What's up plant lovers? Devin is here and today we're going to be talking about the Sheffalera
Now there's really two main kinds of Sheffalera that we grow as houseplants, particularly here in North America. That would be the Sheffalera actinophylla, which is the
larger of the two. It can grow 10, 12 feet tall. I had a friend back when I was living in Seattle
who had a plant that was like 15 feet tall in his vaulted ceilings of his living room. It was wild
but I grow the second variety which is like the smaller Sheffalera which is Sheffalera
Arboricola and this is kind of called the the dwarf Sheffalera because it really only gets
about four to six feet tall but both of them are known as the umbrella plant for a couple reasons
number one like their leaves like look like little cute umbrellas they're so adorable or the other
reason why they're called umbrella trees is because they can produce this wonderful umbrella
shape, which is kind of the reason, the definition that I like because I love that kind of
architectural structural look that you can achieve from a Sheffalera if you do a little bit of pruning
to them. So in this video, we're going to talk about all the cultural care and requirements that
you need for your Sheffaleras. We're also going to be talking about pruning and propagating our
Sheffaleras. So these plants come from East Asia, Oceania, islands, Taiwan, eastern China
areas that are zones 10 to 12. So for most of us, that means that we're going to be growing them as
a house plant at least for most of the year. You can absolutely take these outside in the summertime
and allow them warm weather in the summertime. And if you are looking to get some expedited
growth on your plant, that is a great option to do. However, they are pretty robust plants
and this is not a plant that I put out on my patios because it grows fast enough inside
I don't really need it to grow any faster. Now, in terms of lighting, you can see here I have it
just a couple feet away from a bright sunny window. This is not a succulent plant. It doesn't
need the brightest sun in your home. It doesn't need grow lights, but it will absolutely benefit
from being in a brightly lit location. This is like a southeastern facing window
So it gets pretty nice, bright light all day long. And they definitely don't want intense direct sunlight outside
if you put them outside, particularly. I know for a lot of us, when we get a couple warm spring days
we think, all right, let's go put our houseplants out in that sun. And then you find that your plants have burned
because they really need to acclimate to the sunlight. and this is a good example of a plant that definitely will need a long period of acclimation
before you can give it any sort of direct sunlight if ever But outside in a shaded area would be fantastic for these Now I classify these as one of the very best beginner houseplants Number one because of their structural architectural look
they make a fantastic statement plant that can be grown as a floor plant
which is an invaluable asset that you should not overlook. Having large floor plants is the best way to really elevate the energy of your home with houseplants
and this is a great option for that because it is so low maintenance in terms of its watering
needs and they are definitely not fussy if you forget to water them for a little while
Now here you can see the soil is nice and dry. When you are determining whether or not your plant
needs water simply take your finger and just kind of dig it in about you know to your second knuckle
and if it comes out dry then that is a good indicator that your Sheffalera needs to be
watered. And if you've determined that it is dry and needs watering, you can give them a nice flush
of water just like that. This is a pretty big size plant in a good size container with nice deep root
system. So that's about a good amount of water to give him in this situation. Now, while they don't
mind going for periods of time without water, I water this probably once every 10 days, they do
not like to be waterlogged or stay too wet for too long. That can often cause the yellowing of
leaves, particularly in the wintertime. As a tropical plant, they really don't want to be
below like 60 degrees. So if you do keep your house cool and you keep your plant wet, that will
lead to a bad situation and unhappy plant. In terms of soil, I use just an average bagged house
plant potting mix. You don't need to add any special additions to that mix, but do make sure
that it is a house plant mix. I've had a lot of people ask, showing me lately what they were using
for the house plants, and they get this bagged potting mix at, you know, the box stores that's
for outdoor container plants. You want to make sure that you're using a potting mix for house
plants. That often has things like perlite already added in, which will help improve the drainage in
your soil which is imperative for all house plants including the Sheffalera. Now in terms of
fertilizer I will use worm castings on the top of my soil about once or twice a year. You can check
a video out that will help teach you a little bit more about worm castings. It's a really nice kind
of slow release fertilizer that you can just kind of let on top and it will just slowly integrate
into that soil providing a nice amount of nutrition for the roots of our Sheffalera. Now when it comes
to creating the right shape of our Sheffaleras a lot of us have different preferences desires and what we want our plants to look like Like I was saying I love that sort of umbrella energy And so I will do some selective pruning whenever I find that it
is necessary. Now, when it comes to pruning, some of the things that you want to think about
you want to always remove stems that are going inwards. If you have stems that are crossing
that are kind of impeding the paths of one another, those are good opportunities to remove
those stems as well as any plant, as well as any stems that are kind of going in errant direction
that really aren't growing in the direction that you want them to be growing in, I always remove
stems like that as well. And also if your plant is not getting quite enough lighting, that can often
promote leggy growth. So you can remove leggy growth and then try to increase the amount of
light for your plant and that'll help create a nice bushier look. Now as these plants do grow
they will naturally defoliate leaves along the lower parts of those stems. You can expedite that
process by removing any lower leaves that are too low for your liking, which will then kind of
cluster the foliage at the top, creating more of that canopy umbrella look. That's kind of what I
like. Now you should definitely not be afraid to prune your Sheffalera. They respond very well to
being pruned, but even better than that is that we can take those cuttings that we have pruned away
and use them to create new plants by propagating them. And let me show you guys how to do that
So the back of this plant is a little bit sparse, and I want this to fill out a little bit more
So what I'm going to do, I'm going to cut this branch off right around the halfway point. And
what that's going to do, it's not only going to provide me with something to propagate, but it's
also going to branch out at that section where I cut it off. But it is imperative that you select
the right spot to prune at in order to allow for that branching to occur. So let me show you where
it is. So you can see all of these notches along the stem are old leaf nodes and those are really
important. Those are storehouses of hormones. Now when you're taking a cutting you want to take a
cutting just above one of these leaf nodes. Like you see a leaf node right here? You want to take
the cutting just above it right here because as a storehouse of auxins or the hormones what happens
is that those hormones will get released when you cut above it and that's going to allow for branching
to occur. So I'm just going to take my shears and I'm going to cut it just above that leaf node
just like that. Now what's going to happen is that this is going to start to branch out here and it's
going to help to fill out this section of the plant that is a little bit lackluster, a little
bit lacking in growth All right so now I have new growth that will be on the horizon and I have a nice cutting that I going to propagate So the easiest way to propagate this is to take this cutting and place it in a vase of water
Now you want to ensure that you have as many of these leaf nodes, old leaf nodes
underwater as possible because these are also where new roots will actually form out of in
that wallet sitting in water. So I have one that I did about eight weeks ago. And let me show you
guys. It's just sitting in this vase of water on a windowsill. It gets a little bit of light
but it's really nothing special. I have done absolutely nothing. And it looks like a pretty
nice vase, you know, creating lovely greenery in our bathroom. So let me show you
Check it out. Look at all those beautiful roots. All of that root growth after about eight weeks
Now this little propagation is ready to be potted up. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to go pot this one up and I'm going to let this guy take its place
All right, so little plants call for little pots. We never want to have small plants swimming in large pots with too much soil in them
that will often cause for root rot or any sort of other rotting due to excess moisture retained
in that soil for overly long periods of time. So I always pre-moisten the soil when I am using
when I am potting up propagation. So I've already pre-moistened my house plant potting mix
in this small little three inch container. Then I'll take a little chopstick
make a nice opening right in the middle of that pot. And I'm going to plant this pretty much so
that all of these roots of definitely all the roots are in the soil and then maybe just about
a half an inch above it. So probably to right about here where this leaf is emanating from. So
just like that pat it down and I'll give it just a little bit more water
and voila we just planted up our baby chef lara plant and now we have two couldn't be easier well
If you do have any further questions or comments or any other tips and expertise that you'd like to share to the community, make sure you leave a comment below
If you did enjoy this video and found it helpful, give it a little like. Consider subscribing to our channel
We're bringing new plant-related content every single week. And so we're a growing community trying to spread Mother Nature as best as we can
Anyways, thank you guys for joining me here on Plant Vibrations. I'll catch you soon
Ciao