The two worst plants any beginner can start with are serissa and fukien tea, the problem is that both of these are 'pleasing' to the eye and look nice to start with. Both can be and usually are a royal pain in the butt to work with. When in the states I grew mine in a greenhouse setting (along with a few other tropicals) but never a FT. What you should do is Google care of them, there is a wealth of info on the web. If you go to the website of Jerry Mislick he has a ton of information on care of most tropicals and he grows them indoors way up north. To handle them indoors you will need at least flourecent lighting 5 or 6" above the plants. With just a few one standard double tube fixture should be enough to work. Humidity trays help but with dry central heating it's more of a placebo for you in the winter. You should buy the highest wattage tubes you can find and 'full spectrum' is best. They should have the lights on 12 to 14 hours a day. The plants will get 'leggy' but you just prune that back in the spring. As a point of information: I did a test of serissa vs. soil mixes a number of years ago under controlled conditions. The winning medium was pure medium Perlite...which looks really crappy when used in a Bonsai pot. Bob

You know I've realized that I occasionally waffle between being all wrapped up about my plants and then not wanting to mess with them at all. My last go around with this happened not too long ago last year. I lost a large portion of my collection, and I could kick myself for it, but what are you gonna do? No matter what, I still end up coming back to the plants,can't help it, I just do. I guess it just helps you figure out what you really like and what you really weren't in fact all that hot about.Well, at least as much as you thought you were. I feel for you with the SAD.I've been feeling similar effects with all the Indiana gloominess.I don't think we've seen the sun for a couple of weeks now. I truly think my flourescent lights for the plants help me. Hope you start felling better Whitecat. Ginnibug

Richard, I hope you don't mind if I take on answering your question. I have gone through what seems like the same from your description years ago to four of my stored trees. The first one I just threw it out thinking it would not be worth keeping anymore since the whole trunk at the base was striped of its bark by the mice. A area about two inches wide around the whole trunk. A little while after I did that I came up with an idea that I decided to try. The other three trees had the same damage done to them. What I did was to cut a branch from each of the trees and then stripped from each of them pieces of bark long enough to reach across the damaged area. I used a razor blade knife to do this. I carefully scraped the bark from the areas above and below the areas I wanted to bridge with the fresh bark I striped from their branches exposing the light green coloring just below the bark. One of them was even below the level of the ground. Then I taped the three 1/2 inch wide strips to each tree at first just to hold them in place with just plain scotch tape later I covered it all with duct tape. To my surprise it worked. Near the end of the summer months I removed the tape from the trees and to my surprise they had all grown new bark completely around the effected area. In fact those same trees are part of the photos I posted above. I was sorry that I thre out the first one. Since then I have always wrapped the trunk of my trees with heavy-duty foil and I leave the foiled covered bottom of their trunks exposed and tie up the blankets that I use covering them hoping that it keeps the critters from getting under the blankets and into the trees. I know mice can chew threw foil but so far I have not have a problem. Maybe its just luck but I have been using that method on all the young fruit and other trees I have planted on my property.. I live close to a very large field and a woody area so there are many varmints I have to deal with. Groundhogs are one of the worst. Hope you understand what I have just described to you and the damage to your trees was just at the base of the trunk and if you try it it works for you. Just my two cents worth. Good luck!!! Lou

My dang puter crash on me and I am going to the library to use their's till I can afford another one Good luck Dan