Bonsai candidate

My new house I bought has this tree in the back yard and I'm wondering what it is and does it make a good bonsai? I can't seem to find an ID on it. I live in virginia beach and it bloomed at the begginning of December and lasted the whole month

I thought I found something that said it was a thornless quince but I'm not sure

I believe it is a "Yuletide Camellia". The flowers look that way to me.
Tona

Yup, a Camellia. They make great bonsai. Try "Camellia bonsai" in Google images.

It seems to say that these are not frost tolerant, and I know Virginia beach isn't that cold in winter but it still gets below freezing on occasion, but this Yuletide is taller then I am and has been here for a long time. Is it fine to leave outside as a bonsai. I seem to find conflicting info on the care of this species.

Camelia grow well in Tidewater.

You may want to consider contacting the folks here for more detailed info:

http://www.virginiabonsai.org/

Enjoy.

Camellia are frost and freeze tolerant. I don't think you'd have any trouble.

So when would be the best time to trunk chop this? Early spring or after all the flower stop which would be in like a week?

Trunk chopping is usually not a good idea with this semi-evergreen species. The question really depends mostly on how big you want the base of the trunk to be for this pre-bonsai. Camelias grow trunk caliber pretty slowly. If you pull them out of the ground that slow growth rate slows down to almost non-existent. The leaves on many camelia species can be fairly large. From what I can tell from the photo you provided, the leaves on yours aren't that small. 'Sassanqua' for example, is one popular cultivar of camelia for Bonsai that is pretty hardy in pot culture, and has fairly small leaves.
I would leave this one in the ground for at least a couple, maybe 3 or more years to grow out the trunk. Feeding it regularly will help, plus you can begin training with wire and pruning lightly to get some basic shape and hopefully promote some back-budding while in the ground. Camelias provide rewards pretty slowly in Bonsai. They're great trees to work with, but they do require a lot of patience.

Thanks for the info, that was what I was gonna do just leave it in the ground for a couple years and start training that way. Guess ill just prune some branch back then next year the same and slowly work it done to a good bonsai size or just leave it where it is and enjoy it.

Check this out... https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t5468-camellia-problem

If you type camellia into the search bar of the discussion page 4 threads of mine will show up. Maybe those will help you.

Yeah I already read all the threads containing camellia

Yet you thought it was a thornless quince??

Russell Coker wrote:

Yet you thought it was a thornless quince??

I wish there was a simple way here to simply indicate 'thanks' for your post than having to write a whole new post.

Anyway, 'thanks' Russel. I enjoy reading your comments and was most amused by this one

Sigh....I did it after I posted the first thread, and I found out it was a camellia, think man think