Satsuki and Other Trees in Mack's Garden 79

Renewal Ist June 2024


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Since it was cold at the end of February and in March, the flowering of Someiyoshino cherry trees was delayed by a week. But it was so hot in April that that of satsuki trees was much earlier. These sudden changes of temperature make our lives strange. Especially my body cannot endure the big temperature difference in a day.



I sold a lot of large, middle and small satsuki bonsai on 15th of May. Since I will be 82 years old on 4th of June, I cannot repot a lot of large satsuki bonsai. Therefore, I have only about 19 middle and small bonsai which have been planted in the bonsai pots now. Though a lot of large and middle satsuki trees are weak or dying except very large trees which have been planted in the very large wooden pots, they have beautiful flowers at the end of May. But a lot of very young satsuki trees in the terracotta pots are giving me a great pleasure of flowering now.


Cherry blossoms and repotting in March


We Japanese like to see the cherry blossoms because they tell us coming of good season and can brighten our hearts who have endured the severe coldness for a long winter. Though the cherry blossom front always is told with the weather forecast through TV and the radios every day because the Japanese archipelago is very long from Hokkaido to Okinawa, the target flowers are those of Someiyoshino whose flowers have been enjoyed since more than 1,000 years ago and a lot of the trees have been planted in a lot of places. If we go to other cooler places, we can see a lot of them. Therefore, if we say “the cherry blossoms” it means those of this variety in Japan.

Since we have a lot of the varieties of cherry trees, we can enjoy them in our hometown for a long time. It is because they have different flowering periods. I introduced the flowers of Kawazu cherry trees in the previous web site, which have flowers in February, but they have been planted only in the warm districts in winter.

I and my wife went to Yokowa town in Ise city by my car to see Yokowa cherry blossoms on 4th April. Though the parent tree had been seen in Keirin temple in Yokowa 200 years ago, it was certified as a new variety in 2018 by the Flower Association of Japan. And the flowers are seen only in Yokowa. Though it took me only 30 minutes to go there by my car, since it is surrounded by a lot of mountains, a lot of people hadn’t been there to see them until several years ago.

Chapter 1. Cherry blossoms

Since I and my wife went to the park of Gonbei-no-sato in Kihoku town, Togu in Minamiise town on 17th and Kasamatsu in Matsusaka city on 28th February to see Kawazu cherry blossoms, we were much satisfied with the wonderful scenes of them. Therefore, we didn’t go to any famous places of flowers of Someiyoshino in Ise. It is because we can see a lot of them around the house and small flowers of Sakura bonsai in our garden.

Since my wife insisted on going to Yokowa in Ise city to see Yokowa cherry blossoms, we went there on 4th April. And we went to Takami-no-sato park to see the weeping cheery blossoms on 13th April. We left the house at 6:50 and arrived there at 8:00. After having breakfast in the car, though we went to the reception of the park at 8:25, a lot of people already entered there. Since some sightseeing buses already came there, they were allowed to enter there.

Section 1. Yokowa cherry blossoms

The flowers of Yokowa cherry trees are strange and rare. They are about three times as large as those of Someiyosino. Some of them may have more petals every year. At the same time, some stamens will change to some petals. Therefore, though these cherry trees have the flowers of 5 petals when they begin to have flowers, they will increase the number of petals. And some of them have 12 petals. Therefore, they are very gorgeous and are said to have “evolving flowers.”
　





Section 2. Weeping cherry blossoms

Though we were allowed to enter the park at 8:45 last year though the park opens at 9 o’clock, since I didn’t see a lot of people among the cherry trees, I felt as if I had been in the Togenkyo (paradise in this world). But, since some TV introduced the good scenery of weeping cherry blossoms, suddenly a lot of people came there very early in the morning. Therefore, I didn’t have such satisfaction as I had had last year.

But the flowers of more than 1,000 weeing cherry trees were very beautiful and gorgeous because they were in full bloom and grew larger. Since it was Saturday, when we went back to the parking at 10 o’clock, a lot of drivers couldn’t find the parking. A considerable number of drivers stopped their cars in small spaces on the national road. But I thought that it was very dangerous.

We stooped at Haze botanical garden to see the flowers of skunk cabbage on the way home. Though we have been there many times, I hadn’t seen such beautiful flowers as these flowers. We were much satisfied with them whose number was much more than before. You can see the very big stump under the very large flat stone at the centre of the last photo. It is the stump of cedar which was much more than 1,300 years old. You can see a small sign board at the below right corner of the photo which shows that the age of cedar is Jomon period.















Chapter 2. Repotting in March

Since I introduced the pine trees which were repotted in February in the previous web site, I would like to introduce how to repot 6 cherry, 2 Japanese maple and 2 quince trees and a wisteria in March.

Section 1. Cherry trees

Though we have a lot of varieties of cherry trees, almost all of them grow large. But people found the cherry trees which have small flowers and don’t grow large. And these trees have been grown in the pots since long ago, but they don’t have the proper name (variety). And they are called “Issaizakura” generally. I think people in the old era didn’t need any variety.

Issaizakura A and B were about 50 years old. They were given my wife by her colleague when she was a teacher in Kobe after marrying me. Issaizakura C was about 40 years old. It is a souvenir of me which she bought near Mt. Fuji when she went to Yamanashi prefecture with her high school boys and girls.

Since they are weak, I have to take good care of them in summer. And Issaizakura D, E and F are their children which are about 10 years old. I made them by separating them from their parents when I repotted them. Therefore, the nebari isn’t good.

Though I couldn’t repot them in February because I had been very busy, I decided to repot them on 10th March. Though I thought it was late, after trimming them I decided to make them have flowers. Since it was very dangerous to make them have flowers, I had to take good care of them. Fortunately, I could enjoy these flowers that the power in the trunks and branches made them have. Therefore, since I have to take very good care of them, I prepared the black nets over the shelves in the middle of May. It took me 4 days to finish the working to put them up. This was very useful for satsuki trees which I had repotted in March. I fold the nets at 7:00 and spread them at 17:00 until the middle of June.

Part 1. Issaizakura A

It is easy to repot this tree because I used the mountain soil which was mixed with Akadama soil. Though the lower thick branch was cut short because of dying, the roots are good. Though I removed the soil easily, I washed the roots after washing trunk. I was surprised that it had a lot of good flowers.



Part 2. Issaizakura B

Since the large part of the trunk of this tree died about 10 years ago, I cut it. Therefore, it doesn’t have any roots under the trunk. Though it isn’t a bonsai now, since it has a lot of beautiful flowers, I am keeping it.



Part 3. Issaizakura C

Since the large part of the trunk of this tree had died about 15 years ago, though I cut it, it has a lot of good roots. And the nature of the roots is different from those of Issaizakura A and B. The colour of the flowers is darker pink than that of other trees. Since the figure is very clumsy, though I would like to cut the long branch short, I can’t cut it off for some reason.



Part 4. Issaizakura D

This tree is a child of Issaizakura A. Since it is young and strong, it has a lot of good roots. I changed a terracotta pot to a bonsai pot. Since I don’t have any suitable pot, I think that this pot is a little bit large. When the flowers were in full bloom, they were beautiful. But now you can see a lot of new sprouts among them.



Part 5. Issaizakura E

This tree is a child of Issaizakura A. Since it is young and strong, too, it has a lot of thick roots. I changed a terracotta pot to a bonsai pot. Since it is in full bloom, the whole figure looks beautiful though it isn’t finished as bonsai yet.



Part 6. Issaizakura F

This tree is a child of Issaizakura C because it has the flowers of darker pink. Since the tree is small and didn’t have a lot of thick roots, I didn’t change the pot. And it finished flowering when I took photos of other trees.



Section 2. Japanese mountain maple trees

I dug out several small maple trees from the garden in my native place and planted them in the pots in Kobe in 1972 when I had married. These trees are two of them and more than 53 years old. Therefore, they are my memorial trees.

Since I didn’t hope that they would grow tall, I continued to prune them drastically. Therefore, these trees have good tapers. Since the leaves are small, the whole figures are beautiful in summer. But it is sad that they don’t have good leaves which are yellow and red in autumn because they have a damage from the strong sunlight in late Summer.

Though it had passed 5 years since I had repotted these trees, it was easy to repot them because I had used the mountain soil which was mixed with Akadama soil. If I didn’t give them a lot of fertilisers and water, they wouldn’t grow large.

Part 1. Maple tree A

You can see the condition of roots of this tree which weren’t repotted for 5 years on the left photo. These roots explain that it has a great power of life. Therefore, I think that I have to find a good way to grow it if I would like to see a lot of beautiful leaves in autumn. I mustn’t grow it in the same way as satsuki trees.

Though the style isn’t bad, it may be much better if I cut the trunk short. But I don’t have so many years to do so. It is a sad story.



Part 2. Maple tree B

This tree doesn’t have a lot of thick roots. It may be because it is smaller than the above tree. But the taper of the trunk is very good. And since the style is good, it is one of my favorite trees.



Section 3. Quince

I have a lot of quinces in the garden. It is because new sprouts grow large. It means that this variety is very strong. But these trees are poor though they have flowers. It may be because I have used the mountain soil which was mixed with Akadama soil and they continue to be planted in the pots for a long time.

Part 1. Quince A

Though the trunks are poor, this tree has a lot of strong and thick roots. Therefore, it doesn’t die. Since I used the mountain soil which was mixed with Akadama soil again, I think I have to give it a lot of fertilisers. Since I don’t have any good large bonsai now, I can take good care of it.



Part 2. Quince B

I couldn’t make this tree have a good style, neither. I continued only to repot it without good care until now. Though it has the very good roots, the trunks are thin. I think that this is my error.



Section 3. Wisteria

This wisteria was given me by my father who had planted it in the large bonsai pot for a long time when I married in 1972. And it was “yamadori.” Therefore, it is more than 65 years old. Since I hadn’t repotted it for a long time, it had been very weak and didn’t have any flowers in 2024.

When I pull the root ball out at last, the roots didn’t fill the pot completely. But it had a lot of very good roots after I had removed the soil. After washing the roots, I planted it in the same pot. I hope that it will have flowers in the near future.






The archives

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