Well, having a plant or two has always been an essential part of feeling at home in any place that I have lived, but until this weekend the room was feeling a bit barren. Luckily, this weekend we got the first houseplant for our new place. Having fallen in love with this type of tropical tree the first time I saw one, I was pretty determined to get it eventually but recently they have been harder and harder to find in stores and have gone up in price. Luckily, we found one at a flower shop this weekend while shopping for some kitchen goods and managed to get a nice one for a pretty good price. Carrying it home was a bit of a challenge but much better than paying 50% over the price of the plant to have it shipped!
It is a good plant for the place I am living in now as it prefers indirect sunlight. My place is not dark by any means, but only gets direct sun in the morning. I will have to be careful to keep it well watered as it tends to get pests and wilt if it dries out for too long. At least it is easy to tell when it is a bit dry as it will keep the leaves closed even during the day to conserve moisture (it closes its leaves from evening to morning which is kind of interesting, not unlike a prayer plant). It has to be fertilized with Magamp once a month from April to October, and with Hyponex every few weeks so it is a bit demanding, but that is not unusual with flowering tropical trees.
I hope that it will last a good many years, but I have had fairly bad luck with plants in Japan and destructive pests. I hope that by keeping it properly watered and fertilized it can stave off its enemies on its own!
I have put together a set of English care instructions for Everfresh Trees here as it is very hard to find info in English.