I made it have one fifth of flower buds to see flowers. The style of three-trunked tree is good on the left photo. When it had flowers, though they were a little weak, I could enjoy them. Though it isn’t high, since the flowers aren’t large, it looks beautiful when it has flowers.

I like the flowers of Korin. Though I had three very large trees, I sold two of them in 2020 and one of them is dying. Therefore, I made a style of rot-connected group several years ago. Since this variety is very strong, we cannot have a lot of trunks in a pot. When these trunks will grow thick, I may remove some of them. The right photo is Korin.


Section 5. Repotting of weak trees


Since I have grown a lot of satsuki trees since my marriage, they are close to 50 years old. But I have a lot of weak satsuki trees now and a lot of trees already died. If we continue to grow them in pots, I think a lot of weak varieties will begin to die at the age of 30. Since I lent some good satsuki bonsai to some intimate friends every week when they had flowers for about 7 seasons, all of them died after the summer or in a year or two because they put them in the rooms or in front of entrance of the houses and didn’t give them a lot of water. Since they gave me a lot of money as thanks and I had a lot of them, I didn’t care about their deaths. Therefore, I don’t have any good trees now which I have grown from the cuttings.

Part 1. Daigokuden, Shinnyo-no-tsuki, Ukigumo-no-tsuki and Kinka

Since these trees of Daigokuden, Shinnyo-no-tsuki and Ukigumo-no-tsuki have the large scars, I didn’t lend them to my friends and put them on the tables at our flower show. Therefore, they can continue to live till now. But they will die in the near future. Daigokuden on the left photo and Shinnyo-no-tsuki on the second one don’t have some necessary branches now. But since they have a lot of good flowers in May and June, they always give me the love, courage and power to live.

You can see a large scar on the lower part of trunk on the third photo which Ukigumo-no-tsuki has. Though I removed the large rotten part from the trunk about 20 years ago, it still stays alive. But it is weak and the shoots and branches are thin because this variety is the natural seedling of Kogetsu. This Kinka was Kinsai when it was 10 years old though it had some formal flowers. And it had more formal flowers year by year though I removed the shoots which had them when pruning it. And it turned to Kinka perfectly about 20 years ago. You can see two very weak branches on the right photo which I took after pruning it. I couldn’t take a photo of the tree after repotting.



Part 2. Kusudama, Kikoshi and Unknown


After having bought this Kusudama for 1,500 yen in 1988, I removed some trunks and made it the five-trunked tree. Though it has had a lot of beautiful flowers since then, it is so weak now that it doesn’t have a lot of strong leaves on the left photo. Therefore, I removed all flower buds. But after I washed the roots, they aren’t very bad on the second photo. I couldn’t take a photo of the tree after repotting.

I have grown this Kikoshi from the cutting which I took in 1973. Since I couldn’t wire all saplings while I lived in Kobe city, a lot of trees don’t have good styles. But I made some necessary shoots of this tree as branches by grafting about 35 years ago. I made some holes in the trunk by an electric drill, passed some long new shoots through them after removing their leaves, fixed them with wires and protected them with Cutpaster lest water should enter the holes. Since I succeeded in grafting, this tree had very good branches. But one of them began to die about 25 years ago. Though all of them died about 15 years ago, it continues to live on the third photo. And I made a perfect branch of the very large Kaho by using a drill 30 years ago, which I had bought as araki for 100,000 yen in 1989. But after it had showed me the very good figure for 7 years, it died about 20 years ago. Therefore, I know that I cannot make a branch by making a hole in a trunk by a drill.

The right photo is Unknown whose cutting I was given by a friend of mine in 1973. Therefore, it is 48 years old. Though it has the long and large rotten part in the lower part of the trunk on the right photo and already lost some branches, it is amazing that it stays alive.






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