Satsuki and Other Trees in Mack's Garden 80

Renewal Ist August 2024


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We can see a lot of the Olympic games on TV now. But a lot of Japanese people don’t go to Paris to see them because they are afraid of terrorists and corona virus and were much disappointed in the managements and the huge waste of the Tokyo Olympic 2020.

Can you endure the temperature of 39.7 degrees C? They had it on 4th July in Iidaka of Matsuzaka city which is next to Ise city. It was the hottest temperature in Japan. Perhaps it was 37 degrees C in our district. Since then, it continues to be extremely hot. Though it has been warmer in winter and cooler in summer in Ise city than in Osaka and Kyoto since we moved here from Kobe 45 years ago, it is often hotter than in these districts this summer.

I am afraid that a lot of satsuki trees in the pots cannot endure the hottest weather. And they may not have a lot of flower buds. Though I spread the black nets over the bonsai shelves at 8:00 and fold them at 16:00, I cannot lower the temperature. The very high temperature and humidity will give them a lot of damages this summer because I cannot endure the temperature of more than 34 degrees C. And it was 29 degrees C at 24:00 on 27th. The night is called “the tropical night” if it is higher than 25 degrees C.




Repotting in March and June


Though I already showed the repotting of Pine trees in February and other trees in March, I would like to introduced the repotting of 8 young Kogetsu, the saplings and cuttings of some varieties. I could repot 8 young Kogetsu and 22 saplings in March, but I repotted 51 saplings and cuttings in June which I had been unable to do in March and 15 small and middle satsuki trees in the bonsai pots and terracotta pots.

Section 1. Repotting of 8 young Kogetsu

Since I have often introduced these young Kogetsu since they were the saplings, you can recognize how they are growing when you see the past conditions of them in the Archives of my web site. After some of them had had serious accidents, I had to repair the damages. And some of them were caused by my errors that I hadn’t defended these trees from the strong winds. Even if we had strong winds, sometimes they don’t fall down from the shelves in April because they don’t have a lot of young leaves yet. But I always see the weather forecast on TV and have to defend them from May storm.

Since they are about 16 years old, I may not be able to call them the young trees. Since I had had a lot of satsuki trees which had very thick trunks and the trunks of this variety don’t grow thick in the pots, I will continue to call them the young Kogetsu.

Part 1. Kogetsu A

Though the main trunk of Kogetsu A was broken by the May storm at the start of May 2017, since it had a good shoot as a trunk, the taper of the trunk is good now on the left photo which I took on 30th March 2024. And the style is good, too. The nebari is good after washing the roots on the middle photo. The back of the root ball was so good that I decided to make the tree have one fourth of flower buds.



The style of this tree which was repotted is good on the left photo though I have to think about the planting angle when I will repot it the next time. Though it isn’t in full bloom on the middle photo, judging from swelling buds, I think the colour-arrangement of the flowers is good. The style of the back side of the tree on the right photo isn’t good because I didn’t put it on the suitable place.



Part 2. Kogetsu B

Unfortunately, the strong winds blew down 3 trees of 8 young Kogetsu on the ground from the shelves at the end of November 2022. Kogetsu B is one of them. And after the top of the child-trunk was broken by the strong winds, I tried to repair the damaged part after pruning it but could not find any good new shoots to make a new upper trunk.

Fortunately, the child-trunk had a good shoot in 2023. The style is good after wiring on the left photo. The nebari is very good after washing the roots on the middle photo and the back of the root ball on the right one was so good that I decided to make the tree have one fourth of flower buds.


Though the style of this tree after repotting is good on the left photo, I have to think about the planting angle when I will repot it next time. I like the colour-arrangement of the flowers of the front and back sides on the middle and right photos. Even if it didn’t have any red flowers now, it is sure that it will have some in the future because some parts of some flowers are red.



Part 3. Kogetsu C

The style of Kogetsu C on the left photo is good. Though the nebari of this tree isn’t very good on the middle one, the back of the root ball is so good that I decided to make it have one fourth of flowers buds. I thought that I would like to see these flowers of young Kogetsu because I already sold a lot of good satsuki bonsai.


The style of this tree after repotting is very good on the left photo but it hasn’t been completed as a satsuki bonsai yet. Since the shoots are thinner than those of other varieties, if it was given a lot of fertilisers and water, they would grow so long that it would be unable to keep good tyle when it would have a lot of flowers. The colour-arrangement of the flowers is good on the middle and right photos.



Part 4. Kogetsu D

The strong winds blew down Kogetsu D on the ground from the shelve at the end of November 2022, too. And after the top of the child-trunk was broken by the strong winds, I tried to repair the damaged part after pruning it but could not find any good new shoots to make a new upper trunk.

Fortunately, the child-trunk had a good shoot in 2023. Though the style is good on the left photo, since the top of the child-trunk is a little tall, I had better cut it short after blooming. Though the nebari of this tree isn’t very good on the middle one, the back of the root ball is so good that I decided to make it have one fourth of flowers buds.


Since the style isn’t very good after wiring and repotting on the left photo, I would like to wire the both trunks next year again. Judging from the both sides of the tree, the colour-arrangement of the flowers is good on the middle and right photos.



Part 5. Kogetsu E

Though the parent-trunk of Kogetsu E had been broken by the strong wind in 2022, it had a long good shoot to make a new 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, it won’t have the good stream of the trunk.

Since I wired necessary shoots, the style is good on the left photo. But it will take the parent-trunk more than 4 years to have a smooth taper of the trunk. Therefore, I have to make the new trunk have a lot of shoots to thicken it. Since the nebari and the back of the root ball were very good on the middle and right photos, I made the tree have one fifth of flower buds. If we repot a satsuki tree in March and make it have a lot of flowers, it is sure that it will be very weak or die.


When I repotted this tree, I changed the bonsai pot for the lower one lest it should fall down easily by the winds. After repotting, the style is good on the left photo. Though it doesn’t have a lot of flowers, the colour-arrangement of the flowers is good on the middle and right photos.



Part 6. Kogetsu F

The style of Kogetsu F isn’t very good but the taper of the trunk is good on the left photo. Since the nebari and the back of the root ball aren’t bad on the middle and right ones, I made this tree have one fourth of flower buds.


The style of this tree after repotting isn’t bad on the left photo. And seeing the flowers from the both sides, the colour-arrangement of the flowers is good and they are more beautiful and stronger than those of other 7 Kogetsu on the middle and right photo. I think the power inside the trunk and roots causes the good result to these flowers. If we had made it have a lot of flower buds, it wouldn’t have had such good flowers as these.



Part 7. Kogetsu G

The whole style of Kogetsu F isn’t good though it had a good stream of the trunk. The most important key point in all of bonsai is the bottom of trunk. The better the taper and stream of the trunk are, the more noticeable the defect of the bottom of the trunk is.

Since the bottom of the trunk isn’t very bad on the left photo, I hope that it will be better in several years because it will be much thicker than now. Though the nebari isn’t very good, since the back of the root ball is very good, I decided to make it have one fourth of the flower buds.


Though the style of the upper part of this tree is good, I don’t like the bottom of the trunk after repotting on the left photo. If I had changed the planting angle, I think that the style would have been better than now. Though it bloomed later than other 7 Kogetsu trees, judging from a lot of swelling flower buds on the middle and right photo, I thought that the colour-arrangement of the flowers was good.



Part 8. Kogetsu H

The style of Kogetsu H isn’t good on the left photo. Especially, the bottom of the trunk isn’t good. But since the trunk has a lot of small bends, I can continue to keep it. Since the nebari and the back of the root ball aren’t bad on the middle and right ones, I made this tree have one fourth of flower buds.


The style of this tree after repotting isn’t very bad. And these flowers of the front and back sides are beautiful on the middle and right photos and the colour-arrangement of the flowers is good.



Section 2. Repotting of the saplings

Though I inserted more than 100 cuttings of 5 varieties (Kogetsu, Yama-no-hikari, Komei, Hibai and Byakuren) in Kanuma soil in June 2020, I could not get a lot of good cuttings of Hibai and Byakuren. Therefore, I inserted 40 cuttings of these varieties in Kanuma soil again in 2021.

Part 1. Kogetsu

I planted 4 cuttings in the terracotta pots in 2022, 5 in 2023 and 4 in 2024. Though these saplings had the good flowers, some of them may not have a good colour-arrangement of flowers in the future. But I succeeded in getting good saplings of Kogetsu. I would like to introduce 8 photos of them.





Part 2. Hibai

Though these 8 saplings of Hibai were planted in terracotta pots in June 2023, I couldn’t judge more than half of them as the variety of Hibai. And seeing these 8 photos, only a half of them can be judged as Hibai. Since I had known that it was very difficult to make a lot of good saplings of the variety of Hibai, I took 20 cuttings by the flowers which had two colours (red and pink) and inserted them in Kanuma soil in 2022 again. How many good saplings will I be able to get of the trees which I planted in terracotta pots in 2023 and 2024?





Part 3. Komei

I planted 2 cuttings in the terracotta pots in 2022, 4 in 2023 and 15 in 2024. These cuttings had the good flowers in 2024. Since the variety is Komei, they won’t change the colour-arrangement of flowers. Therefore, I succeeded in getting a lot of good saplings of Komei. I would like to introduce 4 photos of them.



Part 4. Yama-no-hikai

Though I planted 10 cuttings in the terracotta pots in 2022, one of them died. Since other cuttings didn’t grow, I didn’t do so in 2023. And 6 cuttings were planted in terracotta pots in June 2024. These four trees have the good colour-arrangements of flowers, but other trees aren’t so now though I hope they will be so in a few years.

Even if the saplings of Yama-no-hikari don’t have any white flowers, it is OK. Though young saplings of this variety are weak, everybody can succeed in getting a lot of good saplings if they took some cuttings by the red-striped flowers. Even if they had all red flowers, they may have flowers of other colours within several years. But if they have only white flowers or a lot of them, they must be thrown into the garbage can.



Part 5. Byakuren

I planted only one cutting of Byakuren in a terracotta pot in June 2023. But judging from the form of flowers on the left photo which I took in 2024, it isn’t the variety of Byakuren nor Karenko of the parent tree. The form of flowers is that of Juko which is the parent tree of Karenko, but the colours of flowers aren’t those of Juko. Therefore, I took 20 cuttings by the flowers which had two colours (white and pink) and inserted them in Kanuma soil in 2022 again because I had known that it was very difficult to make a lot of good saplings of the variety. But will I be able to succeed in getting some good saplings of this variety?

I planted 6 cuttings of Byakuren in terracotta pots in June 2024, which are seen on the second, third and right photos. You may distinguish 2 cuttings of Byakuren from other 4, but they aren’t the complete variety of Byakuren. And the other 4 may be Karenko, Juko and the unknown.






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.

If you would like to understand what Mack is a little more, please click here.

If you have any suggestions or impressions about my web site, please send your e-mail about them to my e-mail address.
Then I will surely answer them.