Lisa said:
Does any one have one of these? is it worth it to buy it
trimmed or easy to
trim it yourself?

Camellias are easier if you live in the South, which you do not. It
means you would have to bring yours indoors for the winter, or else
build a cold-frame for it. It is finicky indoors, needing cood,
humid conditions that are best found in a cool conservatory or an
unheated room. Camellias also have rather large leaves and flowers
(if we're talking japanese camellia; if we're talking C. sinensis
never mind), so they have to be made into rather large bonsai. If
you are a beginner, you should try something else.

Jim said:

(it is amazing to me that so many people jump into
bonsai without ever having grown even a carrot)

And these are the people who immediately buy an expensive bonsai and
then go to my website up to 5 TIMES A DAY to ask elementary questions
about watering. I'd like to kill them sometimes, but they are
usually starry-eyed in love with bonsai, and if I even suggest that
they will kill their first 10 trees, they get agitated. If I were to
characterize the American character, I'd say we expected to have
everything *obey* us. The biggest lesson about plants I ever learned
was that they really have different care needs, and one size doesn't
fit all. Nowadays when I buy a new tree species, I just watch it for
a year, before I think of doing anything. I want to know how it
branches, how it buds out, what its roots do, how it handles drought,
etc.

--
Nina Shishkoff

Riverhead, NY

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