Serissa Foetida or Tree of a Thousand Stars

This material gets its name from the really foul smell of its bark and the latin term Foetida means something foul smelling like rotten meat for example.

This material is subtropical and sometimes is still called by its old Latin name of Serrisa Japonica. There are many varieties of Serrisa some have pink flowers and others have white.

And you can now find many cultivars of this material available in many nurseries through out the western world. The Origin of Serrisa is China and also they are from Japan.

Although they are often times offered in many garden centers and bonsai shops you will most of the time only find smaller plants or starts, it is rare to find an older specimen plant of this material.

The Serissa is perhaps not the best choice for a beginner because it does require that your pretty vigilante in its care. Therefore it is better left to the more experienced hobbyist.

The Serrisa does like to dry out between watering and you will never want to let the compost completely dry out altogether. This plant will quite often loose many leaves that will suddenly turn yellow for what seems no apparent reason.

However experienced bonsai growers know there is always a reason behind these kinds of things happening and will certainly research the problem if they do not know what the cause is.

Most often the reason for this happening is over watering. I have stated many times before and will state it over again that watering of nearly any bonsai is very critical.

Until you learn what each species habits are and what they will require of you for upkeep you may loose a few plants simply to the learning process.

But practice makes perfect and you’ll eventually get it right for all of your plants if you’ll only continue on a stead fast path and keep on trying. If the leaves are brown and crisp then you are not watering enough.

A good rule of thumb for a beginner is to use the chop stick method until you learn. The chop stick method as I call it simply means to buy some cheep wooden chops sticks.

Then place one of these chop stick in each of your plants and always push the chop stick clear to the bottom of the pot.

Then simply raise the chop stick out of the pot daily and observe at what level on the wood that dampness occurs and that should help to give you and idea of how far down into the soil your plant is still moist.

Also placing the plant on a humidity tray will help to insure a good level of moisture around your plant. You will want to feed your Serrisa from early spring around April through September and then you can slack off.

But be careful to insure that your plant is wet when you do feed it as the fertilizers will often times burn the delicate roots; also you will not want to fertilize your plant if it has been suffering from leaf drop.

Serrisa hate root pruning so use vigilance and be careful when you decide to repot your plant. Repotting can be carried out about every third year or so.

You will want to let your Serrisa stay out doors for the summer if possible this will only help to keep your plant more healthy and induce a better canopy of growth.

In most regions the time of the year to move it out doors will be around June and then bring it back inside when it really warms up in August.

You can get starts from soft wood cuttings taken from a mother plant in spring and early summer. Your rooting will certainly be a lot more successful if you can provide bottom heat.

The Serrisa will respond well to nearly any style of bonsai with the exception of the formal upright and you can also be very successful with the clip and grow method of bonsai since this plant tends to really produce an abundance of limbs giving you more choice for positioning.

I have included here above this article a picture of a tiny Shohin Serrisa that I started about three years ago and this plant will remain in training for many years before it will be a nice bonsai.

But you have to start some where and this is yet another one of my attempts at creating a Shohin bonsai.

Serrisa have very small trunks and a thick trunk will take years to grow and if you do find one that has a thick trunk then this would surely indicate that the plant is very old.

No bonsai will ever look really good until you have cultivated it for many years.

The training process for any bonsai takes patients and time and many years to develop a really nice stunning plant.

Anyone with deep enough pockets could simply go out and purchase a nice specimin bonsai but would you really appericate it as much as one you have created and grown to perfection yourself.

I think not.... but when you have finally created your own wonderful Living Bonsai you’ll know it and then and only then will you really have reaped your full reward for all the time you have vested.

Thanks for reading and looking, Harold Yearout

©Copyright 2005 The Living Bonsai All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact Me: