Beginner Gardening: How do you prune a schefflera (umbrella plant)?, 1 by maggiecme

maggiecme wrote:
Al you are like the Shefflera Santa here! :)

I'm new. I've had success with plants in the past but typically not by any great knowledge of plants, just luck I think.

I'm attaching a photo and probably a second in the next post so you can see the plant.

I just picked up this plant from a craigslist listing with about 11 others.

This was apparently cut back but (in my opinion) poorly and I need to figure out how to make this fill out. I think from what I've read on this thread (awesome thread I might add) I should just cut the whole thing done and cut the roots...kind of like what you did in your multi photo example.

I have a couple of questions though:

How do I handle the portion of the plant that has rooted itself into the soil? (You can see it on the left hand side of the photos)You have a soil mix detailed above but I don't think it's the "gritty" mix. What is the gritty mix?

You state several times that there is an appropriate time for pruning but I'm not sure where to find the time periods for this. What is the best time for cutting back this plant in Maine (indoor plant)?

Can I propagate this plant? It looks like you just got rid of your cuttings? If propagation is an option, how?

Assuming that you can provide the gritty mix, how would this work with other plant types? What wouldn't it work for?

I really believe that most of these plants need repotting but they are all different types; spider, wandering jew, draecena, cactus, rubber tree (needing a lot of help), etc.

And I'm not sure how to find the best overall advice. Should I just replant them all in the mix and then work them one by one on this forum to figure out if I've done the right thing?