英語訳
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Appendix to "Connoisseur's Elegant Views of Rare Plants and Trees"
From here, we present selected specimens from among Mizuno-ō's many beloved trees, categorizing all types and noting the relative quality of rare varieties. The remainder will be left to the later volume and omitted here.
For beginners in bonsai cultivation: annotations on the "iroha song" teaching cultivation and nurturing methods, along with classifications of variegated and speckled varieties, with names indicating which should be placed in sun and which in shade
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Matters concerning Tsuruhatsu pine poetry
Matters of cultivation
○Regarding the care of plants and trees, there is Mizuno-ō's iroha song, but as the matters are numerous, I abbreviate here and include only brief annotations. However, these contain only the essential points, condensing one-tenth of the full text into seventeen articles. This should be completed when combined with the later volume. 《Side note: Types like chrysanthemums, dendrobiums, and rohdea differ according to climate and soil, so they will be recorded in the later volume》
○Generally, regarding cultivation methods, Chinese works like "Secret Flower Mirror" and "Comprehensive Flora," and Japanese works like "Jinkin-shō" and "Plant Breeding" provide details, yet the words of elderly experts who have loved and tested rare varieties for many years are most precious for the way of cultivation. Generally, with variegated plants, shade them with reed screens during the day, and when you remove these from evening to let them receive night dew, the variegated colors become beautiful, creating plants that are never tiresome to view.
○For pots, use ones slightly smaller than what seems appropriate for the plant. If too large, the plant will instead suffer. However, this depends on the plant. Most importantly, good drainage and wind resistance are best. For plants, unglazed pottery is preferable.
○Understand that watering potted plants is like human meals. When severely dried, if you water heavily all at once, it will surely harm the plant. Also, if you water carelessly in normal times, it will suffer in heat, and in winter will be damaged even indoors.
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○No matter how much care you put into maintenance, if you neglect watering for even one day of scorching heat, the damage will be severe. Also, with plants that fear cold, no matter how much you protect them from cold, if they encounter freezing temperatures outside for one night in severe cold, they will die. This is like the parable of grass cut after a thousand days. You must take great care.
○For fertilizer, each household has its secrets, but if you let bath water cool and apply it two or three times per month, there will be no failures. In summer, cooling washing water and applying it is also good.
○When potted plants reach three years, their roots become tight and they suffer in extreme heat or winter indoors. Therefore, choose a good season, loosen the hardened roots, and replace with fresh soil.
○For the two types pine and cycad, harder soil is better. For cypress-leaf types, somewhat hard soil is better. For leafy plants, moderately firm soil is essential. For herbaceous plants, as soft as possible is best. Generally, if you plant considering the appropriate soil conditions mentioned above, while not infallible, you won't be far wrong. Furthermore, there are oral traditions specific to each type and species.
○Even for plants normally kept in sun, cypress-leaf types will sunburn before extreme heat arrives. Therefore, shade them for a while. Once sunburned, it's useless to suddenly cover them.
○Plants should be planted in soil suited to their nature in each location, but for potted plants, regardless of the quality of the local soil, if you understand soil replacement and nurturing, there is nothing particularly difficult.
○Regarding grafting, there are various procedures. The timing for grafting leafy plants varies in speed according to variety, but in all cases, fresh green shoot tips are best. Approach grafting is best from before the spring equinox through summer to the sixth month. For holly, around the fourth month is good; for winter cherry, early tenth month is best. Approach grafting is best up to ten days before the summer doyō period.
○Generally, the various types of plants and trees are too numerous to count. However, when it comes to learning the cultivation of each variety...