Bought a new bonsai, I NEED identification please

damaster97 · Sat Mar 17, 2012 6:54 pm

I just bought a new bonsai tree, I am not sure what kind it is, I need to know whether it is indoor/outdoor, how much watering, wether it flowers/blooms, etc... PLEASE HELP

UPDATED PICS

https://angadsingh.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=13150426

This should work, thanks for the help

rainbowgardener · Sun Mar 18, 2012 7:38 am

When I clicked on your links, I just got an error message that says your google account is unavailable

damaster97 · Sun Mar 18, 2012 10:35 am

Ok sorry I will try to find another way to post the links

damaster97 · Sun Mar 18, 2012 11:01 am

I UPDATED THE LINK IT SHOULD WORK NOW

tomc · Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:30 pm

I'm not sure what kind of tree you have is.

I would like you to poke at the rocks I see on top of the soil. if those rocks are glued on, please remove them and residual hot glue. Glued-on rocks will interfere with watering and checking with a chop-stick for the need to water.

damaster97 · Sun Mar 18, 2012 9:23 pm

Can anyone else help? I want to know how to take care of the plant and possible reproduce it using the leaf cutting method..

rainbowgardener · Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:23 am

I'm not a bonsai grower, but since no one else has jumped in yet, could it be a fukien tea/ carmona? Here's a sample, does it look like your tree?

[img]https://www.littletrees.com/images/carmonabig.jpg[/img]

JustinBoi · Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:12 pm

It does seem to be a Fukien tea.

damaster97 · Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:55 pm

Yes! that is thanks so much for the help!
Now I have to research it...

JustinBoi · Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:14 pm

Since I did have a Fukien tea at one time here's my help: Watering - Like most bonsai trees, fukien tea like to be kept moist, but not soggy. Your Fukien tea will suffer if you let it soak or stand in water. Always use a fast draining bonsai soil for best results. You should never water your fukien tea bonsai by immersing the pot in water. If you keep your bonsai outdoors you should reduce watering slightly in the winter time.

Temperature - The fukien tea does not do well in extreme cold or areas with snow. Fukien tea bonsai can survive winters that go as low as 60 degrees fahrenheit and even occasional cold snaps of 40 degrees. Heat with this tree generally is not a concern if you keep it well watered.

damaster97 · Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:53 pm

JustinBoi wrote:Since I did have a Fukien tea at one time here's my help: Watering - Like most bonsai trees, fukien tea like to be kept moist, but not soggy. Your Fukien tea will suffer if you let it soak or stand in water. Always use a fast draining bonsai soil for best results. You should never water your fukien tea bonsai by immersing the pot in water. If you keep your bonsai outdoors you should reduce watering slightly in the winter time.

Temperature - The fukien tea does not do well in extreme cold or areas with snow. Fukien tea bonsai can survive winters that go as low as 60 degrees fahrenheit and even occasional cold snaps of 40 degrees. Heat with this tree generally is not a concern if you keep it well watered.

Do you have any experience with clip reproducing?

rainbowgardener · Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:36 pm

damaster97 wrote:
Do you have any experience with clip reproducing?

Never heard the term and googling produced zippo. Did you mean propagating by cuttings?

JustinBoi · Tue Mar 20, 2012 6:02 am

I don't usually go by terms, but what I call cuttings is "the thing you do when you want to make another tree out of a branch on a certain tree" (:

tomc · Fri Mar 30, 2012 6:57 pm

JustinBoi wrote:I don't usually go by terms, but what I call cuttings is "the thing you do when you want to make another tree out of a branch on a certain tree" (:

Justin, might the term you are in search of be "airlayer"?

kdodds · Fri Mar 30, 2012 7:18 pm

I'm fairly certain, as well, that this is a Fukien Tea. Propagating through cuttings is possible, so is air-layering. Fukien Teas, historically, do extraordinarily poorly when kept indoors. However, they can not be kept outside during New York winters either. Unless you live in a zone conducive to keeping the species, it will have to spend a good amount of time indoors. For Fukien, this means six months out of the year, or more. I would not be comfortable keeping one outside until after Mother's Day, and I'd bring it in before October. The keeping inside is what makes them difficult. They need higher humidity and prefer to NOT dry out at all, ever, IME. I've had a lot more luck with this (and similar species like Serissa and Sageretia) tree by ignoring the traditional advice to use low-organic, fast-draining soils. Simply put, there are many ways to do things, usually, and to ignore non-traditional methods in favor of traditional ones that are proven to fail thousands of times over is... well... silly.

So, if your tree starts dropping leaves, either set it up in a terrarium, or repot it into a mix that is at least 50% potting soil. Seriously. My first successful overwinter, ever of Sageretia, Ehretia, and Serissa all came from ignoring traditional advice.