Raw Satsuki Material

These are two satsuki azaleas I picked up at a local garden center.

Step 1: Since they were being grown as shrubs for people's yards, they were cleaned up. No main branch structure was disturbed, just 1 year old and younger growth was taken off.

Step 2: I am going to put these into pre-bonsai pots next spring. They will be planted into kanuma. I will only let 5 or so buds flower on each tree so I can see what they look like. I will take a few pics and pull them off the next day. Satsukis should not flower the year they are repotted.

Step 3: I am going to set these aside to thicken the trunks for a couple of years before any major styling is done. A few branches may be wired after flowering.

Step 4: Will probably be styled as helmets.

Pics are before and after.

I'll be interested in seeing the flowers.

I dunno how hardy satsuki are in St. Louis, but if local nurseries are selling them they must do OK over winter in the ground at least. So, that is where I would plant this one for a few years. Enjoy the flowers while this is a shrub (though you can do a lot of training while they're growing). Satsuki are almost no-growth plants in small pots, and this one is in serious need of trunk girth that only in-ground growing can provide.

JimLewis wrote:Satsuki are almost no-growth plants in small pots,








and this one is in serious need of trunk girth that only in-ground growing can provide.

I am going to put them into growing pots.


I agree they are in need of trunk girth, but they both have about an inch and a half girth at the base. The pictures of the two trees are looking at the base from a narrow point of view.