Plant no. 2 - set of 4 hedge plants

I found these hedge plants dying, in a neglected private garden. After getting permission, they were easily uprooted by pulling, since the roots were already loose. I didn't find any fibrous roots at all.

These were found as 2 pairs, next to each other. 

 One of them is really thick, almost 

2 fingers thick, with lot of visible aging.

 Soaked in water for an hour. The leaves were 
already yellow when I collected it from the garden.

The pot on extreme right has 2 specimens. These are my first 
4 pots of the growing collection of bonsai material. The fig 
plant on left was my first collection.

Wrapped up for humidity. I opened them 1-2 times a day for misting.

Mistakes : Ordinary garden soil & over watering led to root rot & leaf loss. The two leafless pieces in the first pic failed to show any sign of life and were thrown away. The other 2 were then re-potted, this time with sand only. The problem continued. I should have filtered the sand and discarded the fine particles. And watered less often too.

By now, all leaves had gone on both specimens and things were looking hopeless. Then I learned that coconut peat is a good rooting medium and cannot be over watered as it drains out very quickly. 

So, I re-potted the second time in cocopeat only and hoped that the plant would recover. At one point I was sure that both plants had died but I saw green on scratching the bark with my nail and did not throw them.



 

My patience was finally rewarded with new leaf buds after 6 weeks from first potting. These 2 plants were very resilient and hence survived my ignorance. Not all plants are like this. Some plants which came later into my collection did not survive. Root rot due to over watering killed them (I ran out of cocopeat).

The smaller specimen, after 2 months.

Currently, this is facing a Mealybug infestation. Lots of hiding places on the trunk for eggs and bugs.Will post updates after a month from now, around Nov 1st, 2015.

Despite my best efforts these last 2 pieces died around mid-Nov.