camelias for bonsais?

can you use camelias for bonsai material?

Camellias make wonderful bonsai. It's keeping them healthy that's the problem. They are really picky about soil pH. Get that right, and you will have a beautiful bonsai.

Because of flower (and often, leaf) size, they generally need to be fairly large bonsai. That takes a while to develop.

I think I have read in a old kinbon that the obtention of a good nebari on Camelias is harder than for most trees. But the same issue presented pictures of cquite nice amelia bonsai, Quite nice but not outstanding bonsai.

JimLewis wrote:Because of flower (and often, leaf) size, they generally need to be fairly large bonsai. That takes a while to develop.

Jim is quite right when it comes to the "standard" size of camellia (C. japonica). However, if you use the Smaller forms (C. sasanqua, C. olifera or hybrids of the two) they will have both smaller leaves and flowers which are much more amenable to Bonsai use. There are many hybrids of these species and are generally avaliable in nurseries around the globe. As with all Camellias trunk size will be slow to develop but they will eventually reach a good size. Care must be taken when wiring as the bark is quite thin and will show gurdiling (wire marks) easily. It's also a good idea to plan larger branch cuts strategicly as wound healing takes forever. Camellias have excellent bud back characteristics. They for some reason are not much used here in the US and should be used far more than they are.

Randy Davis

I think they're great, and way under appreciated.

https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t4939-camellia-hiemalis