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Help identify and advise on care

13 years ago

I believe this is a Schefflera/Dwarf Umbrella plant - can anyone confirm this or let me know what it is?

I brought it outdoors to take the picture but it usually sits on our porch in the summer and in the living room during the winter. This past winter it started dropping leaves. In the spring I put it in a larger pot, from a 8" to a 10", and moved it out to the porch. It's not dropping leaves anymore, but as you can see from the picture below the leaves are now concentrated at the top third of the plant. The main stems range from 18" to 24" tall, measure from the top of the soil.

My questions:

1) Should I prune the plant to get it to fill out more? If so, how much should I prune?

2) Is this supposed to be more tree-like, meaning upright? When I transplanted it I tried to make the stems site more upright but they want to lay to the side. This may be related to my first question as maybe they are top heavy.

3) How do you propagate these plants?

4) Was the dropping of leaves due to over/under watering or light? This was the first time it dropped leaves in 6+ years of owning the plant.

Thanks for any help you can offer!
{{gwi:94435}}From plant
{{gwi:94436}}From plant

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Comments (4)

tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
13 years ago
You're ID is correct. If youy want it tree-like, you'll need to eliminate all but 1 stem. If you wand a clump planting, simply prune it back as hard as you want and wait. It's the perfect time of year to do this. Leave it outside and acclimate to full sun, btw. It will fractionalize the recovery time. You might wish to consider a root-pruning and repot - to go for a complete overhaul (rejuvenation). You'll be glad you did. ;o)

Al

Here is a link that might be useful: You might find this thread interesting.
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tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
13 years ago
I forgot the rest of your questions. Propagate several ways. Most common is leafy cuttings stuck in perlite, place in bright location but not direct sun. Keep perlite damp but not soaked. It helps if you screen the perlite through a 'regular sizer' kitchen strainer to remove the fines - or, cut 2-3 inch chunks of stem & press part way into a fast-draining medium. They should look like logs floating on the water - half submerged. Tent loosely & forget until they're pushing foliage, then remove tenting gradually. You can do it in Tupperware or a margarine tub with the lid slightly ajar for a little air movement. Again - damp, not soggy, is key.

There are a number of reasons it might be dropping leaves. Too wet, too dry, too high a level of soluble salts in the soil (all probably related to soil choice & watering habits) or a sudden decrease in photo-intensity.

Al
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christine1950
13 years ago
Glad you answered Al, I was going to go searching for your post. When I trim mine I give away the cuttings they are really easy to grow roots in water, who would have thought LOL
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lmdinmn
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for your replies!
0

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