HelpfulGardener.com

Hi;

I'm a novice Bonsai owner, and I got a Ligustrum tree in December. Everything was going fine until a month or two ago when all the leaves just dropped. At first I played it off as it simply being the "dormant" season that seemed to be commonly tossed around, but now it's nearly summer, and it's still barren. It doesn't seem to be growing anything new, as far as I can tell; and it seems to have a white sort of 'mossy' look around part of the soil/trunk.


The tree is still alive, or at least the inner bark of the tree when I checked is still green. The tree itself does seem to be a little "loose" from the soil (as in it can be pressed against lightly and it'll move a little).


It's at a window sill where it receives most of the afternoon sun; it's about the only place in the house that has any sort of sunlight year round. (Cloudy state, yay.) But it's not a whole lot of sunlight in other seasons. Just really in summer.


But I'm really worried, I would really like to not kill off this beautiful tree. Any advice? What should I do?

Your privet is (was?) an evergreen. It does not have much of a dormant season and it should (if healthy) NEVER lose all its leaves like that. That's why people like privet hedges, they stay green all year round.

Being loose in the soil, probably means most or all of the roots are dead. At a guess I would say it got root rot. That probably is an indication that it was in regular potting soil (not bonsai soil) and you were over-watering. The white mold is another indication of that.

I don't know that it can be saved, but maybe someone else will have a better idea. Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings. Welcome to the forum anyway....

Defiantly not what I wanted to hear, but thank you.

Do you think it might be worth trying to re-pot it and see if it helps it at all?

There is a pretty nice resource about Ligustrum Bonsai trees.

Check it out, it has help me with my bonsai in the past.

https://ligustrumbonsai.com/ligustrum-bonsai/