I’m not sure why, but this spring, the Kinsai started to bloom and the blooms immediately failed. As if the tree got too dry for a couple days, which is unlikely. Here is the best shot from the season:
Over Memorial Day weekend, I removed the spent blooms
Next up, a little haircut, not as aggressive as last year.
And a little root work on the way into a new old pot.
Watered in…
And a little more trimming in the dense areas, and some moss removing around the roots at the soil level. While this pot looks larger than the Koyo, it is a touch shorter and maybe .75” narrower in width. I’d like to grow the width of the canopy, and especially the first right branch.
I have been studying bonsai since 1994, in an ever-increasing obsessive fashion. In our last 5 years prior to moving from Iowa to Alabama pursuing a career in the foodservice industry, my bonsai collection was limited to a few varieties that could survive brutal winters outside, or winters under dim light in the dank basement of our humble duplex...my wife puts up with a lot. Including the trailer hitch I put on our brown 1983 Chrysler New Yorker to pull a U-Haul full of trees to Nashville for a 3-month stop along the career path that led us to Alabama. 12 years later, we no longer have the New Yorker; and not a single one of those trees remain on my bench, having given the last holdout to a new club member this summer. I prefer collecting native trees and buying the classical species used in Japan, feeding organic, and reading everything I can get my hands on.
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One thought on “Satsuki Azalea ‘Kinsai’ spring ‘24”
Nebari Bonsai 
nice!!!!!