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Chapter 12. Satsuki Azaleas as Dwarfed Potted Shrubs

Tomisaku Ugajin

Growing and training beautiful flowering bonsai

Among ornamental plants, flowering, cherries, camellias, chrysanthemums, Japanese irises, and Satsuki azaleas are some of the great contributions of the Japanese to horticulture. The first four of these, which we have been improving here in Japan for centuries, are now also being improved and are in popular favor in many other countries.
Azalea MINE-NO-YUKI trained as a bonsai. The photographs in this article are taken from the author's book.

For American bonsai fanciers who may have special interest in azaleas: choose varieties with small flowers and small leaves and appealing growth habit to train as bonsai.
What, then, of the Satsuki azalea? In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Satsuki azaleas were taken overseas like many other Japanese plants, but I am not familiar with any azaleas from other countries which have been developed from our native Japanese Rhododendron lateritium.*'

Azalea OHSAKAZDKI. This and the other azaleas illustrated in this article were grown by Mr. Ugajin.

Description. Unlike Indian azalea, which has been develop purely for its flowers, Satsuki azalea has tidy fine-textured leaves and appealing habit of growth of branches and trunk, in addition to the blossoms. It is very well suited for use of bonsai and is the most popular azalea grown in Japan for this purpose. Satsuki azalea generally blooms in early summer, after the young foliage is well expanded. Nowadays, larger blossoms are popular, being 5 to 6 inches in diameter in such varieties as BANJO, BANKWA, GETTOKU, TAIHEI, and BANJO-NO-TSUKI.

*The Satsuki azaleas are derived chiefly from Rhododendron lateritinm, which is indigenous to Japan; in 1916 Eehder recognized this species as R. indicum var. lateri-tium, but all authorities now call it simply B. indicum. Some of the Satsuki group have M. eriocarpum in their parentage; this Japanese species is now regarded as a variety of M. indicum.

The Satsuki azaleas are therefore of Japanese origin, and are different from (though closely related to) the so-called Indian azaleas, now called S. simsi, which have originated from Chinese species.

Some have flowers narrow-pedaled, curiously shaped, double, or hose-in-hose (with one corolla within another). Striped, bordered, and white-based blossoms in purplish crimson, other purplish shades, pink, and similar colors are much admired in Japan. Satsuki azalea is most highly developed and appreciated in Ut-sunomiya (a city not far from Tokyo), where I live and grow it, and in the adjacent districts.

An old bonsai azalea from the famous collection at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Phipps - Buhle

Culture

If the plants are in unhealthy condition because of over fertilizing, decaying roots, etc., reduce the amount of leaf mold when preparing the soil for repotting. Before being used, the mixed soil should be sorted into two or three grades differing in size of particles, by sifting through sieves having meshes of various sizes. If it is divided into two grades, the coarser-grained should be placed in the container first, filling it two thirds from the bottom, with the remaining third filled with the finer-grained soil. If three grades are used, the coarsest should be used for the bottom third of the container, the medium grade for the middle third, and the remainder filled with the finest grained soil. Finely pulverized soil should never be used; the smallest soil particles should be removed by sifting, and thrown away before the soil is mixed. (See chapter 14)

Repotting is best done just after flowering—late May to early June in temperate regions. It is also sometimes done in spring, before the buds burst. Autumn repotting is not so good. It is not necessary to repot every year, but only when the plants are found to be pot-bound.

The fertilizers used mostly are soy bean cake, rape cake, and dried fish (herring cake, etc.). These are pulverized and placed on the surface of the soil in the container, a small quantity once or twice every month. These fertilizers should be mixed in varying proportions according to the age of the plants and the season in which they are applied. (For more data on fertilizers, see chapter 14) Liquid fertilizers are simplest.

Water is given to young plants three or four times a day in spring, summer, and autumn; to old plants, twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. In warm weather it is good to syringe the plants.

Exposure. A sunny and well ventilated place is the best for growing Satsuki azaleas, but in the height of summer they should be in partial shade; I place them under a marsh-reed screen. The more they are exposed to the sun, the better they grow and the thicker the trunk and branches become; therefore to the extent that one can afford the time and effort, they should be watered liberally in order that they may thrive even under the hottest sun. With the approach of freezing weather (in November most generally), keep them in a sunny place and prepare the frost cover.

Propagation. Satsuki azaleas for bonsai are propagated by cuttings. When the young shoots attain a length of 2½ to 4 inches and are somewhat hardened (that is in May or June), the shoots are cut off, a few leaves at the bases removed, and the bases recut on a slant and placed in water for two or three hours. These should then be inserted 1 to 2 inches apart and an inch or so deep into a good rooting medium in a cutting box. Water, let drain, and wrap box in polyethylene film. Place in full light (no sun) where they should root in 30 to 40 days. After remaining for fifteen to twenty more days in the cutting boxes or pans, they should be transplanted into soil prepared as described above for young plants. Two weeks or so after this, fertilizer is placed on the soil to encourage growth. If liquid fertilizer is preferred, it must be very dilute, otherwise the fibrous roots often become demaged and may decay.

Azalea KODAI-NISHIKI

Azalea SATSU-MA-BENI

Training the Plants

Forms. Training Satsuki azaleas as bonsai is most interesting. The forms into which they are trained vary according to one's taste and the nature and shape of the plants used. Some of the popular forms are upright single-trunked, upright two-trunked, cascade, several-trunked, several plants potted together, and clasping-stone style. All the training should be carried out gradually, giving consideration to the nature of the azaleas and one's taste. The best times to practice training are just before or just after flowering or from mid-September to October. If training is done in the earlier season, the branches will be fixed and the plants can be released from the copper wire coils in the autumn.

Wire. Six or seven kinds of copper wire are used, selected from No. 1 to No. 23, according to the thickness of the trunk and branches. The wire is well burned in a rice-straw or wheat-straw fire before being used.

Starting the training. It is better to start the training while the azaleas are young, say 3 to 4 years from cuttings, or ⅓ inch or so in diameter at the trunk. In these azaleas it is not difficult to curve the trunk as one wishes, coiling No. 10 copper wire around it. To the branches No. 12 to No. 20 wire is applied, according to their thickness. The copper wire should never be coiled around the trunk and branches too tightly, as it may damage or even kill them. As a precaution the trunk and branches may be covered with hemp fiber before training with the copper wire. If bending at an acute angle is desired, great care must be taken, as breaking will easily occur at the point of bending.

Azalea HINO-TSUKASA

Trimming. All Satsuki azalea bonsai should be trimmed just after flowering, as the new growth breaks the harmony of form or becomes too dense, or shoots that are too strong are produced. If such undesirable growths are cut off or shortened, other new growth may be produced at the point of cutting, and if they are not produced too late, they will form flower buds.

Greenhouse plants. Young azaleas grown in the greenhouse are easier to train into any desired shape and to bend sharply. Old azaleas are brittle.

Aims. Satsuki azalea bonsai fanciers can be divided roughly into two classes: one group appreciates chiefly the styles and shapes of the plants themselves; the other is interested mainly in the blossoms. The latter group can be again divided into two; some of them are interested in the size of the individual blossoms, the others in the colors and markings of the flowers.

To really appreciate the styles and forms of the shrubs, one must have aged and well trained plants, and so Satsuki azalea bonsai have not become every man's hobby. However, starting with several year-old branched plants obtained from nurseries or raised by yourself from cuttings, you can easily train them and in a few years obtain very nice dwarfed plants, tastefully branched. In the course of training these, you will find much of interest and enjoyment.

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