Neagari Byakuren

[baron]

Although I'm very fond of the shohin neagari satsuki in my collection I couldn't resist the temptation to get a bigger one too.
It's doesn't have the best rootcage and needs a lot of branch work, but I liked the movement and saw some potential.
Also the price was ridiculously low...



Also part of the deal was a little shohin with even more work. But also some nice movement and what should be lovely flowers!
Variety called Matsurinotsuki.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Nice,
It will take some work to get the branches and roots sorted on the neagari 'Byakuren', it does have nice flowers.

image from the web satsuki mania

 

[baron]

Thnx @Leo in N E Illinois. The branches should be fine, just not sure yet about the root work. Or how and where to get started tbh...
Might have to remove some of the finer roots, but will have a closer inspection when we repot.

I searched the flower color before I agreed to the deal, but forgot to add them here
I couldn't find anything else on Byakuren apart from the fact that it might be one where the trunk can crack during winter temps. So will see how that goes

 

[baron]

Did some cleaning up and had a look at what's hidden under the soil surface.

 

[baron]

I did a repot on the Byakuren and was suprised to see the size of the rootbal underneath the rootcage compared to the one featured in the bonsai tonight blog.

Repotting exposed root satsuki azalea bonsai - Bonsai Tonight

A simple technique for securing exposed root azaelas that have been bare-rooted.

bonsaitonight.com

Also tried to clean up the rootcage a little and remove some weeds, but it was lot harder than I thought because the fine roots are very brittle.

 

[baron]

It's starting to look better!
Lovely flowers also.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Hey, rabbit hole...but that there foliage peeking out on the ginkgo. Loce ginkgo mind sharing it as well.

The neagari satsuki you've done good with...definable improving on your bench.

 

[baron]

Hey, rabbit hole...but that there foliage peeking out on the ginkgo. Loce ginkgo mind sharing it as well.

The neagari satsuki you've done good with...definable improving on your bench.

Thank you! I'm very happy I managed to make it thrive again.

Haha np! I haven't gotten around to making it's own thread yet but here it is.
It went into this pot a few months ago, so i'm waiting the see the fall color for the first time

 

[Cadillactaste]

Absolutely love it! Thanks for sharing.

 

[baron]

Seems like I posted way to soon!

 

[baron]

I finally got to repot the Matsurinotsuki.
It wasn't really planned , but I still had this shell that never got used so I decided to give it a try and was quite surprised by the outcome.
Unfortunately it was too much of a tight fit. Don't think it would've been good for the tree. I'm gonna keep an eye out for a bigger one for the next repotting.
In the mean time I used a rounded unglazed pot. I think it's Chinese. Has a little stamp on the rim of the pot.
Which also works quite well imo.

Judging by the roots I think something happend here that might have caused the the branches above to die off.
Regrowing the branch seems to be somewhat working. Really happy with the nebari on this one!





Removed the flowers and little pruning. I did a cutback on the lower right branch and left most of top and left side untouched
I did remove some little sub branches on the left side that were carrying red flowers. I'm going to try and keep the red ones limited to the lower left branch.
Should be plenty of new growth in a couple of weeks to wire later on.