satsuki azalea

[nealweb]

Got a new satsuki to play with on the weekend. This is matsu kagami. Its not really the officially perfect time for major repots but its cool and drizzly here so i wired up the top and took all the soil off and potted him up into kanuma. Just couldn't wait to get stuck in. Hope all goes well

So what do ya reckon Pauly
and everyone!

[AndrewM]

Thats a good start but I would put it in a grow box to promote growth in the tree to develop the trunk and the pads a lot faster. I am not to familiar with this one but the Yata no Kagami is not a rapid grower. But all in all a fine start to a nice satsuki

Andrew

[craigw60]

Nice trunk movement should be a good tree one day. I would have been reluctant to tamper with the roots out of season but your'll have to see how it goes.
Craig

[nealweb]

Thanks Andrew. Yes good advice. Believe it or not this pot is quite a bit bigger than the one it came in and after i got all the old mix off there wasn't all that big a rootball left so i thought i'd just start with this one for a year or two. Lots of tlc and aftercare till he gets going again
cheers
neal.

[AndrewM]

This is the problem with Satsuki in Australia they take so long to grow to good quality trees and other species as Jarrod has mention in another thread. it will be a long time before we see a large number of world standard Satsuki in this country.

Andrew

[nealweb]

Hi Craig. I got the tree from the president of our satsuki society so he is responsible for all that nice trunk movement. He has been experimenting with repotting most of the year with great results. I could have waited but i don't get any frosts here, i'm close to the sea and its fairly mild. My tree's are having a bit of an autumn growth spurt and i figured it would have all winter to slowly establish some new roots before the major top growth and warmer weather starts next spring and summer. A bit of an experiment brought on by over enthusiasm and impatience but i'm fairly confident i can make it work. Time will tell i guess!
cheers
n.

Andrew, we actually have a longer growing season than they do in japan and can get get our trees going faster than they can but we just haven't been at it all that long. No fifty year old specimens in the nursery's here. Not so much in ground stock grown and ofcourse we don't yet have the range of satsuki varieties. But we're working on it and with the correct, heat tolerant varieties we can produce the goods! ... in time

[Scott Roxburgh]

Great to see this kind of stock getting produced in Aus!

I have been at two demos by Arthur and have taken everything he has said on board, he really is the pre-eminent satsuki grower in Aus!

Andrew have you been the collection in Canberra? There is an Osakazuki (sp?) there from Arthur, it is an excellent tree.

[AndrewM]

No Scott I havent, Canberra is a long way from me but one day I hope to do the rounds

[craigw60]

Hi Neal,
Is that Arthur Robinson. He and I were good friends when he was in Vic. I haven't heard from him in years. Still have some trees from him. You are very lucky to have such a skilled grower in your area. If Arthur is giving you advice thats about the best you will get.
Craig

[Ron]

Noticed a copy of Bob Callaham's 'Satsuki Azaleas' on eBay if anyone's interested:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... K:MEWAX:IT

[nealweb]

Hi Neal,
Is that Arthur Robinson. He and I were good friends when he was in Vic. I haven't heard from him in years. Still have some trees from him. You are very lucky to have such a skilled grower in your area. If Arthur is giving you advice thats about the best you will get.
Craig

G'day Craig, yes thats the Arthur we mean. He is basically just growing azalea's nowadays. He started the society with two others (http://www.satsukisociety.com ) and has written a book which he is hoping to put out as an e-book sometime. He is going over to Japan soon, he has been invited to work in a huge satsuki nursey there (quite a rare honour i think) and will be learning everything he can about how they propogate, grow and develop satsuki bonsai there. We will all benefit imensly from that I'm sure!! He has even bred some new varieties that they are quite interested in.
I'll tell him you said hello!
Cheers,
neal.

[craigw60]

Arthur is unchanged I see always brimming with enthusiasm. I had a look at the web sight. It seems there are some lovely satsuki bonsai in WA thats great your lucky. They are quite difficult to track down here. I have quite a few but looking Arthurs trees I am growing them the wrong way. He seems to get them up tall quite quickly whereas I am trying to build them up slowly as I do with maples etc. I will be interested to see his book. I suspect I live in a great climate to grow them. All the gardens here are full of azaleas but mostly kurume.
With thanks from Craig

[nealweb]

Arthur is unchanged I see always brimming with enthusiasm. I had a look at the web sight. It seems there are some lovely satsuki bonsai in WA thats great your lucky. They are quite difficult to track down here. I have quite a few but looking Arthurs trees I am growing them the wrong way. He seems to get them up tall quite quickly whereas I am trying to build them up slowly as I do with maples etc. I will be interested to see his book. I suspect I live in a great climate to grow them. All the gardens here are full of azaleas but mostly kurume.
With thanks from Craig

Hi Craig. Yes satsuki are often developed a bit differently than other species. Maples, like the majority of plants are apically dominant, they tend to grow from the tips, so you grow them to the thickness you want and then chop them back and grow them again (sorry you would already know this but for the benefit of others...) but azalea's are basally dominent, they tend to shoot from the base and the trunk. So one way to grow them is to get a long skinny 'whip' put lots of curves into it with wire, let them set then plant the whip out into the garden or a grow box and chop back all the side growths. This stimulates them to produce lots of strong growth and thicken the trunk up. Because the growth is from the base and trunk you still get taper. Then you prune it all back again and get another flush etc until you have a decent trunk. Thats the general idea anyway. You have to be careful of suckers right at the base as they can be too strong and weaken the rest of the tree. You have to be aware that the top of the tree can be weak and not remove too much foliage from there. There is a good book by Alexander Kennedy called Floral Treasures of Japan - The Satsuki Azaleas that illustrates the technique well. Its from Stone Lantern Publishing.
Arthurs book will be great, its written for our climate, will have stacks of pictures and maybe some videos as well. Brilliant
All the best
neal.