Dwarf Jade - Last chance saloon

Hello everyone!

As many of you know, I bought and killed a bonsai last year (January time, I believe).

And we got a replacement a few months after (a £35 Dwarf Jade) as it said it's almost impossible to kill on the internet and it's a basic bonsai for beginners.

Anyway, it's started to lose most of its leaves and the twigs are beginning to actually shrivel up..

If this dies too I doubt we'd buy another bonsai as we just can't keep them alive.

We have a drainage tray/humidity tray and only watered when the top soil was dry, so it's been looked after really well.

 

Is there a draft by that window? Which direction is it facing?


Using Tapatalk.

 

£35, blimey!

I tend to think the problem must be overwatering at some stage.

Its a pretty indestructable plant, only likely to be killed by frost or over watering.

Its also very easy to propagate and small plants in tiny pots are readily available, so you could plant up your own plant for a lot less money.

Just use cactus compost and that bit of rock.

 

Bonsai is just another word for certain death in my house. Id just buy a new plant stick it in a free draining pot and enjoy it and forget about bonsai. I used to sell them and about a quarter would die on the shelf before i could flog them.

 

I think Bonsai plants/trees are good for people who don't really garden because they can just forget about it for weeks and it doesn't die.

I had special drip food for it during the summer time and really looked after it

I guess they're not for us! And the plant was really big when we bought it, in a really nice big pot, hence the price of it!

 

Bonsai is not the word you are looking for.
True Bonsai actually needs a far amount of care when using more usual types of plants.
You picked a good plant, a succulent but you dont need to bonsai it as such.

I'm tending to think you might have overdone it with the drip feeder, this kind of plant can get by on just a couple of feeds a year, especially if you dont want it to romp away.
They will also get by with intermittent watering, almost none in winter.

I'd suggest you actually killed it with kindness

 

Sounds like my kind of houseplant (where do you get them from?)

 

I think I smothered it to death

 

To me a " dwarf Jade " ( Crassula ), isn't a bonsai it's just a small growing succulent.
A true bonsai is something like an Oak or Juniper for example which goes through special treatment and root pruning.

You can't really call a dwarf tree/bush a bonsai.

 

Never mind. Chalk it up to experience and ... have another go

 

Says Bonsai on the label so it's all I'm going off! Not claiming to be an expert on it, plus, don't really care what is/isn't a Bonsai, tbf.

And it's called Portulacaria Afra.

 

Ok, so the main branch started to shrivel up - so I've chucked it in the bin.

When I removed it from the stone, the branch snapped and it was very dry.. bet it's been dead for some time.

Now I wanted to try and buy a cheaper alternative (without the pot as I now have two pots, zero plants).

Looked on eBay but not much of a selection. Any ideas?

Cheers