Satsuki “Issho-no-haru”. I have been given to understand that it’s rarely seen in the US. I have two, 3 or 4 year old plants that I got last summer. Both have lots of buds, but this is the first to open.
Why are they rare? I was able to source a 'Haru no Sono' (sport of Issho no Haru) as a nursery plant from France (had to search hard). It is really one of the best large-flowering azaleas, if you asked me. And I talked with some other people, and they also rate it highly. A US azalea hybridizer told me he had sown tens of thousands of seeds from his 'Haru no Sono', but none of the seedlings he got to flower were as good as 'Haru no Sono' itself. The thick petals, range of different flowers, and very dark glossy foliage are hard to beat. Puts out tons of flowers as well.
It seems you actually have an all-purple sport. Which is arguably nicer as a landscaping scrub. Maybe the other one has the light pinks?
Luckily somehow mine has a nice range (but not quite perfect) range of flowers, which is uncommon in the nursery trade.
Mine is just starting. I love it when the yellow blotch turns purple.
Oh, and if you missed it, we were talking about where in the US to buy rare satsuki:
A friend & I bought 5 and 6 from Nuncios (page 35) last year, all at $8 each and they were all sizeable, much larger than we were expecting, all lived through winter here just fine. I highly recommend them.
Why are they rare? I was able to source a 'Haru no Sono' (sport of Issho no Haru) as a nursery plant from France (had to search hard). It is really one of the best large-flowering azaleas, if you asked me. And I talked with some other people, and they also rate it highly. A US azalea hybridizer told me he had sown tens of thousands of seeds from his 'Haru no Sono', but none of the seedlings he got to flower were as good as 'Haru no Sono' itself. The thick petals, range of different flowers, and very dark glossy foliage are hard to beat. Puts out tons of flowers as well.
It seems you actually have an all-purple sport. Which is arguably nicer as a landscaping scrub. Maybe the other one has the light pinks?
Luckily somehow mine has a nice range (but not quite perfect) range of flowers, which is uncommon in the nursery trade.
Mine is just starting. I love it when the yellow blotch turns purple. View attachment 306282
Oh, and if you missed it, we were talking about where in the US to buy rare satsuki:
A friend & I bought 5 and 6 from Nuncios (page 35) last year, all at $8 each and they were all sizeable, much larger than we were expecting, all lived through winter here just fine. I highly recommend them.
I got mine from Singing Tree Gardens [singtree.com], along with a nice kusadama. All were in the US one-gallon size, nice and healthy.
Also in the US, I have had great experience with Rick Garcia at North American Satsuki Bonsai Center [nasbc.com] I have a beautiful Karenko from him that is spectacular in bloom right now. He also has some nice imported specimens of hinomaru, which is very hard to find here.
They were taking over one of my flower gardens. Before we had the area landscaped, we dug them out and planted them on the side of the house to get them out of the way.
'Hilda Niblett' is looking excellent this year. It is a late-bloomer with quite large flowers as the parents used to develop this American cultivar were the maruba-type satsuki that were popular before the hobby split off into the bonsai tradition ('Gettoku' and 'Tama Giku', which are kind of obselete cultivar you can't buy in Japan anymore, and that may go extinct). Usually at this time of year, there is rain and the wet flowers are too heavy, making them collapse and hang down. Then the quality of the flowers goes downhill very quickly. But this year, it has been very dry. This plant was one of the few sporting plants in the nursery trade here, so I got it to try to hybridize with it. I assumed that this plant would definitey be hardier than Japanese satsuki, and therefore this one was being sold here, and Japanese satsuki weren't. I am not sure if this is true anymore. And the plant seemed to be sterile. But this year, I did find pollen in the flowers, so I am trying a 'Hakurei' x 'Hilda Niblett' cross.