First order of business is to pry up and discard the glued down rocks so they can't interfere with watering. Don't keep the tree indoors. Liquidambers are outside trees. Give it morning sun and water when the surface soil is dry to a depth of 1/2". Let it go dormant (loose its leaves). If you live in a place that gets below 25F put the tree in a protected place where it will stay between 30-40F. If it is dormant it can be in the dark. I would not try to do anything to it until spring when it is getting ready to sprout new leaves. In the meantime you should look for a bonsai club in your area. Go to the website of the California Bonsai Federation. There you will find a listing of almost all the clubs in CA, along with a contact person. You should also get at least one or two books. I would recommend, Bonsai Techniques I, by John Naka. It is the best single book on bonsai in the US. Any book by Peter Adams, Peter Chan, Harry Tomlinson, Marty Mann would also be helpful. If you Google "bonsai books", you will find web sites where these books can be purchased. Good luck with your new obsession, Jack

winter damage for sure.. anything not leafed is dead.. prune back to a live part ... i suspect .. and i cant tell from these pix ... that the harm.. went down inot the main trunk .. and it is struggling to push leaves in the part damaged part [???] ... i would look to the trunk.. just below.. where the red leaves start ... and see if you can see anything ... if you do.. i would probably cut off all above.. and let it focus its energy on the good parts... rather than wasting it on trying to rescue a damaged part ... in other words.. there seems to be a pattern to the red leaves... if you stare at your first pic ... trace such down the trunk ... and see what you find lawn looks weed free ... is it sprayed... can we deduce anything from that??? ken

Hi Marcorussian, unfortunatley this is going to take a bit of time and effort as liquid amber is a great sucker, ( they sucker very easily and quite prolific) where ever there is a peice of root close to the ground surface they will send up a new shoot to the sky. This may happen in your yard, the neighbours also may get some as well.If possible drill some holes in the remaining root systems, that you can find and top with 50/50 tree kill and deisel or a 50/50 mix of roundup and water. Maybe take a while to clear it all up. Good luck. Peter r

I was just doing a little mold maintenance in my new terrarium (still finding that moisture balance!) and noticed this tiny reddish dot inside hanging from a dead frond. It's just a couple mm in size. I placed it on a paper towel and you can see it soaked out a little amber liquid. I've seen this same thing just once before, sitting on the soil in another terrarium of mine (totally different plant, container, and soil though), and posted a picture online but everybody was stumped. It clearly has something to do with mold/fungus, but has anyone here seen something similar? I'm just so curious.