Anyhow, the last week in August I had to cut back my schefflera (umbrella tree) because the lighting in the apartment was vastly different than the lighting in the house I lived in for 11 years. The leaves started dropping, the color turned a yellow green and it just looked sad. It's like living in a cave sometimes here. The big plant is doing better but I saved one of the better cuttings, planted it in some Miracle Grow potting soil, covered it with a portion of a 2 liter seltzer water bottle and today, "she" can live without being in constant humidity:
I know it looks odd with the bamboo skewers there, but I used those to slowly prop up the 2 liter bottle cover over a few days so it would acclimate to lower humidity levels. I almost lost it when I took the cover off for a couple of hours (it drooped like a sad puppy that's been scolded) but I quickly covered it up and then started adding the skewers after it perked up.
In a year or two I will have a bigger bushy tree and I did it without the strongly suggested use of vermiculite and rooting hormone and for free. Its parent was not much bigger than this when I got it at Wal*Mart many years ago so yay for free/cheap!
Have a fab Monday!
EDIT Tues. 2:45pm: Check out all the fun over at Kimba's Do It Yourself Day. She recently moved it from Thursday to Tuesday so bookmark it and check it out!
PS She's having a give-away but I am not there for that, I just am proud that my schefflera cutting has made it this far. :-)
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