Sheff question

Has anyone trimmed back a (I won't spell this right) Sheffelera? I think the common name is Umbrella plant. It has thick green/white leaves and a bark/like stalk. It grew like a bad weed this summer. I love the plant, but it's too big for my house. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.. "T" :)

You probably have the varigated one. I have a plain green one. You go right ahead and cut, cut, cut!!! Do whatever you would like it will grow back in the spot you cut. Mine has branched out for the cut areas. It's not to happy in the house right now. But I know If I can get it to live through summer I can throw it back outside and It will be huge!!!.
The cut pieces you can try to root in their own pot so you get another plant out of it. Or you can chuck em, or send them to someone else. Just make sure you use super sharp scissors or something stronger. If you wer to try and root a cutting, the greener the stem the better. the woodier parts take longer and are mor difficult to try and root.
SO go grab you scissors, clippers, whatever, and strt cutting in the shape you want it to be. Just make sure whatever you use to cut with, is clean. I always spray mine with some bleach, then rinse off the bleach, then do my cutting. Because just like use plants can be subseptable to germs. So good luck to you, have fun, and don't be afraid...lol
Holly

That's wonderful!! I'm gonna do the cuttings tonight and stick them into the same pot. If they root, good. If they don't that's okay too. This plant is at least 4 years old. It's dropping leaves because of being inside. From what I've heard/read that's normal. But I'm gonna cut!! Thank you bunches.. "T" :)

Good advise wabbit! I'm just chicken. I got my Sheff fall of 2000. It was a healthy adult that I was very afraid of. I had never had much success with plants. The lady I got it from didn't even know what it was! I asked her how to take care of it...she told me she lops all of it off in the fall. YIKES! I DID lop off a piece... and the plant thrived. I didn't have much success with growing the piece I took off, sad to say.

Maybe if I take your advise about propagatng the greener parts of the stem. Either way, I'll wait until spring. It seems to be happy where it is now and not dropping as many leaves as last winter.

This goofy plant looks very strange. It started out about 6" tall and very full. Now it's at least 3 ft tall, not very full, and it has one stem growing out on the bottom. Problem is that one stem is about 3 ft long. Poor tree has to be in misery knowing it looks so strange. lol "T" :)

I have the varagated one also. It got so tall I didn`t like it anymore so I cut the top out of it and stuck it in a pot. Well, it rooted and made a beautifuly shaped plant. The origional plant started branching out and was too full at the bottom. I broke the new full limbs off and stuck them in a pot and they rooted also. I never cut the limbs just snapped them off of the main plant. It left a slight indentation on the main limb that healed over fast.