Topic: diseased umberella plant

[di]

my sisters plant is ill. the leaves are covered in brown spots. we've been wiping them with a cloth, but as you can imagine, it's very tiresome. the ants love it. any clues?

[kenkew]

Now, which 'umbrella plant' is it? There's two possibles, Cyperus diffusus and schefflera actinophylla. The latter is the more common and grows to about 6'. The first one is the 'true' plant and is quite small in comparison. I'd be tempted to do a rescue job and try to propogate from it. Propogation depends on which plant you have. The actinophylla can suffer from scale insect attack. Winter watering should be minimal but spring and summer both plants need very moist conditions supplied by misting and almost soaked roots.

[di]

i'm not certain of it's true identification, but it quite large, so it sounds like the second one you mentioned. i have no doubt it will survive regardless of the disease it has.  We've hacked it back a couple of times and grown marvellous plants from the cuttings and it survived and thrived. bit like a rose really.  as for the soaking roots, melbourne's summer has been far from the scorcher we're used to, the plants are a tad out of sorts i think. thanx for the tips, all good.