Re: [gardeners] Where'd everyone go?
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sat, 13 Apr 2002 14:27:48 -0500
We've a schiffalera (sp?) that has lived in our living room for about 10 years now. We've purposely
kept it small by judicious pruning and keeping it fairly well root bound. Never saw one drop sap so
I suspect you may have aphids. Check very closely on the bottoms of the leaves, if you see little
translucent critters that's probably what is doing it. Take the tree outside and hose them off with
a fairly strong stream of water, let it sit awhile, check again, and hose again if necessary. If
it's aphids that should solve your problem. 70F in the daytime and 50F at night shouldn't bother it
too much if it's a strong tree. You would have to acclimatize it though, too much change all at once
might affect it.
We've rooted the prunings of ours over the years and give or sell the progeny once they're up and
going strong.
George, glad you delurked Billie, don't feel bad about asking questions we've a number of very
dedicated and knowledgeable gardeners on this list
Billie wrote:
>
> I mostly lurk b/c I'm such a novice gardener! :) And I feel bad only asking
> questions. But since list traffic is slow, there are a couple of things I
> can ask.
>
> First, we have a huge schefflera tree (about 7.5 feet tall) that has lived
> for the past two years in our living room. I love it, but this year, for the
> past 8 mos. or so, it's dropping sap like crazy. The floor is sticky, the
> mini-blinds are sticky, anything in its perimeter gets sticky. I thought it
> would eventually stop, but thus far it hasn't. I'm wanting to move it
> outside for the summer - it's too big to move in and out though to get it
> acclimated - will I kill it if I move it out now, first to shade and then to
> semi-shade? It's not getting much above 70 still and usually down to 50 at
> nights...
>
> Any ideas on the sap issue? I may have to find it another home if it keeps
> that up - it's creating a huge daily cleaning ritual that I just don't have
> time for.
>
> One other question - we have about 20 crape myrtle trees that were planted
> along both sides of our lot and scattered in the front yard - they're around
> 10-12 feet tall and doing well - but they're all growing pretty much
> straight up - no rounding at all. Should we be pruning them to get them to
> round out some? I've pretty much left them alone since we moved here 3 years
> ago - just composting around the bases and mulching them each year.
>
> Thanks for any suggestions.
>
> billie in NC