Oldish camellia

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GavinG
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Oldish camellia

Post by GavinG »

I dug this up from my old house 15-20 years ago - it had been in the garden for a while before we moved in, in 1996. It's a sasanqua, probably "Julie Ann". It hadn't flowered much at all as I grew it out, but it's started to come good in the last couple of years. One year I cut it back hard to bare wood - and the whole back of the tree just didn't shoot back at all....

I'll probably do some fine work on it this year, and see how it scrubs up.
P1020380.jpg
Cat for scale:
P1020378.jpg
Back of the tree:
P1020381.jpg
Gavin
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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by Daluke »

Awesome.

These are under-utilised in my opinion.
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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by MJL »

My nana loved camellia's and had a beautiful cat similar to the little cat pictured here. Nana left us a decade or so back now but I am very fond of this thread because of the good memories is has triggered. And as R3 knows - there's something about cats in bonsai photos that I love too. :yes:
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Keep Calm and Ramify
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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by Keep Calm and Ramify »

That looks beautiful :clap:
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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by EdwardH »

I like the tree but I wonder if it would be better in a slightly larger and deeper pot?
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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by Greg F »

Nice tree, great base.

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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by kcpoole »

Love Camelias and very nice old trunk base bark on this one :-)

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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by Sno »

Nice . The deadwood looks quite stable ,are you treating it with anything ? Thanks for showing .
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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by treeman »

Very nice! And rarely seen...
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melbrackstone
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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by melbrackstone »

I'm a big fan of Camellia bonsai, and look forward to seeing this as it grows into a regular flowering bonsai! Do you get trees that are covered in flowers where you are, or just spot flowering? I'm probably 20 years away from seeing mine with buds. :(
Nice kitteh too!
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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by GavinG »

Daluke and Treeman: Yes, there aren't enough camellia bonsai. I know why - it's taken me 15 or more years to get to this. It's also not easy to find someone to "volunteer" a mature tree to start with. I'll put some fine work into it, and maybe get some glimpses of trunk through the foliage.

MJL: A cat improves everything, except my piano-playing.

EdwardH: The pot looks smaller than it is - it certainly feels adequately heavy! Since it has only really started flowering again in this pot, I'm not keen to change it.

Sno: no treatment, no decay. I really should get around to carving the back a bit.

Mel, I don't really want it covered in blossom - the flowers are a bit too gaudy for me anyway, so just a few tucked away here and there will do me. Garden camellias here are covered in blossom, but the frosts often hit the japonicas hard. They should flower fairly early as bonsai, well before 20 years, I'm just not particularly good at that side of things.

Gavin
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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by its_kano »

Very nice indeed! I also want a camillea to my collection although going to hunt for a Higo variety. Perhaps a graft will be best approach.
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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by Raging Bull »

Hi Gavin,
Love the colouring of your camellia, Mine is a common pink variety.
Mel, my garden grown camellia is now covered in flowers, it's about 5 metres tall. About three years ago I air-layered this now developing tree off it.
2020.04.29 e.JPG
Sorry Gavin, I don't mean to hijack your thread, but with the comments re camellias not being a common bonsai choice I couldn't resist putting mine in. :oops:
Cheers, Frank.
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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by melbrackstone »

Thanks Gavin and Frank.

The ones I have planted in the garden here never flower reliably, and the japonica flowers tend to drop more than half without opening. Never the less, they're both (sansanqua and japonica) seem to grow well in my dreadful clay soil. I have one sasanqua in a bonsai pot, which I grew in a huge pot for 5 years, but the other sasanqua I want to dig is probably 25+years in the ground... That's going to test me!

Gavin and Frank thank you, you've given me inspiration to get in and dig soon. :)
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Re: Oldish camellia

Post by GavinG »

Go for it Frank, another camellia can never be a bad thing.

Gavin
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