House plant

[potato]

Hi,

I received this plant as a gift a couple months ago and it seems to be dying and/or dead.

Can anyone tell me what kind of plant it is? It didn't come with any ID or instructions so I don't know what I'm doing wrong in caring for it.

Supposedly it's an indoor plant and you don't want to water it much. So I've kept it indoors and I've only given it a few ounces of water in the 2 months since I've had it. But the leaves are turning brown and have mostly fallen off.

Too much / not enough light? Too much / not enough water? What other variables are there? I'm kind of clueless about plants and stuff. Maybe this one just has a disease? Maybe the leaves falling off is normal?

Thanks!

[Guy]

Generally when House plants are too wet the leaves turn black & fall off. When plants a too dry the leaves dry up & stay attached to the stem. It also seems to be a pretty small pot so my guess would be that your plant is too dry. Also how much light does it get put it on a windowsill if it isn't but protect from afternoon direct sunlight. Oh & cross your fingers..

[potato]

Thanks Guy. I'm not sure which problem I'm having still -- seems like a mix of symptoms -- the leaves are falling off onto the counter, but they are brown and dry.
It's just on a counter in the kitchen, not getting direct sunlight. I might have a north-facing window that would work nicely.

[bobcat]

Well, it's a bonsai for a start, and looks very much like a ficus (fig). This will require special care: start googling!

[potato]

Thanks, bobcat. If it is indeed a ficus then I have been keeping it much too dry.

This may be a silly question, but what makes an "indoor plant" special? I'm guessing it's just that the plant enjoys moderate temperatures and shady environments... right? You could probably keep it just as well on a shaded porch in a climate with temperatures normally between 65 and 75 or something. Not that we have that here.

[retired jerry]

A lot of indoor plants came from tropical areas, so obviously can't go outdoors or they'll be too cold and die

[potato]

That makes sense.

I gave it a proper amount of water and moved it to a window that gets some morning light. There are only a handful of green leaves left, but I see some green buds and signs of new growth already. If it makes a nice recovery I'll update (i know you're on the edge of your seat).

It might be a Ginseng Ficus? http://www.bonsaitreeanswers.com/ficus-ginseng-bonsai/

[retired jerry]

and you can put some of those tropical indoor plants outdoors in the summer

some of them don't need a lot of sun and might even burn and all the leaves fall off

[potato]

Seems like there's a lot of different information out there, hard to know what to trust.

One site said outside is OK as long as it doesn't drop below 45 at night. Move it back indoors when it starts getting that cold again.
Another said to avoid changing their location at all as this will stress them out. Maybe that's for a less resilient plant though.

[TJ_T]

I was into bonsai before my life became super hectic. The very first thing you want to do whether it's an indoor or outdoor plant is get it out of the crap they call 'soil' It'll rot your roots big time. One of the most important things about bonsai is the 'soil' and how free draining it needs to be. In fact.. it should be IMPOSSIBLE to overwater your trees when they're in the right soil.. which is more like small rocks. Turface is widely popular in the US.

Portland is basically a bonsai mecca. Things grow sooooo well here and a lot of the masters travel here or reside here (Check out Michael Hagedorn http://crataegus.com/ )

Portland Nursery has a decent selection of supplies and there's the Bonsai Society of Portland as well ( http://www.portlandbonsai.org )

Aside from that... the forums on http://www.bonsaisite.com/ are about as much help to people as the forums on ph.org. Start with the FAQ page.

There IS a lot of info flying around. It's kind of fun to sort through it.

Ficus are hard trees to start with. Go get yourself a juniper from Portland Nursery.