Hi My name is Michael, I live in Laval which is a city directly north of Montreal Canada. I used to love gardening and having plants but its been a while and I'm thinking of renewing my hobby by starting herbs, vegetables and hopefully bonsai's! I have an issue right now and I am in need of some advice. I was somewhat put in charge of purchasing and maintaining plants for our office. Now I purchased around 15 plants and make sure to water them every Monday. Now I know there is an adjustment period that plants need when they are in a new environment but its been almost a month and most of them are doing well except two. One is a large 6 foot tree which I do not know the name but looks like a tropical Christmas tree to me and the other is a small desktop plant. Both are looking pretty pathetic and when you touch them they have needles fall off and it feels very brittle. I will attach photos and hopefully someone can help me out. I had posted this ad in the welcome section and rainbowgardener gave me some advice to post it here in hopes to get a better answer. gumbo2176 had replied that maybe its root bound but I had already checked that, everything looks good ....uhh well except the plant lmao. I bought 15 various trees and plants and its just these two giving me a hard time. Thank you very much for identification of these two, good care taking tips and any advice on bringing them back from the brink of death, thanks a bunch and have a green day ;)

Michael from Montreal

Conifers dont do well inside. They could be to far gone. Looks like good lite. They dry out fast indoors.
I think they need more water. Did you pull them out of pots to see if they were root bound ? Reason is ! Because as big as they are, they sure look it ?
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The first one looks like Rosemary, and the second is Norfolk Island Pine, I believe.

and it looks like some conifer variety. I think the little one could be a spruce tree and the big one looks like it could be a larch

@ctcarol. Carol 😃 with my phone.
I couldnt tell the 1st one was a rosemary. Thank You 😇
It needs more water to ! Dont you think ???
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I agree that the second one is a Norfolk Island Pine. I am unsure about the first one. If you are watering every Monday, you might be overwatering. Are you checking to see how wet or dry the soil is before you water? Overwatering can lead to root rot which will make the plant foliage wilt as if it is too dry and then it will begin to die off. Rather than water on a specific schedule, you should check the soil periodically and only water each plant when it's soil is dry at about an inch or so down from the surface of the soil. Each plant may likely need water on its own "schedule" - and that may vary with each plant based on the time of year and individual growth cycle.

I have multiple office plants I care for and I rarely water any of them more often than every two weeks, and a few of them only get watered every 3 to 5 weeks - it just depends on how long it takes each plant to use its water and the soil to dry out.

The first pic does look like a rosemary, but the growth pattern seems a little off. You will know if the individual leaf edges curl back. Conifer juvenile foliage (the other possibility) will not have rolled edges.

The other is a Norfolk Island pine. It normally does do well in house/office conditions. Yours looks like it has a bad case of spider mites. Hold a white sheet of paper under a branch that is grayish/silver that still has some green. Tap the branch. Tiny brown specks will fall on the paper. If they start moving around in 15-30 seconds, they are spider mites. The tree is too far gone to try to treat it. Affected branches won't regrow or be replaced.

If the top one is rosemary it should be easily identifiable by smell. I think the Norfolk Island Pine is too close to the baseboard heater (which doesn't preclude the problem being spider mites but would in any case dry and heat the air around the plant).

The first plant doesn't look like Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) to me, the foliage looks too stiff.

#2 I agree, Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria heterophylla)

I wonder if the first one is a juniper of some sort.

I've got to agree. Overwatering and underwatering can have same symptoms. Buy yourself a water meter or get a stiff, pencil lead size wire to stick in pot. If it comes out wet ! Dont water !
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A freshly sharpened pencil will do for checking moisture.

Every time a person refers to Araucaria heterophylla they would be more correct by saying Araucaria columnaris. Cook Island Pine.

Well thank you very much everyone! I do check them to see if they require water, what i meant was that i have sort of a schedule but definitely check it before! The big one got worse and they threw it out thank for all the info, much appreciated!

Im sorry michaeleo! But, hopefully you still stay on the site and continue to be with us here! Even if that happened at work, you could still stay on here and get your own mini garden growing at home. Even if it's just something small like mini succulents

I just purchased my very first Norfolk Island Pine. =)) so happy with it so far 1 week....Replanted it into a nice concrete pot and keep it in my bedroom which has lots of unobstructed west views. It's just over 2ft from top of planter to top of tree with dual stems. It's already quite balanced and almost reminds me of my Fig tree when it was younger.