Funny you should ask this. I bought a small styrax seedling off eBay four years or so ago and planted it in my front yard on a tile to grow it out for bonsai potential (I saw pictures of them in an old bonsai magazine and thought for a couple of dollars, why not try it). It's now a good 8' in height with a 3" base and my wife has been yelling at me to cut it back or dig it out. I'm trying to play dumb (easy for me) and delay to get a little more caliper out of it
The flowers are really cool on them - they are like white bells, complete with those things in the middle of the bell that you use to ring it (just found out it is called the "clapper"). They are fragrant and are all over the tree. They don't seem to last too long though (like a week if that), but it could be because of all the rain we've had here.
They seem to have the potential for good bonsai material. The leaves aren't very large, and they are a nice roundish oval shape and a pretty medium green, with close internodes. The bark is brown and fairly smooth, like a hornbeam. It actually sorta reminds me of a hornbeam or maybe a crape myrtle.
Aside for some minor pruning to stay in my wife's good graces, I haven't done much with it so can't really say how it would take chops, wire, etc. I probably have a couple more years of ground development with mine (chop next season to new leader, give it a year or two of the next flush, and then dig it out), but I'd be interested if others have experience with it.