I like the idea of the zen garden. I too am in MD, so perhaps we do not need to ship plants. I have a surplus of ginkgo trees, and can part with them. Are you interested? I can be reached at sdsrieden@comcast.net Peace, JR

Hi, you haven't given any information about lighting, temperature, or fertilizer to go by, so I'll just run through a few things. BTW, please note that it's bonSai, not bonZai - the trees are not suicidal, just small :-). Scheffleras need to dry out quite a bit between waterings so "constantly" moist is definitely not a good idea. Those care tags and/or vendors are often literally worse than useless because their advice so often fits no tree as they try to fit all, having no real knowledge of trees to begin with. Also, if your pot in the humidity tray is sitting directly in the water, instead of above it on pebbles (or anything rust-free) you're begging for rotted roots (and probable fungus), especially in early to mid winter when even indoor tropicals need a break from watering, which BTW should always be done from the top down, not by sub- or immersion, to wash out chemicals and bring in 02. House plant fertilizer should be used about every 10 days except in winter when monthly is better, and Scheffs need a lot of light up to 16 hours a day. Also, keeping any plant in a small pot more than a year unless it's very old and established, without repotting (which includes root pruning and replacement of soil) will eventually kill it as roots have nowhere to go and soil is used up. "Soil" in bonsai generally means no peat moss, which is the main ingredient in 'potting soil', as it first is difficult to 'wet', but once wet, doesn't drain and turns to soggy mush or concrete. Larger particle ingredients are needed (as is immediate removal of any glued on layer of pebbles BTW if your tree came with one) such as mostly aquarium gravel with just little bits of bark in it for organic nutrition and water holding, as well as fast draining soil from a nursery, a coarse, porous type (not from your garden!). A bag of Schultz Orchid mix can provide most of the type of mix your tree needs, though I'd break down some of the wood into smaller pieces (it's soft) and replace the stones with smaller ones. Bonsai are not just decorative house plants and need knowledgable care and ongoing maintenance, so you'd do well to start reading as much as you can. A good site for basics for both indoor and outdoor trees would be www.bonsai4me.com, as well as www.bonsaihunk.us/cultural.html, and for anything not tropical that needs to live outdoors for life, go to www.evergreengardenworks.com as well.

No worries... must have read it wrong. Thats the problem with text, its sometimes pants to realize what is serious and whats not... No harm meant anyway. As for my 1 inch twig...it aint doing to bad, as said I was on holiday and just on the off thought of trying to grow a bonsai tree, this was about 2 years ago, so I took about 4 olives from a tree in the Nice area and planted them just before we had our little son, 2 well one of them started to shoot grew about an inch and then weathered away and at that time the 2nd one popped out and is now about 2 inches long, I can see the root coming out the drain hole of the bonsai pot that is why I thought I'd ask. Now - over the weekend - I will get a bigger pot and mix up some soil for it and re-pott it and see what happens. As to how I invision it - I have an idea what I want to do with it (if it makes it to that stage...) I also want to have a go at a red maple tree just need to get some seeds. Anyway, no harm meant, just read your entry wrong - my bad!)

P.S. I just found the tag that came with the plant. It's a bonsai sago palm (Cycas revoluta). Instructions say "Maintain planting mix on dry side." I'll try watering once a week and see how it does. Any other advice is still most welcome. LD