名媛直播

I am new to bonsai and have been looking after this Ilex Crenata, Japanese holly 名媛直播, for about 6 months. I have thoroughly enjoyed looking after it, and have grown really attached to it!I originally kept it inside, but due to the low humidity, I have been regularly keeping it outside (UK spring/summer).My tree is slowly looking more sickly (started about 2 months ago): many of the lower branches have died, leaves are brittle and falling off. The branches are turning black, and I don't exactly know what is wrong with them. I initially suspected some sort of soil fungus.Some algae was growing on the topsoil, which remained there for a few weeks before I removed it, but apart from that, I don't know what could have caused it to slowly deteriorate. I do water it regularly, but the soil tends to stay damp (which caused the algae growth on topsoil) - so maybe I should repot and prune rotted roots - but I'm not sure and have never done it before.
I really love the bonsai so any help would be much appreciated!

What do you.mean with regularly outside? This is a temperate soecies and should be outdoors at all times. If kept indoors, the move to outdoors should be done first in full shade and then gradually moved to full sun during a 4-6 weeks period.

If you move from indoor to outdoors in full sun the tree is not adapted to the amount of sun and leaf can get burned by the sun.

So, when I bought it from my garden centre, it was advertised to me as a inside 名媛直播, but with the condition that it gets plenty of sunlight from a south facing window.
It was only after my own research that I found that this species prefers staying outdoors. I didn't follow the exact transition period, but I didn't keep it in full sun until a few weeks.

That branch is dead, you can cut it off.

Hi,

I'm having the same issue with my Japanese Holly. Also UK and is kept outside, although was initially being kept inside in a garden centre when I purchased it a few months ago. Any improvement with yours Ddoped?