I agree with what Jerry said. I have people from church bring their woody plants to me for first aid all the time, especially their scheffs because of their reluctance to bud back (the trees, not the people ;o)) & their fear of pruning. Usually, by the time they get to me, they're multiple stems, 4 or 5 feet long with foliage at the end of each stem. It's not unusual for me to prune the stem nearest the middle to 12 - 18 inches, & the stems closer to the pot rim shorter - in a sort of tepee shape. A root-prune, fresh batch of soil, and a couple of weeks in bright shade sees them budding back well & filling out nicely. Scheffs contain more chlorophyll, longer, in stem tissues than most other plants and are able to do a pretty good job of photosynthesis, even when devoid of foliage. For that reason, plants growing well are in little danger from hard pruning if treated well after. I would cut the long branch back by half. The one to the left of it would be cut to 1/2 the distance between where it forks & the end of the long branch. The other two, I would treat in similar fashion. If you'd like to see pictures of some scheffs I've pruned in this fashion, let me know & I'll forward. If you prune the longest branches hard each summer, you'll soon see your plant begin to show some ramification. Al

Usually, pruning will help to shape a plant so that you have multiple lateral branches to form a balanced plant. Does this plant sit in a window all summer and in one position? The branches all tend to grow off to the right in the photo attached. I would not do any pruning until you see the plant come into active growth (not just the beginning signs of leafing). With the plant of left in photo (looks to be a grafted form). You could prune it just below the long skinny branch of to the right side to encourage it to push out a few branches to give you nice base structure for later on. You want to stay well above the scar of graft. The small little branch on the right just above graft scar may grow more, but sometimes they remain small. Your other plant does not have a noticeable graft scar, so you should be able to prune where you like. After pruning it is best to seal for preventative measures. Laura uses a waterproof white wood glue and she has done alot of pruning as has Mary. It might be worth rotating your pots every couple of days to give light all around. Not sure if it is just the way the pots have been placed, which gives the appearance of them growing toward the light source and this would continue if pruned and left in a similar site. Rick

Now is the time to turn your plant into one with a single trunk, if that's what you want. As it is now, it bifurcates (branches into a 'Y') too low to either be called a single trunk or for the branch on the right (in the picture) to look good as a branch as the plant matures. The word 'pinching' can be misleading. It can mean literally pinching out all or some of the plant's apices (growing branch tips), or lopping off large segments of branches in order to change the shape of the plant and its growth habit from long and lank to short and shrubby. How significant the response you get to pinching depends on the plant, when you pinch (where the plant is in its growth cycle - time of year), how healthy the plant is (how much reserve energy the plant has), and what the rate of current photosynthate (food) production is. If you're looking to the future and want to maximize ramification (branch and leaf density), note the picture: Pinch the left branch above the first pair of leaves. Two new buds will be activated in the axils (crotches) of the 2 leaves you left. In the circle, make sure there are only 2 branches forming a 'Y' inside the circle. It looks like there are at least 3, maybe more, emerging from close to the same point. This will create an ugly swelling and reverse taper in the trunk that will immediately catch the eye because it looks out of place; so, 2 branches at that point and prune those 2 branches back to 1 pair of leaves on each branch. If you are more interested in building a specimen with an interesting trunk line, you probably need to do away with the entire right half of the 'Y' formed by the first 2 branches. If you have interest in chasing this a little further, or have questions about how the plant is programmed to respond and how to control the response ....... Al

Yikes! I only put them out side for the photos!!!!! Do you guys know how I can revive this little guy?!? (Inside plant only) He went through a though time early spring and lost all the leaves throughout the main stem. As you can see in these first few photos there has been no leaf growth in that area. I believe there has only been 1 new leaf that has sprouted from the top bunch all spring/summer, and from the size of the leaves it was awhile ago. I’m not sure if it’s actively sprouting at the top anymore? As for the bottom portion, you can see in the last photo that’s it’s incredibly healthy lots of new growth, even new branches forming! Not sure what to do about that problem area? Please help if you can!