Being italian, I've been hit by the lockdown too and I spent most of March, April and a good part of May in my house.
I worked part-time and I tried avoiding watching TV as much as possible due to all the bad news we had. So, I had a lot of spare time, and decided to fill it with something unusual and special.
And I choose him (I decided he's a male): an Ulmus Parvifolia bonsai (also called Chinese Elm)!
When he first arrived, he was quite unwell due to the long shipping time: he "slept" for five days closed in a box, and he was aiming for water and light.
The leaves were yellow-ish and dry, and I was very worried.
Me and my girlfriend decided that he deserved a name to be part of the family and to re-flourish as a beloved creature, so we instinctively chose 'Greg' as his name. I find it fits perfectly.
After about a month of love, morning sunlight and careful irrigation, Greg decided that he wanted to live. He started to pull new branches, his leaves became green and healthy and he really seemed to enjoy the house and the attentions I gave to him.
But then, something happened.
I started noticing white things on the leaves, and little insects all around the branches.
I googled and discovered that Greg was full of woodlouses!
These parasites were sucking life from Greg and were producing the white things and the sticky coat on the leaves: Greg was suffering and was starting to loosing leaves.
I immediately bought a specific biological product, and in two or three days I sprayed Greg with his "medicine". As I started to see the parasites going away and the leaves becoming healthy again, I was really relieved.
And so, Greg started to grow again. And to grow a lot.
Now Greg is healthy and I even had to change the pot.
In his new "house", Greg seems to be very happy: everything seems to be ok and I really hope that everything will be good in the future.
More, Greg seems to be the new best friend of my cats...even if his leaves aren't always happy with that!
I plan to do more posts like this, if the community likes them, so stay tuned to see how Greg grows and how the life of a bonsai is less boring than it appears :-)