Help with tree of a thousand stars

Nikki27 · White Belt Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 1

Hi
I have just last week bought a Tree of a Thousand Stars and am panicking as a lot of leaves are turning yellow and dropping off. I'm keeping it in a room roughly between 15 and 20 degrees c and keep placing it in a window for some sun in the day, submerged it in water once as it was quite dry and mist the tree itself every other day. Is there anything i'm doing wrong or something i should be doing that i'm not?
thanks

imholte

Did you read the sticky "serissa foetida" at the top of the talk bonsai thread list?

Stymie

Nicki.
They're difficult to keep happy. Moving it around could be something that it doesn't like. Could it stay in the brightest place?
Try misting twice daily to keep the humidity up.

Carol

Hello, Nikki, and welcome to Bonsai Help.

The botanical name for your tree is Serissa foetida, and it's a very pretty tree but challenging to keep happy. It's sold as an easy, indoor tree, but unfortunately, that's not really true. It needs light, warmth and humidity, all of which are difficult to achieve indoors - some people find a bathroom or kitchen to be the best places for it.

Having said that, there are a few things you can do to maximize it's "contentment"! As Stymie said, it doesn't like to be moved, and your yellowing and dropping leaves are probably partly the result of bringing it home. Place it in the brightest spot you can find, out of draughts, and leave it there at least until you can see if it's happy or not.

I note you say you submerged it in water once and are misting it every second day. Have you watered it at all other than at those times? Submerging the tree need only be done if it's been allowed to dry out - then you can submerge it until the bubbles stop rising, leave it to drain, then water from above. Some people do recommend the submersion technique, but watering from above is more natural and as water drains out of the soil it drags fresh air in after it - and roots need oxygen as well as water to function properly.

Misting every other day is likely to be insufficient for serissas. They need fairly constant humidity, and when indoors, this can be helped by a humidity tray. This is a tray or similar, appreciably larger than the pot and around 2" deep. Fill with gravel, pebbles, marbles or similar, fill the tray with water to just below the top of the pebbles, then place the pot on top, making sure the drainage holes are not in contact with the water. The pebbles (or whatever) are there to hold the pot above the water and to provide a larger surface area for evaporation. As the water evaporates it forms a "bubble" of humidity around the tree. Then refill the tray with water as needed. You can still mist the tree as often as you like - but you'll still need to water the soil as often as needed to keep it just moist, not soaking wet.

Soil should be free draining - this means that when you water it from the top, water should drain out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the pot within 20-30 seconds. If not, the soil may have to be changed, but not until the tree has recovered somewhat from its current stress.

Serissas are probably the tree with which most people new to bonsai have problems. Ed suggested you read the "sticky" at the top of this forum, and you can also do a search. Click on the Search tab at the top of the page (purple - next to the Home tab) and when the search dialogue comes up, type in Serissa. If you're a fully paid up member, you'll be able to search all forums, but if not (which I assume is the case) you'll only have access to Talk Bonsai. It will be less time consuming if you select Talk Bonsai from the drop-down menu in the box which asks which forum/s you'd like to search. Don't worry about the other boxes. You'll then be able to read the various posts about serissas and gather quite a lot of information.

I hope this has been of some help to you. Don't give up on your serissa, but see how it goes with these techniques. Let us know how it's progressing, and be sure to come back with any other questions you might have.

Cheers
Carol

emorrin

If you follow Carol's and Don's advise, your Serissa should survive. I am telling you, if you breathe wrong on a Serissa, it sheds leaves. Smile

One thing I may add to the previous comments is have you ever thought about supplementary lighting for it. Florescent lighting is rather cheap, you can get a 4 foot shop light or a CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) bulb to put in any ordinary desk lamp. You leave the light on 16 hours a day only a few inches from the plant. A 4 foot shop light is ideal but any lamp with a CFL bulb would do. The closeness of the light makes a big difference (i.e. 2 inches versus 4 inches). Unlike an ordinary incandescent light bulb, you won't burn the leaves being so close. I have 2 Serissa almost touching the fluorescent lights and they are growing rather well. I think with a Serissa, you will always get little periods of some yellowing leaves and leaf shed. They do grow back however if you take good care of them.