I have to tell you some sad news. First, 238 people died in the strongest earthquake which had occurred in the Noto Peninsula and the tsunami on the first of January. Since a lot of people had lost their houses, they were shivering from the cold. Since a considerable number of them couldn’t help their family under the crushed houses, their sadness is very deep. Besides, they couldn’t get the fresh water, foods, blankets, gas, oil and others for a long time. Since the roads were blocked in various places, any rescue team couldn’t approach the disaster areas.
Secondly, the airplane of JAL crushed with that of Japan Coast Guard on 2nd and 5 men died. It is said that this accident happened due to misunderstanding of the captain of the latter.
Thirdly, I read the saddest news in the letter on 9th which had been sent from the court of Utsunomiya near Kanuma. Though I received the February number of Satsuki Kenkyu at the end of December, Tochi-no-ha shobo went bankrupt. Since I will be able to receive 5 magazines (5,500 yen), I am a creditor now.
And a lot of satsuki enthusiasts, satsuki shop keepers and satsuki societies in Japan had some serious problems. I think anybody couldn’t publish a large satsuki dictionary any more. Any satsuki bonsai of the varieties which we can see in the Large Satsuki Dictionary which was published in 2020 by the company is allowed to be put on the tables at the flower shows of three big satsuki societies because the variety has been registered in them. And any satsuki bonsai of the new varieties is allowed to be put there, too, because we can see the variety in the magazines which had been published since 2018.
Now the satsuki enthusiasts lost the very good way to know new varieties, the dates of a lot of flower shows and events, the knowledges about satsuki trees and others and to read any information about some thefts, pests, strange weather, new fertilisers and agrochemicals and others.
A lot of satsuki shop keepers lost the good chances to advertise satsuki bonsai, araki, young trees, saplings of new varieties and goods, and to gain more customers by advertising their shop names.
All satsuki societies lost the good way to inform a lot of satsuki enthusiasts about their shows, events and information. Especially three big satsuki societies in Japan had the great damages. They lost the very good way to publish the dates of their shows, all names of persons who got the prizes at their shows, and their photos, new varieties of satsuki which each of them certified as a new variety. As a result, I am afraid that the world of satsuki in Japan will shrink.
Now I have to apologise for not updating my web site on 1st of December. I was very busy in painting the inside of gutters of the rooves, which were made from copper plates. It took me more than 3 weeks to finish difficult works. Since they were wet with the morning dews, I had to wipe them with the dust cloths in the morning. And I cleared them after scraping the old paint, painted them in the afternoon and did so again 3 days later. And I had to paint 2 large steel stairs like a bridge after removing rust and dirt and to do so again and again after that.
Since I hadn’t painted them for several years, I was glad after finishing the work because I think I will have to ask someone to change them in 2 or 3 years if I hadn’t done so in 2023. Since I have the fear of heights, it is very dangerous for me to paint them, and it is very difficult for me to move the large aluminum tripod because it is very heavy.
And since I went to two hospitals to see 3 doctors and had MRI, CT and echo examinations in November, I spent 5 days. It is because I forgot to see two doctors and to have 2 annual examinations on 27th of October. Since I had thought that day was 26th and I remembered it was the reservation day at the evening, I felt that I began to be a patient of dementia. And since I got the flu shot on 22nd, I had slight pain for 3 days. And I lost my energy to renew the web site. And besides, I didn’t have any good plan to do so. This is a sad story.
I began to cut the trees, bamboos and other plants on the very steep slope of the hill before our house at the start of January. If they grew tall, since they make a wide shadow on our garden, I have to cut them every 3 or 4 years. Since this work is very hard and dangerous, I could do so for 4 hours on Saturday and Sunday and for 2 hours after the day trading of stocks on the week days. I think that I have to continue the work by the middle of February.
But I continued to write the manuscript of the renewal of my web site little by little while I was before the personal computer. And I succeeded in repairing the program of “FFTP” though it had taken me 2 days to do so. But it took me a lot of time to use the old computer, copy the files of a lot of photos from USB, to trim them, to match the sizes of them, copy them on USB and copy them on the new computer from the USB. It is because it doesn’t have the free program to trim photos. But since I haven’t repaired the trouble in the new computer, you cannot read asome web sites in the archives.
Trimming of the young satsuki trees
Since we continue to have strange weather, especially in summer, sometimes our experiences aren’t helpful. Two very large trees are dying. I think they couldn’t survive the longer and severer summer. It is said in Japan that summer and winter will be much longer, spring and autumn will be much shorter and it will be much hotter in summer.
If the temperature is higher than 33 degrees C, I cannot work in the garden. And the highest temperature was 37 degrees C in Ise city last summer. Therefore, I had to water all plants in the pots early in the morning. Though I could use the black nets over the shelves, sometimes I had to water them after the sunset. Since I cannot endure the high temperature and moisture, I think that the saplings of weak varieties of satsuki cannot do, neither. Three of them died and the rest couldn’t grow large though those of strong varieties grew large. I am very sad to tell you that this very strange weather ruins my experiences.
Section 1. Trimming of the young satsuki trees--I
Since I trimmed 8 young trees on 21st January, which I often have introduced here, I would like to show them. When I repotted them last March, though I didn’t remove the soil drastically, they didn’t have so many long shoots. Though their trunks are growing thicker than before, they didn’t grow thicker than I had thought. It is because I planted them in the larger terracotta pots than in the suitable ones. But since they will continue to have a lot of very long shoots after this year, I think their trunks will be much thicker. Therefore, I will change the terracotta pots to bonsai pots when I will repot them.
Part 1. Nikko A
This Nikko A doesn’t have so many long shoots that you can see the style well after it lost the spring leaves. Though the style isn’t very good, the taper of the trunk is very good. But after I removed all long shoots it doesn’t have a lot of flower buds. It is strange. Generally speaking, if a young tree doesn’t have so many long shoots, it has to have a considerable number of flowers buds even if it were repotted in the previous year. I think that since these trees of Niko have much smaller leaves than the parent, they tend not to have many flowers.
The left photo is the front side of this tree before trimming. The second one is the back side. The third one is the front side after trimming. The right one is the back side.
Part 2. Nikko B
Since this Nikko B doesn’t have so many long shoots, the style of trunk can be seen well, too. The style is very good and the taper of the trunk is very good because the bottom of the trunk is thick. It will be very good bonsai if it will have a lot of good flowers as the variety of Nikko in the future.
The left photo is the front side of this tree before trimming. The second one is the back side. The third one is the front side after trimming. The right one is the back side.
Part 3. Nikko C (Shirokozan)
Since the variety of Nikko has the gene of white flowers, it isn’t strange even if this tree had white flowers. But all flowers of it are white. Therefore, it may be more suitable if I call it Shirokozan because we can see the name in The Large Satsuki Dictionary. It may not be strange if I had taken the cutting by the white flower, but the parent of this tree didn’t have any white flowers.
Since this tree doesn’t have a lot of long shoots, it may look a little bit weak. And the bottom of the trunk is thinner than other trees. Though the style isn’t very good, if I will change the angle of planting it in the pot when I will repot it, it will look like a bonsai.
The left photo is the front side of this tree before trimming. The second one is the back side. The third one is the front side after trimming. The right one is the back side.
Part 4. Nikko D
This Nikko D has a lot of long shoots though it is shorter than other trees. Therefore, it is one of the trees whose bottoms of the trunks are very thick in these 8 trees. And the taper of the trunk is very good. Though the style is good, since the top of the trunk is weak, I think I have to plant it in a smaller pot lest the top should have long shoots when I will repot it.
The left photo is the front side of this tree before trimming. The second one is the back side. The third one is the front side after trimming. The right one is the back side.
Part 5. Nikko E
Though this Nikko E had had a lot of long shoots, after I removed them, it has only a small number of flower buds. And the style is not good. Since this tree is short and the taper of the trunk is very good, it will look like a bonsai when I will plant it in a bonsai pot in several years.
The left photo is the front side of this tree before trimming. The second one is the back side. The third one is the front side after trimming. The right one is the back side.
Part 6. Nikko F
Though Nikko F doesn’t have a lot of long shoots, you can see the style well because it lost the spring leaves. The taper of the trunk is very good, but the style isn’t very good. Therefore, if the bottom of the trunk will be much thicker in the future, it will look like a bonsai.
The left photo is the front side of this tree before trimming. The second one is the back side. The third one is the front side after trimming. The right one is the back side.
Part 7. Shuho-no-hikari
Though this Shuho-no-hikari has a small number of long shoots on the lower branches, it doesn’t have any long shoots on the top and upper branches. It means that it is a little bit weak and it doesn’t have a lot of the fine roots under the trunk. The style and the taper of the trunk aren’t very good because the bottom of the trunk isn’t thicker than the above trunk. Therefore, I have to remove a lot of shoots of 2 lower branches and cut them short after blooming.
The left photo is the front side of this tree before trimming. The second one is the back side. The third one is the front side after trimming. The right one is the back side.
Part 8 Hikorin
Since I removed the soil drastically from this tree last year, it didn’t have a lot of long shoots. Therefore, you can judge the style. Though the taper of the trunk is good, the style isn’t very good. But it will be much better if the bottom of the trunk will be very thick in about 7 years.
The left photo is the front side of this tree before trimming. The second one is the back side. The third one is the front side after trimming. The right one is the back side.
Section 2. Trimming of the young satsuki trees--II
Since I give a lot of fertilisers and water to all satsuki trees, about half of the young trees have a lot of long shoots. They are necessary to make the trunks and branches thick. Therefore, it is necessary to remove them or cut them short after their spring leaves falling down. But recently it is still warm in Ise city at the end of November, that is, more than one third of satsuki trees have green spring leaves. And I remove the long shoots of the trees and trim them in January, whose flowers I would like to see.
Part 1. Korin
It is easy to make some trees which have a shape of multi-trunks. It is good if you put the soil on a branch on the soil after cutting the under shoots short to make them roots. But you have to think how to put a branch on the soil. It is convenient to use a large wooden box to adjust the height of the branch to that of the soil in the box.
Since this Korin is strong, it has so many long shoots that it won’t have a lot of beautiful flowers. And if the trunks will thick, I will remove some trunks. Therefore, I would like to remove all long shoots and all unnecessary shoots because they which make the trunks thick are unnecessary. After removing them, this shape of the tree isn’t very good because some trunks intersect.
The left photo is the front side of this tree before trimming. The second one is the back side. The third one is the front side after trimming. The right one is the back side.
Part 2. Togenkyo
Though this tree is the variety of Togenkyo and has the style of a cascade, it is so strong that it has a lot of long shoots. And their red flower buds means that they will have red flowers of sai (split petals) or red formal ones. But the whitish flower buds will be good flowers. Recently all my young trees of the variety continue to increase the number of red formal flowers.
It is said that if we cut a large trunk or branch of Kinsai the trunk or branch is apt to have red formal flowers. Since Togenkyo is a bud sport of Kinsai, I think that the variety has the same gene as Kinsai has. This is a miserable foreknowledge. But the shape of this tree and the taper of the trunk are good and it has a lot of branches. I would like to grow it as a good bonsai.
The left photo is the front side of this tree before trimming. The second one is the back side. The third one is the front side after trimming. The right one is the back side.
Part 3. Ai-no-tsuki, Nikko G and H, and Hakurin
Since this Ai-no-tsuki had had a lot of long shoots, after I removed all of them, you can judge that the style and the taper of the trunk aren’t bad. But it hasn’t had any pure purple flowers. And now it has only some flower buds. I will repot it in 2025. It is a problem that a considerable number of trees don’t have a lot of flowers recently.
This Nikko G is one of my trees which have smaller leaves. And after I had remove all long shoots, it has only several flower buds, too. The style isn’t bad and the taper of the trunk is good. But since the soil in the pot is hard, I will repot it next March.
The shape of Nikko H isn’t good because I grew it as a material to make a root of a very large tree in the nursery. I always make some saplings to make a root of the tree in the pot or in the nursery. This tree is one of the rest of saplings. Since I cannot burn it, I continue to keep it.
This Hakurin is one of the rest of saplings to make a root, too. Therefore, it doesn’t have a good style. Since I cannot burn it and it has good flowers, I continue to keep it.
The left photo is Ai-no-tsuki. The second one is Nikko G. The third one is Nikko H. The right one is Hakurin.
Part 4. Four saplings of Yama-no-hikari
Since I introduced the whole shapes of these saplings in August in the previous web site, you may remember them. Since they had a lot of long shoots, I cut the necessary shoots short to make the trunks thick and removed the rest of them and the unnecessary shoots. If they have a lot of flowers, since the trunks aren’t thick and their flowers are large, they won’t keep the good shapes. It is very difficult to make any tree of Yama-no-hikari into a mall bonsai because this variety has a good colour-arrangement of flowers.
Part 5. Kogetsu A, B and C, and Hibai
It is very easy to trim and prune Kogetsu in winter because red leaves and flower buss mean Fukurin. But we cannot distinguish the shoots which will have red flowers. After blooming, you have to remove the shoots which had red flowers. Even if you removed all of them, since the gene of red flower is strong, you will be able to get red flowers.
The left photo is Kogetsu A which is two-trunked tree. It grew large though other 7 trees are much lower than it is. Though I wired two trunks, since they are thick, they don’t have very good bends. But the style is good. And I wired the tops of trunks of Kogetsu B and C on the second and third photos. Since the shoots and branches of Kogetsu are thin and weak, it is necessary to wire them. Therefore, we have to remove long shoots or cut them short to grow branches and trunks thicker. The right photo is Hibai which had several long shoots. I removed all of them that I think will have red flowers because they are red flower buds. But now I cannot judge the colours of flowers of this variety which has red and pink flowers.
Section 3. Repairing of the Damaged trees
Before any typhoon comes near us, though I put all small and middle satsuki trees under the shelve or bring the rest of them into the garage, I bind all large trees to the shelves with the wires. But suddenly the very strong wind blew some small satsuki trees down from the shelves in May and September. When I knew the news of a storm by the weather forecast, I always take good care of them. But these damaged trees are my errors because branches and trunks of them had been broken and some bonsai pots had been done so.
Part 1. Kogetsu D
Though Kogetsu D had lost 2 back branches on the maim trunk in 2017 by the strong winds and lost the top of sub-trunk in 2023, fortunately, the former had 2 necessary long shoots to make back branches and the latter had long shoot to make a top of the trunk. I wired each of them. And I removed all of long shoots and a lot of branches of 2 trunks to make the wired shoots grow thick. Though I could make the basic style of this tree, it will take it 5 years to become a bonsai.
The left photo is the front side of this tree before trimming. The second one is the back side. The third one is the front side after trimming. The right one is the back side.
Part 2. Kogetsu E
Though the main-trunk had been broken by the strong wind last year, it had a long good shoot to make a trunk. It is because this tree is young that it had necessary shoot. But since the broken part is a scar, even if it was repaired, the trunk won’t have a very smooth stream of the trunk.
Fortunately, it had a higher shoot to make the upper part of the trunk than the top of the sub-trunk and it had some shoots though I cut two very long shoots short. And I wired them. Since all of their flower buds and leaves weren’t red, I kept them to make the trunk thick. But it will take the main trunk more than 4 years to have a smooth taper.
And I removed a lot of branches from the main-trunk to make the upper new trunk thick as soon as possible, and I removed a lot of branches from the sub-trunk lest the trunk should grow thicker than the main-trunk. After pruning the style is good.
The left photo is the front side of this tree before trimming. The second one is the back side. The third one is the front side after trimming. The right one is the back side.
Part 3. Kogetsu F
Though the sub-trunk of this tree had been broken by the strong wind last year, it had a long good shoot to make a new trunk. Fortunately, it had some shoots. After removing three unnecessary shoots near the bottom of the new trunk, I wired it. And I removed a lot of shoots and branches from the sub-trunk to make it have a good taper as soon as possible. After I pruned this tree, the style isn’t bad. But since I will repot it next March, it will take it 5 years to look like a good bonsai.
The left photo is the front side of this tree before trimming. The second one is the back side. The third one is the front side after trimming. The right one is the back side.
The archives
The archaives are the back numbers 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.
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