I agree w/nature..a variegated Scheff needs at least a bright east window and higher..Mine go out in summer and in nw windows in winter..if I had the room I'd keep them directly in west..Toni

Yes, it needs more light.

Thanks everyone - light is indeed the problem. The schefflera is in a room that has a whole wall of north facing windows. I'll try moving it to a southern facing window for a while. Love the way we can help each other with this forum!

Keep it away from that southern window by a few feet until the plant hardens up a bit. A quick change like that could result in sun scald. If lack of sunlight is the problem, and it *probably* is, the new leaves that emerge should exhibit some of that pretty variegation.

Some variegated plants have a tendency to revert back to their solid green pigmentation regardless of the amount of sunlight. When that begins to happen, all that can be done is to keep those sections pruned out. I honestly don't know if this plant species is one of those that is genetically predisposed to do that or not....you will find out, though, when your plant puts out all of the new spring foliage! I expect that yours will do great! And this is a plant that prefers plenty of light, anyway, even though they can languish is darker conditions for years.

Definitely lack of sunlight. croton does the same thing when it doesn’t get enough light.

Thanks for asking that question. My single bush, about 5’’ high and 5’’ wide has almost turned completely green after ten years. It’s in a very sunny spot for half the day in Florida which should be enough sunlight and the soil is well drained.

I’m going to try major pruning soon to see if iI can get the yellow back. I might even mark the stems that were green to see if they come back yellow. If not, I’ll try removing all the green stems completely.

M y neighbor has a row of these on both her north side (with no direct sun light) and south side of her house and they have all retained their yellow variegation. I think she prunes them to often, but maybe they need the stress.