Dan Gill says to prune Christmas cactuses now, but wait to decide whether schefflera survived cold Answers to readers' gardening questions.

Indoor gardeners looking for small trees to grow in containers love schefflera, also known as dwarf umbrella tree or umbrella plant. “Schefflera is prized for its clusters of glossy, oval-shaped ...

Outdoors in their natural habitat, Schefflera trees can grow 40 feet tall; indoors they usually max out at about 8 feet and don’t require pruning to thrive.

Q I have two indoor plants, a schefflera and a ficus, which are about 17 feet tall. They both started out 20 years ago as typical supermarket plants.

Indoors, where space is often limited, many traditional houseplants — including rubber tree, Benjamin fig and parlor palm — grow quite wide, requiring frequent pruning.

Dan Gill says to prune Christmas cactuses now, but wait to decide whether schefflera survived cold Answers to readers' gardening questions.