Professional Bonsai and Suiseki

Professional bonsai and suiseki from Peter Warren. Japanese bonsai educated by well known bonsai master Kunio Kobayashi.

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Saving a Sick Satsuki

Earlier in the year I saw this tree sitting quite alone, sickly and uncared for in a Bonsai garden here in the UK. It is very much a standard looking satsuki, especially for the variety, namely “Gyoten”. They are often grown in such a fashion, quite tall, with gentle curves and branches on the outside of each curve.   That isn’t to say however that they are not nice trees, the flowers of Gyoten are a favourite of mine, a delicate and frilly pink which is subtle and dainty without being gaudy and over powering. If the flowers are all of the same light hue then it is a superb thing to behold.

So, looking at the tree why buy it? If it is so standard and on the verge of death, why bother?

 During my time in Japan I had seen many trees saved from certain death and turned into very healthy, high quality trees within a couple of years. As a fledgling professional, if you can pick up something which nobody else will touch and turn it into gold then it is much easier to pay the bills. Here was such a tree, destined for the bonfire within two years and no chance of anybody buying it, partially because there is a distinct lack of understanding of Satsuki in the UK and there were much healthier trees available for not much more. After some bartering, the price came down and the challenge was on; this time a horticultural challenge rather than anything artistic

Looking at the branches I could see that the foliage was yellowing and the branches were beginning to die off, so I knew what was wrong with the tree immediately, the roots. It had also suffered some kind of insect damage the year before. The previous year’s flowers had not been removed and had turned to seed pods or the branch had simply died. The tree was tired and hanging on for dear life. However, and this is the key thing, at no point on the trunk was there any desiccation. All of the cambial layer of trunk was still intact and functional. Die back is a common problem with satsukis and many varieties are prone to it; thankfully, Gyoten is not one of them. If there had been any patches of desiccated trunk, particularly around the roots and lower trunk then I would have ignored it, said a prayer and then moved on.   As it was, the tree was structurally fine, just the tips of the branches and the roots were in a bad state...nothing that cannot be sorted out with a little time and patience.

The first job was to clean out the branches, pruning off everything that was dead or dying. I methodically worked through from top to bottom cutting anything off that was brown, had nothing strong on the end of it. When this tree eventually gets to show condition, none of the original tertiary branches will be remaining so it doesn’t matter if they are a little too overgrown or growing in the wrong direction, just as long as they are healthy and can continue to pull water along the branch. There were many flower buds on the tree and every single one was removed to conserve energy, although most of it had already been wasted in forming the already matured flower buds. As Gyoten is single coloured tree there is no need to worry too much at this stage about differences in flower colours.

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