Viewer asked on November 2004:
Dracaena, about 7' tall, is outside for the time being. From the floor up to about half way it bears no leafs. The trunk is growing crooked. Someone told me to just cut off the top so it would have more room to grow taller. It is top heavy. What should I do?

We replied:
One method that you can use to create a shorter, bushier plant (Dracaena here) is air layering. With air layering, you make a small wound in the plant's stem, and the plant then grows roots from this point. Once the roots are well-formed, you can cut the stem off at that point, and pot up the top part of your plant to form a new, shorter plant. And if you choose a point on the stem just below where the leaves start, you can create a bushier plant, and account for the loss of lower leaves on the parent plant.

The following link is from Iowa State University, and has a great illustrative guide to air layering. http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM268.pdf