Bonsai plants are usually grown for indoor use. Camellias should not be planted outside in Z5 winters as they are not that winter hardy. Bring them out about two weeks after your average date of last frost. Camellias do not go dormant per se in winter. More like they have a pseudo dormant setting that allows them to still bloom in winter-ish weather but will stop blooming if it does get too cold for them. Bring them inside in the Fall when cold though.

Bonsai is a technique that can be applied to a variety of plants. There is no such thing as a bonsai plant. Many plants are amenable to bonsai techniques to achieve a certain look.

There is no such thing as indoor/house plant either. It just happens some plants tolerate indoor conditions and they all mostly fall into the category that cannot tolerate close to or below freezing conditions.

Container culture of any plant changes the equation a lot. Bonsai is a form of container culture. For one, they all will need some winter protection whether they are hardy or not. For camellia, as floral said, will need protection from freezing conditions. In winter, a camellia in container would need to in a cool place above freezing but still in a cool bright spot.

Camellias start blooming in the Atlanta area as early as late January and go through early April. They can become beasts in a few years. I can't imagine the work required to keep one as a bonsai plant.

Late Feb, 2018 before I cut the tops off at least four feet.

These are around 12 feet tall

Wow, they are quite tall. Must be decades old! Since those pics were from 2018, how was your blooming season this year? Mine was kind of "blah" due to freezing temps.

Hi Luis,

The two oldest are 16 and therefore the tallest, the same age as the house, the next 3 probably 13 are the ones I cut back so we could see out that end of the front porch, and the youngest maybe 6 or 7.

The youngest R.L. Wheeler is over my head now.

They did not bloom as good this year - probably too warm so they started blooming before they should then we got some low 20 temps which probably took out half the blooms.

This was R.L. Wheeler in 2018. I don't take as many pictures of older plants unless they warrant it.

The 13 year olds (there are 3 different ones sandwiched together) before I cut them back by nearly half. I think this is a species as it produces quite a lot of seed and seedlings.

This one is sandwiched by the dusky red and the salmon color above. Therefore the only light it gets is reflected light inside the porch area.

One of many discarded flowers on the porch.

On the bush with all its stamens looks a lot better.

The oddball is mostly the pink with white edges but throws these pure medium pink blooms as well.

The double red blooms earliest and is usually less showy than the others.

Street view of the porch side before cutting back to railing - mid-February 2018

A year later the tops are at least 18 inches over the railing. At least I can see Red Rooster and Dynamite Crepe myrtles from the

front porch now.

Thank you for the replies. My boss wouldn't let me touch the plant, and unfortunately she wouldn't water it properly and is looked pretty bad. One of our clients saw it and tried to doctor it as he has some bonsai himself. I know it does not get enough light and last time I saw it, it looked terrible. I haven't been into the office in 1 1/2 weeks, so I imagine it is a goner by now.

I understand, bev2009. Specially if the boss is not at the office either. Or maybe the boss took the plant to the house? Maybe? ;o)

Nice pictures, hcmcdole. Thanks for sharing. Yeah, that same weather event happened here as well. Temps were mild and then they crashed. Sigh. But you sure get a lot of growth. I have some planted here and they just grow about an inch per year. Are you sure you are not using a fertilizer with NPK Ratio of 1,000,000,000-10-10? Hee, hee, hee!

One question... the last one cannot be "the front porch now", can it? It has Crape Myrtles in bloom!?!?!

Luis, the last photo was summer time (last summer in fact) when the Crepe Myrtles were in bloom. July 26.

I haven't fertilized the camellias in years. Maybe the first two to three years after putting them in the ground. I have a total of six now and the only one I would buy today would be Black Magic - it doesn't look real - almost like wax. I saw it at the Atlanta Flower Show last year - unreal.

The view from my neighbor's side - 3 Tonto CM and I think the red one is Red Rooster as Dynamite is a deeper red.

Yes, Dynamite is the latest red that I like.