treebeard55

McSpeed is right: willow-leafs are tough (tho not indestructible.) The bugs sound like mealybugs, and they probably are the source of your problem. I use an insecticidal soap (available at most garden centers), and/or systemic insecticide, which makes the plant poisonous to the beastie trying to lunch on it.

One other possibility: Ficus neriifolia likes fairly high light levels. I don't know the output of your bulbs, or how close the leaves were to them (closer means stronger light energy, and the increase is a square function.) But it might have been that the leaves were slowly starving for light as winter passed, until the tree just couldn't support them.

I say to go after the bugs first. And once overnite lows in your area are averaging 50 F or higher, move the tree outdoors into natural light.

__________________
Treebeard 55

"To do bunjin is easy. However, to do a bunjin masterpiece is difficult." -- Susumu Nakamura, at MBS '07