Most trees can be cut back hard with little in the way of ill effects other than the fact you have to wait for them to fill out again, but let's reserve judgment until we see a picture or at least get it identified. FWIW, the time to be thinking about substantial reductions in the size of a tropical tree or houseplant is in the month immediately before its most robust growth - probably June, for you.

Al

{{gwi:104844}}

Okay. Hard time figuring out how to post this pic. This website is different, see if you get the picture.

How can it be made smaller without killing it?

Tom

I can't give you any meaningful advice w/o knowing what plant we're discussing or at least seeing a picture. If you can't post, just send me an email. I'll reply & then you can attach a picture.

Al

Ti plant...one of the Cordylines.

Huh! - the picture wasn't there before my last post - strange.

If it's too tall, you can cut it back to practically any ht you think you'd like it to be. It will back-bud & send out several lateral branches. If it was Jun or Jul, you could cut it back nearly to the soil line & just wait for it to back-bud, knowing that it would have the rest of summer to make leaves & store energy. Now though, you need to be aware of the fact that cutting off viable foliage is cutting back on the plant's ability to make food, so it would be best to be reserved and probably not take off more than 1/4-1/3 of the ht. DO leave all the lower foliage (below your pruning cut) on the plant, it's what will fuel new growth, along with whatever reserve energy the plant has now.

Al