Hi,

I received a beautiful 12-15 year old ficus retusa on the 29th of May this year. The thing is I was going traveling for over a month at the beginning of June and had to leave it in the care of my brother. Out of no fault of his own it wasn't looked after that well, so today I have taken it back into my care but with it looking like this.

From what I have been told, the tree was watered with pond water (rain water) for most of the month of June until being watered with tap water. The tree was placed half a meter from the window which faced west and received much sunlight.
I imagine that it has been under watered whilst being exposed to too much sun but I could be wrong.

As you can see there are still some green leaves, but all the other leaves had dried up and since then I have removed them from the plant.

It is devastating to see it like this but I still have hope for its survival. I am an amatuer so I need as much advice and together we can save it!

Anyone out there? Please help save a life

Ficus does not like change in location & conditions.
If the tips of the branches are green, it will rebud once growing conditions are optimal again.
Make sure you check that you have it in proper soil. Sounds like you have not really checked the health before you wente on holidays, so would not hurt to ensure it is healthy now.

Almost whacked my Ginseng my parents got me on my birthday. Birthday is in March, two months later it was nearly dead, and a week and a half later the green sprouts were already skyrocketing. It's still in it's original heavy clay stuff as I still don't dare to repot it.. Doing quite well now, as yours will probably will in a couple of weeks
Just give it time, and don't move it, as Leatherback says.

Good luck m8

Okay. Well perhaps I will move it one last time downstairs where it will get more sunlight. Right now I don't think it will get enough in my room. This will be the last time I will move it and hopefully it will start to improve. However, I am worried that this new location downstairs will be too cold as it is next to the back door where a cold draft may creep in. Thoughts? Keep it in my warm room with less sunlight... or move it to the colder downstairs but with more sunlight?

I am pretty sure the soil is proper just because the man it was bought from was very professional and serious about bonsai trees

So with this being mainly good news, I was also wondering about watering the plant at this stage. Should I continue to water it as I have been previously instructed? (once the top of the soil feels a little dry).

Sounds like an extremely similar situation to mine. I hope things turn out the same as they did for you!
Cheers!

Not sure where you are. All my ficus are at the moment outside in the garden.

Yes. Water when slightly dry. Make sure the roots are not soaking wet.

I live in London so the weather is quite temperamental so it's probably best inside. I'm even worried to open the window as I don't want to let it get cold.

I was thinking if I should cut off some of the larger leafs because they seem to be taking most the nutrition... or is pruning not really a thing at this stage?

Leaves are the engines that run the plant; THat is wat CREATES energy for the plant. So I would not remove the leaves.

Mmmm yeah that's true.. kinda seems like a silly question now haha.

Thanks for the help I'll be sure to keep this post up to date with its progress.