9 Month Old Flame Tree - Winter Care

[derek0456]

Hello,
Last Christmas I received one of the standard Bonsai starter kits including a Delonix Regia (Flame Tree). Obviously this is not ideal for a total newbie in Pittsburgh, but I was thrilled to finally get one of the seeds to germinate last Spring and have been able to keep it alive since then. It has grown quite well, growing new branches and dropping the old as it gets taller until recently, when it has only dropped leaves and branches without replacing them. Please see the attached pics for its current state. My questions are:
- Is this normal in the winter? This tree has been indoors in nearly the same environment its whole life, does it still "know" that winter is coming/here?
- The one change I made was when it started getting colder, I moved it from an East facing, fairly drafty window in a cooler room to a North facing window in a warmer room with a grow light. The grow light is about 2 ft above it and is filtered through two slotted shelves so its not receiving a lot of direct light. No South facing windows in warm locations unfortunately.
- I assume I'm still a ways away from repotting, as the tree is less than a year old?
- Any other comments or recommendations on the health of the plant for a newbie based on the pictures?








Thanks!

 

[SWfloirda]

I have no experience trying to grow any trees inside but I'll try to help a little. South Florida is considered the subtropics and the flame tree is a common tree in my neighborhood. Some of them lose nearly all of their leaves every year, some don't lose any and I'm not sure why some do and some don't. Some get hundreds of seed pods, some only have a few.

I am attaching a couple of pictures of a flame tree I planted in July. It is growing but also has yellowing leaves and drops plenty of them. It can be hard to replicate the conditions they need. It is winter but this tree still gets full, strong Florida sun for hours that would be hard to replicate with any sun and/or light through a window up north.

 

[dcrookster]

How is your flame tree doing now?

Old post, I know, so delete if need be.

 

[SWfloirda]

The OP hasn't been around for a couple of years but I'll share my progress. I had 5 trees, one was a runt so I planted it in the ground, it is now the largest of all 5 obviously. One I gave to a friend and planted it in her yard, it is the second largest. One died after Hurricane Ian. One is doing great in it's pot. One of them wasn't looking very good so I repotted in May, it is doing better now. This video has updates on all (except the dead one of course) I live in zone 10b, all these trees stay outside all year. They are 3 years old.

 

[dcrookster]

The OP hasn't been around for a couple of years but I'll share my progress. I had 5 trees, one was a runt so I planted it in the ground, it is now the largest of all 5 obviously. One I gave to a friend and planted it in her yard, it is the second largest. One died after Hurricane Ian. One is doing great in it's pot. One of them wasn't looking very good so I repotted in May, it is doing better now. This video has updates on all (except the dead one of course) I live in zone 10b, all these trees stay outside all year. They are 3 years old.

Nice video.. and lots of information.. I’ll definitely be following.. Thank you!