Question

Schfflera   My three year old Schefflera spends the summer months in the back of my sunroom and only receives direct sunlight for a brief time in early morning with bright filtered light the rest of the day. The top leaves are starting to look deformed,not at all like a leaf should look and many of them are a bit mottled, ie too light in colour. I can't see any bugs or scale. My question is: Is it getting too much light or is the temperature difference between night and day too much for it? I close the windows at night so there is no cold draft.

Answer
Margaret,

Scheffleras love the sun. If you can give it more sun that would be great for it. Have you fertilized it? A water soluble fertilizer once a month such as Miracle Grow or Peter's Professional would be very good for it and may solve the color problem. Do not leave it sitting in a drain tray full of water. It is not a swamp plant and it hates to sit in water for days.

As for the deformity of the leaves, this plant does that whenever it is not happy. It tends to disappear quickly. You can trim off the deformed leaves if you would like. More sun, fertilizer, emptying the drain tray could all help. It can also be a reaction to insects (look closely with a magnifying glass for spider mites, look for their webs in leaf crotches), temperatures that are too hot or too cold, or periods of being too dry. Sometimes it just seems to happen and then go away as suddenly. I don't worry about it too much when it happens to mine. Good luck!

Darlene