Dear all.

I bought a Chinese Elm a few months back now, around April time this year, and it was growing very healthily on my window sill in roughly 5 hours of sunlight a-day over this summer (give or take a few days of cloud seeing as I live in Britain!). However, mid-August, all leaves started turning yellow, brown and then dropping off. It has done this until no leaves remain.

It's in an average room temperature, approx 20 degrees C.

I figured the soil was pretty awful stuff and so bought some decent Bonsai soil with grit etc. I have re-soiled, pruned back all the excess from where the leaves once were, and have completed the all-important scratch test to which the bark is VERY green indeed; so at least it's not dead. The water is draining very efficiently. My question is, is the tree dormant or is it something else? It has, to date, not seen any more growth...so is this effectively the "winter" period of the tree? It doesn't and won't go outside.

All help much appreciated!