Satsuki and Other Trees in Mack's Garden 71

Renewal Ist December 2022

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Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

I hope that you, your family and bonsai will be happy and healthy in 2023. And I pray that all nations in the world will be safe and peaceful without any wars.

The eighth wave of coronavirus is attacking us in Japan. The number of dead is increasing. But Japan government seems to be treating it like a disease of influenza because it is subsidizing and recommending us to go to travelling. It is a great problem whether we choose the health or economy.

Though I had the disease of herpes zoster, I hadn’t known that it is a nasty disease. Unfortunately, I found some rashes on the breast after bathing on 27th October and a lot of them on the breast, stomach and back at the following night. Since 29th and 30th were Saturday and Sunday, I couldn’t go to the Ise Grand Hospital where I have to go to see my doctor since I had had the operation of cancer on the left ear last year. Since I was stupid, I worked hard to dig the field very deeply on those days though I had serious pains on the breast and stomach. I began to walk for 20 minutes on 26th November. Though it has passed a month since them, I have still dull pains on the breast and stomach.

Therefore, I couldn’t prepare the good story for renewal of the web site. Since these sentences are simple, see a lot of photos and make a story by yourself. If you would like to grow satsuki trees from the cuttings, it is very useful to read my sentences and see a lot of photos because this renewal contains a lot of my successes and errors. But I would like to ask you to remember that I wouldn’t like to make my saplings grow very large because I am 80 years old now.



Wiring and repotting of the saplings


I introduced “Sorting of the cuttings” in the web site whose date is August 1st, 2021. Though I could select the variety of Kogetsu and Komei completely in June 2021, I couldn’t do so about other 3 varieties. Therefore, I had to choose the good saplings of other varieties and put the unnecessary ones into the large compost bucket. And I styled all of saplings except the small ones with wires. But I could repot only 11 saplings which had the good height enough to plant them in the terracotta pots.

And I repotted a lot of other saplings in larger plastic pots except very small ones. They haven’t grown large because I didn’t give them a lot of fertilisers. I would like to keep small and middle seizes of satsuki bonsai in the near future because I am old now. This photo was taken on 8th October before removing the wires from them.


Part 1. Kogetsu

I could repot only two saplings of Kogetsu in the terracotta pots. Fortunately, since one of them was a little bit tall, I thought to make it into a two-trunked satsuki bonsai. When a two-trunked tree is small, if it has a lot of larger flowers than the large size of flower, it is a little bit unsightly. But since the longer trunk has a new sprout on the top, which has dark green leaves, I may have to cut the top because it may have flowers of fukurin (white throat).

Though I styled these three saplings with wires, judging from the middle size of flower of this variety, will they look beautiful when the trunks will grow thicker and have flowers?


Though I styled the centre tree with a wire, I couldn’t wire other two because they were very small and poor. Their trunks were cut because they didn’t have good flowers last year. They may die. The trunks of the next three saplings were cut last year, too. The left tree is so weak and poor that it may die, but other two are strong. Especially, though the lower shoots were cut when I repotted it in June, they have some new good sprouts.


Part 2. Komei

Since I sorted this variety of Komei completely in June last year, I could style 7 saplings with wires freely. And I could repot only one sapling in a terracotta pot.　And I repotted 6 saplings in larger plastic pots. Since other 2 saplings didn’t grow larger, I couldn’t style them with wires and repot them in larger plastic pots.


Part 3. Yama no hikari

Since I hadn’t sorted the cuttings of Yama-no-hikari last year because all of them hadn’t had several flowers, I chose 8 good saplings in June. Though a lot of them except two didn’t have red flowers, since they had the large red-striped flowers or flower buds, I decide to keep them and styled them with wires.


Since this variety of Yama-no-hikari has the large size of flower, when a small tree of this variety has a lot of flowers, the impression of the whole figure is not good. And it is the variety of multi-coloured flowers. We would like to see the flowers of red, white, pale persimmon colour and various red strips. Therefore, we would like to make a tree of this variety have a lot of flowers. But I have refused to make my saplings grow very large now. Judging from the flower colours of these saplings, it is very difficult to make them have the good colour arrangement of flowers. Of course, though you cannot see the white flowers on the above photos, it is sure that they will have them in the future.

I repotted 8 saplings in terracotta pots after wiring them in June. Though I styled some small ones of them with wires, I may make them grow large till they will be the middle size of satsuki bonsai. Therefore, I didn’t make them except one have a lot of small bends with wires. The big problems are whether their new sprouts will have good flowers or not.


Part 4. Byakuren

Since I hadn’t sorted the cuttings of Byakuren in June last year because all of them hadn’t had several flowers, I chose 6 saplings in June. But these trees don’t have all flowers that this variety has to have though they may have them in the future. Especially, the tree on the left photo has a lot of purple flowers though it has some white flower buds.


I could wire 3 trees and repotted in the larger plastic pots in June but I couldn’t wire 3 trees because they were very small and poor. Byakuren is the bud sport of Karenko, and Karenko is the bud sport of Juko. Though some trees in the nursery always have very long shoots which have the flowers of Juko, these saplings aren’t strong.


Part 5. Hibai

It is said that this variety is a two-coloured blooming. It has red and purple flowers and flowers which is called “tamafu (white jewel spot).” Since I don’t know how to get the cuttings of Hibai correctly, I chose 20 shoots which came by the three kinds of flowers (red, purple and tamafu). Since I hadn’t sorted the cuttings of Hibai in June last year, I had to do so last June. But all of them didn’t have all flowers which this variety has to have. These saplings on the left photo have purple flowers though some of them have tamafu. And the saplings on the middle photo have red flowers though some of them have tamafu. Though I had had the very good tree of Hibai on the right photo which I had grown from the cutting, it died several years ago. I would like to get some bonsai of Hibai like this tree.


Since I couldn’t choose any good saplings, I decided to keep all saplings of this variety. Though I styled 6 saplings with wires, I couldn’t wire other ones and repotted all of them in larger plastic pots.


Though I repotted these 9 saplings in the larger plastic pots, I couldn’t wire them because they were small and poor. But some of them have a lot of good sprouts when I photographed them on 8th October. Though this variety is a little bit weak, they are healthy.


Part 6. Kakuo

Since I had sold 2 young bonsai of Kakuo three years ago, there wasn’t any trees of Kakuo on the shelf. Therefore, I made 10 saplings. I styled 3 saplings with wires and repotted 8 ones in the larger plastic pots but kept 2 ones in the same plastic pots. I am afraid that the smallest one on the right photo may die.


Part 7. Disposal

When I sorted out the saplings in June, I threw these ones into the large compost bucket. We must not keep them as satsuki bonsai though I have some trees to show them as my errors. But like the variety of Kinka, if a lot of people have the same kind of tree that hasn’t been registered, it may be able to be registered. In Japan we cannot put our satsuki bonsai on the tables at the large satsuki flower shows if it hasn’t been registered.


Part 8. New cuttings

Since I thought that more than a half of above saplings didn’t have the flowers of very good colour-arrangement, I made about 20 cuttings in June 2021. Especially, I needed the cuttings of Byakuren and Hibai because it is very difficult to get some good saplings of the varieties which have multi-coloured flowers.






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.

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