Hello everyone;

We received this bonsai for Christmas and have a few questions about it:

1. What is it? I haven’t been able to figure out what species it is. 
2. We’ve kept it watered (soil and leaves) but it’s losing leaves like crazy. We’re in Utah where it’s super dry but we don’t see this with our other plants and have even been watering the bonsai twice a week sometimes. 

Any ideas? Is this normal? 

Thanks!

You have a fukien tea tree, also called carmona.

I am sorry to bear bad news. Many beginners come here to ask for advices on dieing carmonas. But noone in the temperate world know how to keep them alive long term. We have one member that grow them successfully. He is in hong kong and grow them outdoors.

Unfortunattely thees trees are flooding the market every year with little or none survivalrate. Killing not only the tree but also the beginners excitment for the hobby.

If you make it, please come back and tell us what you did, we definetely want to learn. If you do not make it, please do not give up the hobby. Try again with locally hardy species outdoors. Then you will find the real excitement in this hobby.

Well that's a shame.  I just looked up some info, I'll try upping the water on the leaves and ordered a plant light to see if we can get some results.

Thank you!!

I need to dissapoint you again. There are several persons that has tried plant light in livingroom conditions that has failed. The light itself may be beneficial, but I think it dries up the already dry indoor air even more and accelerates the problems.

To my current understanding of this species, I think a humid terrarium with artificial light placed in an unheated room during winter and heated in summer is the best option.

The species comes from subtropical areas, pretty much as citrus and olives. The difference to the mediteranean climate where they come from is that fukien comes from an area that is very humid in winter. Right now I think that this humidity is the key for succesful growing. It cannot be created indoors in central heated houses in the the temperate zones without terrarium or grow tent.

I have kept two of these alive for a few years until we remodeled our house.  It was in a west facing window that received 7-8 hours of sun every day and I would dunk it when it needed watering.   Pruned as needed and it would flower then drop flowers in the spring time.  I am located in Dallas TX.

Not doomed in my opinion just needs full light right next to a window if being kept indoors.  

Here are some pictures of mine.

 

I will say i am located in Dallas, TX and have kept 2 fuiken tees alive for years.  They sit in my window, west facing, that gets 7-9 hours of sun a day and have done great.  When they start to dry out i will dunk them vs just water them and this seems to work well.   I have put them outside in the summer and they do well in a shade garden that I have.  

Keeping (sub)tropical trees indoors is always a challenge - but I disagree with Tropfrog that it's near impossible. I have several indoors during winter (Ficus, Carmona) and they are doing well.

The key is two things, simple as that:
1. Light. LOTS and LOTS of it. Only placed immediately in front of a sunny window (south facing) will your tree survive. Dont think about placing it 3 feet away from the window, light intensity will drop by half. Trees need more light than your regular indoor plants.
2. Humidity. LOTS and LOTS of it But this is impossible to achieve indoors. I use a humidifier to keep humidity indoors around 50% and my trees survive. They don't thrive, but they survive.

As soon as temperatures outdoor are high enough (mid spring for me) the trees move outdoors and this is when they come to life and thrive. 

Of course, you need to water correctly and never let your tree dry out.

Good luck!

I'm with Oskar here, it is difficult but possible.. my tropicals went from Winter (inside by a south window) to greenhouse outside(when I could keep the temperature high enough easily) to outside in the summer..  unfortunately due to an accident(fire) in my greenhouse, I lost all of my tropical and subtropical trees.. looks like I will have to travel to Mallorca again to collect a new Mediterranean oak sapling. 

I live in Wagga Wagga, Australia and our winters are not suitable for sub tropical plants. Have had success by bringing inside but as others have noted, they must get lots of light. I am lucky in that I have a room that receives good strong light all day

I have not talked about any tropical tree whatsoever and you can not use my posts to imply what I think about growing tropical trees indoors. Neuigther do I claim anything about sub tropical trees in general.

My post was on one species only, and that is carmona. We heve a lot of help my tree is dieing threads from beginners, most of them is carmona. Nobody comes back with a success story, which makes me think most people fail. I have not claimed it is impossible, obviously this species is growing like weed somewhere in the world. All I am saying is that it is very hard to keep a carmona indoors in the winter in the temperate world.

If you have a success story on carmona, please share it on the forum so we can learn together.