A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Hawaiian Schefflera/Brassais Arbroicola (UMBRELLA PLANT)

I took my "Umbrella" plant to work just to decorate my desk. Now it seems to be loosing more leaves than ever. It's only about 4" tall anyway. Could it be the change; that it had gotten used to my apartment? Also, I need come care tips. It should have grown more than it has by now. I got it around Xmas from Wal-Mart. A friend has one that's 4 feet tall

Could it be that your umbrella isn't receiving enough light in your office? Mine sheds leaves in the winter when we rarely see the sun, even though I keep it in a south window. They seem to be quite hardy though and bounce back if you provide lots of light and water.

Like most plants, Scheffleras react poorly to change. Yours should be close to a sunny window. If your office has only artificial light, that will not be adequate.

How large is its pot? If the pot is too large, the plant will put its energy into growing roots, rather than stems and leaves. In addition, a too large pot will cause roots to rot and leaves to drop.

I have to differ with will on the artificial light issue. i actually rooted a scheflera plant in an office that had no windows and was totally dark unless occupied (about 50 hours a week or so). the cutting is now about 5 inches tall and has about 6 sets of leaves (from the two that were on the cutting). it might just be reacting to some other change. mine got mad when the a/c went out here at home and dropped a set of leave, but is fine now.

WTG, Jiffy! I have yet to root a cutting.

Of course, there are acceptions to every rule. I'm pretty sure that, like Will says, generally speaking, the scheff needs a lot of light to be content, prefferably indirect in the case of two that I have. One of the ladies I work with has a scheff that did relatively well under artificial light only. However, it got a bit leggy, only slightly though. It's much happier now that it's in a window with all day indirect light.