Training a Satsuki azalea bonsai tree 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 an 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.
Trimming. A Satsuki azalea bonsai tree 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 the Satsuki azalea bonsai tree has 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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