Aleka: I have to admit to ignorance of the climatic conditions that you experience in your location. I have no idea how cold it gets where you are. You say that your central heating is such that you are uncomfortable; I am sure that your tree is stressed due to high heat and low humidity. I too grow Ligustrum, although possibly not the same variety. A book I own lists L. lucidum, (Glossy privet) and L. japonicum rotundifolium, (Wax-leaf privet) as appropriate as indoor bonsai, preferring a cool location during the winter months but able to adapt to a warmer conditions. Depending on your climate, you may want to consider moving it outdoors. If this is not advisable due to temperature, you do not have an appropriate location or simply prefer not to, I would suggest a few changes in your cultural practices. A humidity tray will help alleviate the dry conditions that I assume you have in your home. This consists of a shallow tray with pebbles or coarse gravel on the bottom. Water is kept below the top of the gravel so as not to allow osmosis through the soil. You said in another post that you repotted with a general purpose potting soil. I would consider repotting it in a proper bonsai mix, but not now since you have done so recently and the plant is under stress. This type of soil may be holding too much water; too wet a situation can cause root damage. The soil may appear dry on top but be waterlogged below. Make sure that the soil approaches dryness before watering thoroughly; then repeat this cycle being sure to keep the water level in the humidity tray below the gravel. A plant that is stressed and not actively growing will need much less water than it did previously so be careful. For similarly reasons withhold fertilizer until your plant makes a full recovery, this may not be for some time. It may be that it in your zeal to assure its health you have over-fertilised; this can also cause leaves to dry out. As far as pinching growing shoots I do this all summer long as they grow so I donÂt think you caused any real damage removing just the new shoots. But again I would allow the plant to recover its vitality before you pinch more. Norm

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.

Hi, if it wasn't so early here, I would have answered your other questions :-). It doesn't look to me like you have a top layer of glued on pebbles (be grateful!) so that one little rock won't hurt anything, but it really isn't adding much aesthetically either. When you repot, use a lot of aquarium gravel in the mix, so water will drain well and watering won't be such a guessing game (if it flows right through - and don't let the pot sit in the drain water please - you can water more often without fear of root rot).

So are you saying this boug I have will definitely shed its leaves and go into dormancy? Aww. I'm so spoiled by my tropicals-esp my jasmines that bloom for me all year through. But if it keeps coming back- I'll give it a try. So I take it then that the dormancy is not 'required' as such but it's just what it naturally does when its winter here? Toni, it's not a bonsai. I have it hanging at the moment by a nice sunny window. I'm not sure how cool the window gets in the winter- I can't remember now but generally my entire apt is very very warm in the winters and there's no way I can provide the boug a 'cool' spot as such. I'm having problems with my clivia for the same reasons. But thanks so much all of you for all your advice. I'm so glad I learned about the watering because if you guys hadn't mentioned that to me, I'd be merrily watering it like my tropicals.