Okay, I am devouring my new book on Camellias, (and already want more...). Can someone tell me what "upright" and "vigorous" mean? My guess would be that upright means tall and slender, but I have never seen a picture of a camellia that would fit that description. Does this mean that the plant lends itself to being shaped into a tall slender form?

And "vigorous". Does that mean fast growing? I would assume this is a relevant term. How fast is considered fast in the camellia world (and for that matter, how slow is "slow"?)

And finally, I understand that pruning is important. I see pictures of plants that look like great big huge boxes (top to bottom, front to back) in alot of books. Have these plants been well pruned, or not? I know that camellias can be trained into tree-shapes by limbing up, but is there another form that is considered beneficial to the plant and attractive too?

I know these are probably dumb questions and I thank you for your answers.