AusBonsai

Hi Guys, thought id post up some pics of a big camellia i dug up recently for a bit of advice. My girlfriend's dad was knocking down his house so he asked me to dig out his old (he reckons like 50+ years) camellia and try to 'bonsai it'.

But the problem is; Im pretty inexperienced with bonsai, so a tree of this size is kind of overwhelming, not even what tools to use? I managed to get the bloody thing out of the ground and into a wine barrel, and its started to backbud, but what now guys? Plenty of time to ponder before i do anything i guess!













thanks

Hi Johanson,

I am not an expert in styling by any means but I reckon you're off to a great start with your camellia because of the structure at the base . You also have a lot of trunk options so if it was me I would let the plant back-bud to it hearts content and then choose the trunk based on the amount of growth on it. After that you can grow in branches and style it.

Good luck with this one.

Cheers,

Brad75 aka Brad Jackson.

That is a very good find...Maybe you try and not over water it...Let the top couple of cm dry before watering it. I suspect it is normal soil, with some gravel on top.Did you remove the old soil or just added the gravel around?. Let the tree recover for a year...and then make further decisions. Camellia has very brittle old branches...so while the branches are soft you can try to bent them to horizontal level...I use pegs to give the initial direction of the branches while very young..probably 2 weeks from now. If you clip a peg to a leaf, it will bend the branch downwards...When the branches are very young it takes less than a week for the branch to set. Later when they are stronger and almost lignified you can wire them...By then you will know which one is the front.
Good luck!

For now I would not worry about styling...let it recover/grow/thrive.youve got a yr or so before you have to worry about styling etc

Spot on Angus. Look after it until it is growing and healthy again before deciding or doing anything else. I note you are young (or is that the hired help?) and have plenty of years to grow a great tree so don't be in too much of a hurry.

It looks like it has a couple? of dead trunks and you can remove them to open up the tree a little. it might give you a look at more options. Other than that i agree with the other advice. A great score by the way. it is a camellia and will have to be a large Bonsai as the leaf is difficult to reduce..

Thanks for all the advice guys! Its very much appreciated.
I suspected the answer would be 'do nothing, keep waiting bro' Its good to have confirmation though, ive just been wondering and wondering about this tree since i dug it up

bodhidharma wrote:It looks like it has a couple? of dead trunks and you can remove them to open up the tree a little. it might give you a look at more options. Other than that i agree with the other advice. A great score by the way. it is a camellia and will have to be a large Bonsai as the leaf is difficult to reduce..

Yeah theres a couple of dead trunks...and a couple more by the looks of it, I think its only budding on 2 of the branches closest to the brick wall. Is camellia deadwood appropriate for jin/shari?

shibui wrote:Spot on Angus. Look after it until it is growing and healthy again before deciding or doing anything else. I note you are young (or is that the hired help?) and have plenty of years to grow a great tree so don't be in too much of a hurry.

Good pick! I'm 25, so ill take that advice, happy to take it easy on this one got plenty of time to watch it grow, just eager to learn a thing or two

Neli wrote:That is a very good find...Maybe you try and not over water it...Let the top couple of cm dry before watering it. I suspect it is normal soil, with some gravel on top.Did you remove the old soil or just added the gravel around?. Let the tree recover for a year...and then make further decisions. Camellia has very brittle old branches...so while the branches are soft you can try to bent them to horizontal level...I use pegs to give the initial direction of the branches while very young..probably 2 weeks from now. If you clip a peg to a leaf, it will bend the branch downwards...When the branches are very young it takes less than a week for the branch to set. Later when they are stronger and almost lignified you can wire them...By then you will know which one is the front.
Good luck!

And the weight of the pegs is suffient to pull down the branch? thats cool! this technique would probably work on other tree too yeah?
I tried to keep as much of the original soil around the rootball as I could, then piled gravel on top of it. I know camellias like a particular kind of soil which I dont have.. my knowledge of soils is pretty awful at this stage, but it should survive like that until i can repot it in better stuff yeah?

Johanson wrote: Is camellia deadwood appropriate for jin/shari?

Personal choice i would guess but i wouldnt and if you dont want to dead wood them then remove them. It will obstruct your planning process while you look at the tree.

Do it when the branches are very young...later the peg will not bend it.