solo56 wrote:

I have bought this Japanese Holly Bonsai yesterday from a local garden centre. The pot is 20cm deep, 12cm wide and 35cm long. It has no drainage hole at the bottom. The shop told me that it doesn't need drainage hole as it has stones at the bottom and moss on the surface covering the soil, just keep the soil moist and it will be fine.
Can anyone give me some advice or your thoughts?
Thanks.

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I would not go back there.

If the tree's roots sit in water they will suffocate and die, then the tree will die, or at very least have poor health.

If the water has calcium or anything else, then when you pour water in you pour more calcium in. The water evaporates leaving more and more calcium. Eventually the tree has more calcium than it can handle, and has poor health.

Poor health means it gets weaker, weaker, and dies.

Tropfrog wrote:

Ilex crenata needs to be grown outdoors. Indoors it will eventually die.

Isnt this a Carmona? I think the store made a mistake as Im pretty sure it is, and a Carmona luckily for you can be kept indoors.

Thanks for all your advice. The pot is 20cm deep and they told me there are stones at the bottom but no holes. I think I would need to water it very carefully just by spraying it lightly on a daily basis. What do you think?
Do you all think this is actually a Carmona bonsai rather than Japanese holly bonsai?
Thanks guys.

I agree. This is most likelly a carmona.

Judging from hundreds of help my tree is dieing threads in this forum this species cannot be grown in temperate climat. Indoors or outdoors does not matter.

However I tried to overwinter mine in 5c. Not jealthy, but still alive.

solo56 wrote:

Thanks for all your advice. The pot is 20cm deep and they told me there are stones at the bottom but no holes. I think I would need to water it very carefully just by spraying it lightly on a daily basis. What do you think?
Do you all think this is actually a Carmona bonsai rather than Japanese holly bonsai?
Thanks guys.

It is bad for most trees for their roots to sit in water. What the stones are for is to keep the bottom of the inside pot away from water standing in the bottom. This arrangement is possible, but you have to water the tree properly, let all the water pour through, then pour the excess water out. One of the major functions of heavy watering is to have water pour through the soil, pulling oxygen out of the air and down into the soil. Misting does not do this. Misting will work for plants that evolved in very humid atmospheres with water condensing out of the air, like tropical jungles and some orchids.

You can also put the plant in the kitchen sink and run the sprinkler in your sink on it. Water enough that water pours through the pot. You may have to negotiate this with a significant other in the house.

I would definitely recommend you make a hole at the bottom of the pot. You can easily do that using just a normal drill or a diamond one for a porcelain pot.