i don't know what kind of bonsai i have.....

[tklynnlv]

my mother in law got this bonsai as a gift and it looks as if it is dying. it looks like a pineapple top. when she got it, the bulb like bottom was brown with green sprouts that look like spiny palm fronds. now, the base is still brown, but the sprouts are turning a yellowish brown green. i don't know what to do, can you help? OH, the dish it is in is about 4 inches deep, oblong with mossy stuff around the bulb and rocks around the rest. i don't know if that helps or not, and i do know that it was purchased at a local grocery store. thank you so much!!!!
tklynnlv@yahoo.com

[Newt]

Hi Tklynnlv,

I'm not a bonsai specialist by any stretch, so I'm not sure how helpful I can be, so maybe someone else will come by with more helpful info. I think the first thing is to id your plant. It sounds like it might be a ponytail palm, which really isn't a palm at all. Is this your plant?

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/view_question.php?id=134

Newt

[The Helpful Gardener]

Could be the ponytail, but the description of the palm fronds makes me think of a sago palm, often found as a bonsai plant. Here's a good site...

http://www.rhapisgardens.com/sagos/

Sounds like a water issue; too much or too little ( I suspect too much, but ask the waterer...)

Scott

[rustysthree]

i don't know what kind of bonsai i have either. i found the mall four growing wild. three of them are conifers
the other... wow i don't know[/list]

[The Helpful Gardener]

Rusty, if you don't say where you're from, finding them "wild" won't help with an i.d. We get folks from all over the planet...

Scott

[rustysthree]

I'm from oklahoma in the united states. central oklahoma .i just looked a sight. i know what the conifers are now. "eastern redceder" (I think)

[rustysthree]

but i don't know what the other is...

[The Helpful Gardener]

Or a Juniper of some sort... okay that's a start...

Check out the bonsai articles here on the site, keeping in mind you have an evergreen temperate plant. It will be SLIGHTLY more forgiving about watering and need a wintering period to get it's rest; just follow the advice for junipers and you'll be okay...

Scott

[rustysthree]

how in the world do you know it's a juniper? is a conifer, a juniper and an evergreen all the same?

[rustysthree]

oooh a juniper is a spiny tree that does not produce cones. a conifer is a spiny tree that DOES produce cones, and an evergreen is either of those.... i feel dumb.

[The Helpful Gardener]

You're learning...