Satsuki and Kurume images

[Beng]

Thought i'd share a couple satsuki and kurume pics. It was a slow start to spring but with the warm up here on the east coast azaleas are now blooming!

This first one is a (Chojuho.). I bought this tree on ebay from Brussels, it's an import. Came with almost no roots in a bad mix I put it in a larger pot with pure kanuma. Since then It's taken to it and I was able to do a bit of wiring this year. Next year or the year after I'll move it to a more size appropriate pot.

Info on the cultivator from an online satsuki forum

The parents (or parent) of many of the Satsuki are identified in Japanese literature. (About a quarter of the cultivars are listed as of unknown parentage.) This includes Chojuho. Chojuho was collected from the wild in Japan during the Taisho Era, 1912 to 1926. It is so different from other Satsuki that it may have involvement by another species other than the usual R. indicum and/or R. tamurae. Its flowers last far longer than all other Satsuki – a blooming period from April to September. During this period the flowers undergo a gradual change in color from deep bright red, to yellow-green and then brownish green. Other Satsuki show fading of color during bloom but not a complete change of color. Thirdly, Chojuho’s flowers are ciliate, having very fine hairs along the margins of the petals. These are unlike any of the other Satsuki flowers that I've seen.
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I'll post a few others tomorrow. I'm not sure of the rest of the varieties so let me know if you recognize any of the flowers.

 

[Dirty Nails]

I've been meaning to ask someone - Do the Japanese azeleas have an entirely different growth pattern that the leggy western ones or are they just trained for a longtime to get that trunk?

 

[Beng]

Satsukis are very dense and trunks do thicken up but not quickly like tridents. This one came to me only slightly thinner then this. It still has years to go till it will have the kind of taper I'd like. I have a kurume as well and it trunks up faster then my satsukis. Nodes are slightly further apart but not much. Neither are long leggy plants like wisteria or other fruiting/flowering trees. I don't have any Western azaleas so I can't compare the two. I'm sure someone else here can though.

 

[coh]

It looks happy and those flowers are definitely interesting. Can you post photos as the color changes over time? Would be neat to see.

Personally, I find the pot color to be a little too intense, it seems to distract/take interest from the flowers. Could be the photo, though.

Chris

 

[Beng]

It looks happy and those flowers are definitely interesting. Can you post photos as the color changes over time? Would be neat to see.

Personally, I find the pot color to be a little too intense, it seems to distract/take interest from the flowers. Could be the photo, though.

Chris

Yep I agree I want a more subtle cream pot with a blue or cyan lip or dripped glaze for it someday. Probably an oval. The pots not quite as intense as the pic but its definitely a little too blue and its too large. This is the same pot it came in even though i changed the soil, its just a cheap Chinese pot I think. I'll take pics of the color change for sure.

 

[Beng]

It looks happy and those flowers are definitely interesting. Can you post photos as the color changes over time? Would be neat to see.

Chris

Only one of the blooms has begun to change. Here's a pic.

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[Beng]

Here's a few more other varieties. Not sure they names of these.

First one is a vivid pink perhaps ‘Osakazuki’

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A true red color with a rose shaped bloom maybe 'Beni Kirishima'

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Still waiting for 2 more to open their buds.

 

[Beng]

My favorite red has started to bloom.

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[Harunobu]

I've been meaning to ask someone - Do the Japanese azeleas have an entirely different growth pattern that the leggy western ones or are they just trained for a longtime to get that trunk?

All evergreen azalea are from Asia and most that are in western gardens are hybridized from species found exclusively in Japan.

So there is no 'western azalea' and 'japanese azalea'. There is indeed variability in growth habit in evergreen azalea. Unless you are talking about deciduous azaleas, which are quite different and some are native to NA.

There are two archtypes of satsuki. One is based on R.indicum and is indeed bushy. The other isn't.

 

[Julius Tristan]

It looks happy and those flowers are definitely interesting. Can you post photos as the color changes over time? Would be neat to see.

Personally, I find the pot color to be a little too intense, it seems to distract/take interest from the flowers. Could be the photo, though.

Chris

Seems that Its look like interesting. This kind of flowers are really attractive to the people. Every flower have each own attraction but this flower have there own color changes. However, I want to have some photos of this flowers.

 

[jk_lewis]

or are they just trained for a longtime to get that trunk?

Yes. Time. LOTS of it. 20 years in the ground, for some.

This one -- Kaze Mursaka Satsuki -- stands better than 2 feet tall. It is from Bill Valavanis' 50th Anniversary bash last weekend.

 

[Beng]

Here's another pic of the Chojuho most of the flowers are a paler red now with their centers turning yellow to lime greenish. The white mineral look on the leaves is from Mancozeb drift from a nearby crabapple I was spraying.

View attachment 37153

 

[oddirt]

@Harunobu, the western azalea (Rhododendron occidentale) is a real species: https://g.co/kgs/MxpFAA. I haven’t seen anyone mention growing them on this forum or through a Google search for bonsai.

I’ve had a few in my garden for years and am going to be working some into bonsai. If anyone has given this a try, let me know your experiences. This species has a leggy growth form that would be challenging to thicken up like the satsukis.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

@Harunobu, the western azalea (Rhododendron occidentale) is a real species: https://g.co/kgs/MxpFAA. I haven’t seen anyone mention growing them on this forum or through a Google search for bonsai.

I’ve had a few in my garden for years and am going to be working some into bonsai. If anyone has given this a try, let me know your experiences. This species has a leggy growth form that would be challenging to thicken up like the satsukis.

This thread is 6 years old, unlikely any of the original participant will respond. One passed away almost 2 years ago, though I would not expect you to know that Jim Lewis had passed.

Haru Nobu was speaking from a strick Japanese traditionalist standpoint. His view has nothing to do with modern plant taxonomy. His was all about geography. Satsuki is a Japanese term, and as he viewed it, " if it ain't entirely from Japan, it ain't Satsuki" 100% Japanese content required.

The more widespread botanical taxonomy view allows azalea hybrids that display Satsuki like traits to be called Satsuki regardless whether the genetics were 100% Japanese or not.

One group of azalea hybrids crosses Asian species like R indica (Satsuki types) with R occidentale, these were first made a century ago at the Exbury UK nursery, so modern hybrids between Satsuki types and R occidentale types are referred to as Exbury Azaleas. If you cross in a few eastern North American deciduous species with the Exbury types, you then have the 'Northern Lights" series of deciduous hybrids released by University of Minnesota a decade ago.

Deciduous azalea have been only occasionally used for bonsai. I believe internode length is the issue. They tend to have a segment where internodes are close together, just behind the flower buds. The after flowering, there will be the summer growth, which will be very long internodes. Then toward middle or late summer, the cluster of short internodes forms a long with the flower buds at the terminals.

If you prune to eliminate the long internodes, you eliminate the flowers. One could probably develop a pruning system where every other year it is pruned to eliminate long internodes, then allowed to stretch out and bloom, then prune back to short internodes.

I have not done any work with deciduous azalea, except I know I love their fragrance. And love an azalea winter hardy to -25 F or -32 C.

I believe @Underdog was working with one. Anyone else with deciduous azalea, start a new thread with deciduous azalea in the title so others can find it and we can collect deciduous azalea information. I think I'll start a thread.

 

[Underdog]

I have one only since this spring but am finding it growing exactly as you said Leo. Pretty orange flowers but growing very leggy.
It is called Gibraltar.