Satsuki blossoms not true to type

[shinmai]

I have been contacted by several members of our club recently, inquiring about satsuki blossoms that are out of character. By simple coincidence they have mostly to do with hinomaru. I’m aware that fertilizing too far into blossoming season can cause aberrant color patterns, but some of the inquirers have said that they have not fertilized yet this year and it happens nevertheless. Hinomaru is relevant because it normally offers a very consistent display of bright white blossoms with intense red centers.

One of my mature trees [hinomaru], not allowed to bloom last year, in the last two weeks produced approximately 30% pure red blossoms, 20% white with red centers but weak definition, and 50% good exemplars. It was fertilized until the second week of May, which now appears to have been possibly too late. The year before last it was amazingly consistent in producing nearly 100% true-to-type patterns.

Thus far, we have had a spell of exceptionally warm days in early March, when my greenhouse temps reached 70 degrees, followed by some brisk days in early April dropped into the mid-30’s [at which time my azaleas had been moved outside]. There have been a couple of intense rainstorms, but otherwise precipitation and humidity patterns have not been atypical.

I’d be interested in hearing thoughts on what factors, other than fertilization, might contribute to this behavior.

 

[Glaucus]

Not sure how to get a Hi no Maru to flower properly with nicely centered red spots on mostly white flowers. Generally, the idea is that less nitrogen leads to paler flowers. And more to darker flowers. But if they are 30% pure red, I wonder if all potential of white with red center flowers has been lost on that branch. Satsuki like Hi no Maru and Soun no Hikari behave differently. I am not sure how and why their patterns are generated. It seems more viral or diffusion based than somatic. I noticed that there was a new flower in this years Kanuma show named 'Honmaru' with larger red areas in the center. I wish to raise some Hi no Maru seedlings to see what their genetics are like, to get some more insight.
It is not unheard of of the Japanese to export satsuki bonsai with decent or good trunks, but flawed flower patterns. I only have a few Hi no Maru cuttings myself and I will have to see for myself how they behave.
Some of the best picturesof Hi no Maru flowers, with proper red centers, are yours. So donno what to do with a tree that has both 30% pure red and 20% white but weak definition red flowers. My only guess would be to prune out the solid red, and fertilize with some more nitrogen. And in the worst case, grow an entirely new bonsai tree with a cutting from a branch that has the 50% 'good examplars'.
People don't like to display 'bad' Hi no Maru. But that could be more common than you'd think.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Interesting.

We have a fairly decent sized Hino Maru that came out of Japan a couple years ago. The first year it bloomed overall very well.

Yet there were some all white with red anthers and stamens, some obvious mutations, random spots with or without and the red bulls eye, some with only half of the red bullseye, and some blurred red almost across each blossom.

So confusing a tad. Here is a potential rundown.

• Some issues might of have been caused by genetics (all white),
• Others might indicate a sensitivity to random mutation (random spots or blurred patches with or without and the red bulls eye and the 1/2 bullseye).
• The blurred almost all red, perhaps caused by fertilization as the tree has been fertilized both years near the bloom.

Imho, @Glaucus likely hit the nail on its head when mentioning pruning. I suspect the Japanese prune out the non standard flowers as these appear. As it’s an azalea cultivar which regularly pushes a large amount of flowers, likely it wouldn’t make a big difference.in the overall flower display. Also it likely might have an effect of decreasing the issues in the blossoms for the following year.

Just a couple ideas for you!

Cheers
DSD sends