Aww it is a pretty but overgrown one indeed! I see three pruning points there..just to keep it more roundish and tighter. Good luck and hope you can take a photo later of the final outcome.

I trim my Scheffleras all the time. My Scheffleras get too leggy otherwise. I like a more "dense" plant.

If you are going to grow them under your oaks (and that's exactly where mine spend the spring/summer months), using rebar is really a great way to stabilize the pot(s). I use a 2-4' piece of rebar, depending on the height of the pot, and hammer it through the root-ball, through the bottom of the pot, and into the soil. If you have a heavy plastic or even a ceramic pot, you can easily drill a hole approximately the size of the rebar, drive the rebar through the bottom of the pot, through the root-ball, and leave it sticking out just a bit from the bottom of the pot. Then position the pot where you want it and drive the rebar into the soil.

So if you keep pruning back the ends they stay bushier? (I like a more "dense" plant too, mine just always seem to end up looking like funky trees...)

tarev said:Aww it is a pretty but overgrown one indeed! I see three pruning points there..just to keep it more roundish and tighter. Good luck and hope you can take a photo later of the final outcome.

Exactly!

Yes, Weedwhacker.

Yep. Almost every cut branch will produce two branches and those new branches will be loaded with tiny, Schefflera leaf clusters. Quite nice. But let those clusters grow to be full-size leaves. This is the fun thing about cutting plants back. They actually come back stronger than before they were cut. At least that has been my experience.

I can't believe I never figured that out! (I guess it was too easy to just cut chunks off and root them and start over...)
Thanks!

I'm so glad I saw this thread! I have one sprawling all over my back porch and was wondering about taking cuttings. AND about hacking it back.

Donald, it's grand!

I can't tell from the pics which of the longer branches are (or would best be) the main leader. It does look like you could lean the root ball one way or the other to keep one of the 3, *if* height reduction isn't part of what needs to happen for it to fit inside, and you aren't after more of a globe shape.

When you do cut something off, don't just at the edge of the main foliage mass. If you do, the new growth will already be out-of-bounds. I usually prune stems off at or very near where they branch from the main stem.

Good advice, Tiffany. Let's call this process "planned pruning", not "hacking"!

Heh, Ken, if you saw my plant, you'd say "hack" not prune, too! I'd post a photo, but the sun is shining right into that window right now.

OK, Woofie, hack it is. Go ahead and hack away (carefully and thoughtfully though). Keep in mind what you want the end result to be. It really doesn't matter where you prune, oops, hack. New growth will almost always occur there. And if you want, trim those pieces down to size, perhaps a foot or even more in length, stick those along side your plant, and many of those will root, giving you a multi-trunked plant and creating an even denser planting. Excess cuttings can be rooted on their own, or do what I do and place 3-4 in a 6-8" diameter pot, and root them all together.

Good luck.

Tiffany, the widest span sits at prox 6'8", but it's got a flat side. Actually the sprawling growth really works for how I use it, so my preference would be to leave it. I had other plants growing up through it. This was a funeral plant that a co-worker gave me when my brother died. It consisted of 12 unrooted stems all fancied up and sold as a plant. I've seen that before and it's my belief that a green plant should have roots, which is what the coworker thought they were buying. In any case, it was not doing well and I went to repot it and discovered it all consisted of cuttings without roots. Only one rooted and it's the one running along the floor. It always grew at a slant and when it put out other growth gradually did what you see here. I'm still thinking about it, but the four long stems are likely to be cut below the other branches that are there. Maybe about 6-8" shorter than the tip of those not being cut. I'm not minding too much because two of the long branches tried to bloom, but didn't manage due to my lackadaisical winter care last year and now one of the other long ones has that nubby end. Also, one of the long stems has quit growing variegated leaves. Trimming that back to where it's still variegated should retain the variegated growth.

Ken, TY. I'm a firm believer that treating woody entities more like a maturing bonsai (whether little ones in a pot, or full-size ones in the yard,) where the maintenance is more even, regular. Never allowed to become overgrown, so never need to 'hack.' ...IF one's goal is to maintain the most even, symmetrical, traditional shape.

(Which brings us to...)

But, if you like a sprawl, you can use the same techniques of manipulation to direct the sprawling. I agree, it looked cool sprawling into/through/around other plants in your pics! If the branches are flexible enough, maybe they can be staked/tied up for winter?

None of the growth looks poorly, just sprawling and wild - non-traditional. I love it as-is. Nothing wrong with that, and leaving it that way, but you did start a discussion about cutting something off, so it can fit in the house for winter. Unfortunately, now is not the best time for plant surgery, but I think most cutting of house plants is done because of issues with insufficient space in folks' homes, so happens often as they are coming inside. It's the cuttings that are most at risk during colder/shorter days, so if one isn't much concerned about that, there's little concern for the mama to do it now if you decide it's necessary or simply desirable.

I have occasionally purchased plants that were yet-unrooted cuttings. I'm sure this is a mistake in logistics at the grower, and agree, it is a mistake.

Fascinating sidebar you broached:
"Only one rooted and it's the one running along the floor. It always grew at a slant and when it put out other growth gradually did what you see here. "

This is a common reaction when a 'cutting' is put in a pot at a severe angle, and especially when placed horizontally. A great way to start a new plant that is truly a baby, and has a traditional, symmetrical shape, if one removes the donor branch at the soil line once the new roots and top(s) no longer need it.

" Trimming that back to where it's still variegated should retain the variegated growth."
Agree that this would be the best way to attempt to curb that.

If it blooms, please show us a pic or 7-8.

LOL Tiffany. I expect in time it will naturally sprawl no matter how it gets pruned! It's certain to be allowed to grow however it wants to for a while after the deed is done. I actually have needed the flat side both for pushing it against a wall during the winter and outside it's always been located against an oak tree trunk or, this year, against the galvanized stock trough. I doubt I'll see any blooms. Those buds didn't grow much after it got brought in last winter and ultimately dried out before spring. In fact, those stems put out multiple growth points below the terminal buds. Those two with bud growth didn't grow longer stems, but certainly got bushier and heavier. I'll be cutting all that growth off now. If I were planning to root any and had success, there would be instant bushes . I'm really only tempted by the growth that lost the variegation and I'm currently tempted to get a brug or plumeria. I don't need another schef, though. It would up too much room when they have to come inside. I'm not in a hurry to prune. I hurt my back working with the cattle, so everything of any size was a painful chore to get inside and nothing is in it's spot for the winter. Lots of rearranging to do when the back recovers enough for me to do it more comfortably.

The original stem started out more or less upright, but it kept growing longer and longer it just kept leaning due to reaching for light when inside and by location outside and also due the the wind here. So gradually it got taller and leaned more until some new branches put out at the base. Those grew and leaned in there own way in time and finally the original stem is so low the leaves brush the ground.

On an uglier note. When you buy a potted green plant for a funeral and what gets delivered is a bunch of limbs stuck in a container decorated with foil, it's not a mistake IMO. That is deception. I asked the coworker what they thought they were buying and they believed I was getting a pot plant to grow. It's not the first time I've seen that occur. I no longer buy a potted plant for funerals for several reasons. There is a lot of stress in a family post funeral and being given something else to take care of just adds to that. Then if it's something that promptly starts to die, the timing is just not very good. I think cut flowers work better in that situation. They are inherently temporary. But if you do want to give a potted plant, you usually can find one at a garden center for a lot less than those in a florist shop and undoubtedly one that has a developed root system in place.

"There is a lot of stress in a family post funeral and being given something else to take care of just adds to that. Then if it's something that promptly starts to die, the timing is just not very good. I think cut flowers work better in that situation. "

Donald, you are SO right about that...

Agreed, so sorry, I wasn't trying to discount that. Just saying that I've bought house plants before that were yet unrooted cuttings, which I think was an error at the grower of shipping the wrong pallets or flats, whatever they use, of plants. The same way they are sometimes tagged wrong, an employee at the grower made a mistake. The people working at those places aren't all plant heads. IDK anything about florists, or how they get or use plants or cuttings. But either way, a potted plant should have roots - totally agree. Sorry for failing to explain better above.