"Query 19.  JAPANESE DWARF TREES. -- Will you kindly give some direction for the care of the dwarf Japanese trees now so much in vogue.  I have one said to be sixty-five years old and costing seventy-five dollars, which has commenced to turn yellow.  It seems to be a variety of cedar; is planted in a Japanese jardiniere, and I was told it ought to thrive with ordinary care.  Do they need much or little water, sun, spraying, etc.? -- MRS. C. B., Pennsylvania.

       "It is best to send this plant to some good gardener who can place it in his greenhouse and, perhaps, take care of it.  He may succeed with it or not.  If this course is not taken it will be apt to die soon.  Such plants are better in the hands of the Japanese than to be employed in window culture.  Their hold on life is not very strong and is maintained by careful nursing." 1

1     Success With Flowers, The Only Magazine Entirely Devoted to Floriculture (West Grove, PA), Vol. X, No. 1, October 1899, "Answers to Correspondence" section, pg. 23.

It is quite possible that the "variety of cedar" could be a larch, a deciduous conifer which may have been preparing for winter leaf-drop.