"1. the window in my room has a draft; is it ok to keep the plant in a corner under one of those new energy-saving white light bulbs, which is cold and pretty bright?" I don't know. As long as it's getting some amount of natural light it should be okay. Mine's not getting great light, and it's the only thing that grows consistently during the winter months. It seems like they can adjust to light differences fairly well but don't like having to re-adjust, so I wouldn't move it around much. How cold are you talking, by the way? "2. Watering advice is conflicting; some places say that soil has to dry between waterings, others advise to always keep it moist." Let it dry. These things rot out fast. "3. there are 4 thick trunks in a small pot. Is it ok to separate them? Any tricks to do it with minimal root damage?" Wouldn't know. Mine came with five stalks. I killed four by not letting the pot dry down between waterings. From what I've heard, though, they like being pot-bound and they don't like being messed with.

planto, if I saw your aralia, I would buy it too. it's really a beauty. I have to say, once I figured out what they like and put them on water-wicks to prevent them from drying out (am an underwaterer, keep forgetting... my duties!) - they are pretty much care free. but I did keep the baby fern-leaf bagged for the whole year! white it was establishing itself. they need very bright light. mine get sev hours of morning light and then western thru sheers : fl to ceil gigantic windows. and they were still dropping leaves in winter! it was because I set nite temps to 65F and near windows gets to 62F - they hated it. once I figured out to bag them - no more drops. by the way, you say you have hi humidity and very warm - that's optimal. 85-95F + above 80% humidity that's just heaven for them. I have 60% in winter and 80% in summer and 70-74 indoors - but that's not enough for ultra growth.

The first 3 pictures are our Ming Aralia - Polyscias fruticosa. This was an HD plant we grew in a pot on the patio until it got too big - about half its current size of almost five feet tall. It's been in the ground for 3 years and was in the pot 3 years. Notice how the Yucca has claimed the space. This and all 4 of our 'Aralias' are on the north side of the garden and have withstood all three hurricanes with minimal damage. The next two picture are False Aralia - Schefflera elegantissima. This one came from Boynton Botanicals, who grow some of the largest I've ever seen, about 8 years ago. It was in a pot for two years and then moved into this spot. It's now 10' tall and you can see the differences in the old versus the new growth. This has bloomed every year for the past three. This is an Aralia I got from Jerry at TreeZoo last spring. It's doubled in height since going in the ground. I don't know the genus or species. And this one has been in this pot less than a year. Neat cup-shaped leaf. From HD and it's doubled size as well.

don't do anything going into winter. in the normal way of events it'll drop some foliage in winter and will look sparse by spring. especially if you let it sit in temps lower then 68F and/or in dry air. and don't put it too close to cold windows. but it needs bright light. so optimally south/west/east in that order. that bonsai is a much older plant then yours. i can't see the trunk well on yours, but it seems wooded. normally when you trim in spring for growth, you'd want to take 6-8" stem off top for propagation. it's best if it's semi-wooded: not totally green, but has some bark marks starting to show. after some time they start suckering from the bottom and start looking like a grove - while yours seems to be meant as a standard. but it will sucker. this bonsai plant is more likely 3 stems that have grown in together, since it's pretty hard to make the main trunk brunch, especially on young branches. they refuse point blank ;). you see that wide trunk on the left with a thin branch growing from it? it doesn't look so good. but it'll look like that when you cut the main trunk severely. and it takes sev years for the new trunk to thicken up. i'd say let it grow for a year first - get to know how to take care of it. 'cause when the plant is weak/ not grown well and you chop it off hard, it might not recover.