@LeeInBama
Serissa are great. Most people find them no problem at all. Their fussy reputation comes from the fact that some people, even very experienced people have trouble growing Serissa, and yet, some beginners, with absolutely no experience at all do absolutely great with Serissa. In other words, most people can grow serissa with no problems, yet there is a small group of us who think they should be able to do well with serissa and no matter what, every damn serissa I bring into my house dies. Often quick, sometimes a slow, lingering death that takes months. (mostly joking, this is meant to be light hearted).
I've been around a while, and have lost many a Serissa over the years. Probably because I consider it a ''beginner or easy tree'' and don't pay much attention to them. Then they get forgotten at some crucial point. Or when they get put under lights for winter they don't get a ''prime spot'' in the center of the lights, they get shoved off to the side, the ''cheap seats'' while my more favored trees get the good spots.
You should have no trouble at all. And
@Underdog gave you great advice. Get more trees. You need at least 20 pre bonsai trees so that you have something to do every week but have enough trees that you can leave one alone long enough for it to grow after what ever you did. Young pre-bonsai trees might only need to be worked on once or twice a year. Having multiple trees allows you to have more things to work on. Older, more mature trees in terms of becoming well developed bonsai require a lot more work. But fully trained trees can be quite expensive, until you are confident in your horticultural skills, it is best to ''grow your own'' and start with young pre-bonsai. So buy more trees. You have the right number of trees when either you physically could not squeeze another one into your growing area, or you are always behind on getting all the ''bonsai work'' done. I'm always behind on wiring and repotting, so I guess I have the right number of trees, about 100 or so pre-bonsai (various sticks in pots) and about 7 that are getting close to being ready to exhibit. I have 3 that I exhibit fairly often in our local club shows. The rest are not quite ready for prime time.
So buy yourself another one, you will be glad you did.
