Camellia Bonsai

[drew33998]

Others chime in if you have any experience with Camellia. I know that they are a pain to try to get back budding. I am thinking of experimenting on a little project tree I have with defoliating. Thinking of defoliating a branch and seeing how this will affect the new leaves or promote any back budding. Here is a pic. Just finished wiring it the other day. Thanks

 

[Beng]

In my exp if you defoliate a camelia branch it dies. If it has buds though perhaps it won't. I have several i'm working on but no finished trees yet.

Ben

 

[drew33998]

Yes I would def leave the buds on. Just remove the leaves. But I will wait to see what everyone else has to say.

 

[coh]

I would love to hear more about camellias. I have one, Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide', that I've been working on for about 3 years. I almost killed it the first year but it's been gaining vigor. At this point I haven't done much except for occasional wiring and trimming some of the overly long growth. At some point I'm probably going to hard prune some of the longer branches and see if that induces back budding.

The one thing I've noticed with mine, is that it seems to be base dominant. I've had a hard time getting much growth in the apex (you can clearly see that in the first photo). Has anyone else noticed that?

Chris

 

[Poink88]

Very pretty and vibrant colors on those flowers Chris!

 

[drew33998]

Unfortunately mine is a japonica. I don't think a lot of people work with them as they can be tough subjects. I do believe there was one that won the kokufu a few years ago.

 

[edprocoat]

I have looked at Camellia before, the odd leaves and the size of them always made me look the other way. I have seen some pics of some as Bonsai so it must be doable. I guess the real reason is not knowing much about them or the needs of one that has made me hesitate.

ed

 

[Beng]

If you all are interested in camellia try to get one called twinkle twinkle from nuccios it has tiny leaves and flowers more like a large leafed satsuki!

I think this might be it

http://nucciosnurseries.com/index.php/camellias/foliages-camellias/twinkle-twinkle-n-detail

or it may be this one called tiny gem

http://www.nucciosnurseries.com/index.php/camellias/foliages-camellias/tiny-gem-n-detail

Here's a pic of one on someones blog

http://sazanka.org/cultivars/desc/twinkle_twinkle_1.htm

Ben

 

[Beng]

I would love to hear more about camellias. I have one, Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide', that I've been working on for about 3 years. I almost killed it the first year but it's been gaining vigor. At this point I haven't done much except for occasional wiring and trimming some of the overly long growth. At some point I'm probably going to hard prune some of the longer branches and see if that induces back budding.

The one thing I've noticed with mine, is that it seems to be base dominant. I've had a hard time getting much growth in the apex (you can clearly see that in the first photo). Has anyone else noticed that?

Chris

View attachment 44611 View attachment 44612

Yuletides one of the better types for bonsai, nice sized leaves and flowers.

 

[0soyoung]

Camellias can be grown as hedges/topiaries, left to grow freely as a bush and just about anything inbetween. They can also be chopped to a branch-less trunk like a deciduous tree. I am puzzled where the notion that they don't back bud comes from.

Tea, anyone?

 

[Beng]

Camellias can be grown as hedges/topiaries, left to grow freely as a bush and just about anything inbetween. They can also be chopped to a branch-less trunk like a deciduous tree. I am puzzled where the notion that they don't back bud comes from.

Tea, anyone?

Are you sure you can chop them to a branchless trunk? I tried pruning all the old leaves off two different branches on mine last year and the entire branch died back to the trunk. It could just be the variety I guess...

 

[0soyoung]

Are you sure you can chop them to a branchless trunk? I tried pruning all the old leaves off two different branches on mine last year and the entire branch died back to the trunk. It could just be the variety I guess...

I don't know that there is anything special about mine. They are, I believe, japonicums that had 2-3 inch trunks when I chopped them - both were landscape specimens at the time I chopped them. One has pink flowers that my wife does not care for - it became my bonsai project . The other is still in our yard with a hedged canopy and far more vigorous than my bonsai project. It is all pretty much as expected according to the American Camellia Society.

 

[drew33998]

Are you sure you can chop them to a branchless trunk? I tried pruning all the old leaves off two different branches on mine last year and the entire branch died back to the trunk. It could just be the variety I guess...

Nope not sure at all. I guess all there is to do is try and see what happens. And research of course. I would think if you left the latent leaf buds that it would just send out those leaves.