Camellia bonsai shaping techniques

Bonsai Making Notes

Camellia has the habits of a subtropical plant. When shaping bonsai, the choice of potting soil and the placement environment should be in line with its growth habits.

Camellia likes slightly acidic soil. When choosing soil, be careful not to choose soil with poor drainage such as yellow mud. It can be humus soil or red sandy soil on the hills. When choosing plants, you should choose relatively short and sturdy plants with many branches and even leaves. They should grow well and be free of diseases and pests.

Camellia avoids direct sunlight and prefers an environment with high air humidity, so it should be placed in a semi-shaded place.

Potting and winding

When making camellia bonsai, the best time to plant it in the pot is spring and autumn. At this time, the leaf buds of the camellia are just beginning to sprout, and it will not be greatly affected when transplanting it into the pot. If you want to pot the plants in other seasons, you need to retain most of the soil and place them in a cool place quickly after planting.

The shapes of camellia bonsai are generally hanging rock style and rolling branch style. The hanging rock bonsai generally uses a barrel pot, while the rolling branch bonsai generally uses a more symmetrical square or round pot.

When coiling camellia, you should first plant it at an angle when potting it, and bend the main trunk first. When bend it, you should keep the side branches and leaves of the camellia, and then bend the side branches after the main trunk is formed. When bending side branches, you should use vertical, oblique or irregular methods to shape them according to the growth of the branches and your own design. When wrapping, you can use palm fiber to fix it. Note that the branches of camellia are highly lignified, so the branches to be bent need to be rubbed before being bent to avoid breaking later.

The next step is to coil the twigs and turn the leaves over, so that the leaves of the camellia can be turned outward and individual bad leaves can be removed.