I am new to this forum but thought I would show my pride and joy...my jade plant. It is 8 years old and was an inch tall when I pulled it out of my moms jade. It is now 38 inches tall (from the top of the pot not the floor) and about 48-50 inches wide. The trunk is about 5 inches in diameter. It blooms every year around November or so. It weighs about 95 pounds which makes it difficult to move it in and out.

Shade. That is one fine-looking Jade plant. Do you ever stake the trunk or individual branches? It must be top-heavy. Generally my Jade plants will start blooming after the fifth year, though I have occasionally had one that bloomed before that.

Absolutely perfect! Nice to meet you & your plant. Welcome to ATP.

Shade, Wow, great growing ... you have every right to be proud of that beauty! ! And, to All Things Plants from me too!

drdawg: I only staked it when it was 1-2 years old. Now its not necessary as the trunk and branches are so big. I believe mine bloomed the first time when it was either 3 or 4 years old. This one grew pretty fast for starting out an inch tall and its this big at 8. Thanks everyone for the great welcome!!

Lovely Jade!!!! Very good growing!!!

Good for you. What a good Jade mommy your are. I have one I picked up many years ago for 1.00 and it too is my pride and joy.

grate looking plant Shade, I also had a big beautiful one , but when we were moving in here about 4 years ago, the rain got it before
I could get to it and it died , that really hurt me . they are so neat looking , one of my favorite succulents.

That is fine!

Thanks everyone for the awesome comments. We have moved into our new house and it has gotten so big I could just barely get it back inside the house (through our patio doors no less) last fall. I am hoping I can get it out again this this spring. I have observed an interesting phenomenon with my jade. It gets really dense with leaves in the summer (due to the abundance of light) and when I bring it in for the winter it will lose more than half of its leaves. Ok that is not so unusual because it is just responding to the changing light availability. What I think is strange is it will lose only the leaves on the interior of the plant and keep all the leaves on the ends of the branches. It also drops smaller branches. When I return it outside for the spring and summer it fills in again. To me its really a fascinating thing to watch.

Think of it this way. The jade plants energy is directed to new growth, not to old growth. During stress, the old growth will suffer. Thus, you'll see die-back in old growth areas.

Here are two my little Jade Plant cuttings brought from my cousin's house in San Francisco. We are going to try to bonsai them. Behind them is a small braided schefflera rooted in lava rock we are also trying to bonsai. Both plants will require an exorbitant amount of patience from us.

They look nice Cheryl! I would level out that soil a bit so it does not scatter too much when you water.

Thanks Tarev. The bowl is pretty shallow @ 1-1/2", and the plant is top heavy. The soil is holding the plant upright. I was hoping more roots would develop at the top as well as the bottom to hold it tight in the bowl. No?
I use a spray bottle for now, and then eventually a small squirt bottle so it won't disturb the soil much.

In that set-up, eventually that soil will scatter, and you will expose the roots, even in ordinary container repot, we keep the roots below soil level, not above soil level.

I would also trim the branches, so it does not go too top heavy. So the plant will redirect some energy to root production. Crassulas grow very slow. If you trim the branches you can easily make 4 or more bonsai set-ups.

The roots of succulents are softer and grows very shallow compared to regular trees that go into bonsai. With the trees, those roots eventually harden up later, so they get nice bonsai structure. But succulents are densely soft.

This is my little jade leaf I started 2 years ago: planted in a small bonsai container;
Jan 2013 - I started indoors, then moved it outdoors when temps are a bit better.


April 2013 -staying outdoors, so I keep the media very gritty and rocky, so if it rains it will drain well.


Jan 2015


Your plant is bigger, so I would put big rocks around it to help support it better. You may want to stake it for awhile to help it stand till the roots begin to anchor well. This way the soil is not too over the top.

Others may have suggestions, but that is how I would do it, and how I did my little Jade bonsai for now.

Okie dokie. I will take your advice. We have 4 other cuttings that we want to grow to full size. I will either start with a leaf, like you did, or cut down the one leafless stem we have. That will work, right?

Yup, it will work. This time of the year, Crassulas, like Aeoniums are actively growing. Just lay the leaf on top of the soil, it will make either some new leaves or some new roots first. But keep the leaf cutting in a part shade area till you see the new growth. Part shade too, if a stem with roots, till it seems firmly anchored after a gentle tug. Just keep media moderately moist on first planting, and the hardest part...leave them alone. Once you see the new growth and the other one has rooted too, then you can bring it out, in a partially protected area.

I have never grown bonsai and don't know a thing about it, but isn't jade a difficult plant to manage that way? I grow a lot of jade and have for almost five decades, and though it certainly does fine in a small pot, if it is managed well, it will really get large and top-heavy. If under-watered, the leaves will shrivel and fall off. Is their a (magic) medium to make it conform to bonsai criteria?

This has nothing to do with jade per se, but earlier this week I hosted 1/2 of the Mississippi State Horticultural Club (I split it into two visits just because my greenhouses are so jam-packed with plants and had no room for more students). There were eight of the students that visited. Anyway, after seeing the greenhouses we all came inside into the enclosed porch and I have lots of tropical plants and some succulents there. I have a number of aloe vera plants, and a half dozen get morning sun and another half dozen get no sun. The ones that get no sun are very dark green and the ones that get sun are very light green. One of the students that grows aloe vera asked if I had two different varieties. I explained that they were the same variety but the amount of sun causes the difference in coloration. This is the same thing that happens with orchids. One orchid that gets plenty of strong, indirect light will have light green leaves and the same variety, getting insufficient light will have very dark leaves. Three of the students took aloe vera home with them (that's all I would donate!).

Sorry to take off in another tangent.

As far as I have read with bonsai and seen with how some enthusiasts do it, there would always be a lot of leaf/branch and root pruning to shape and train the plant to the size and shape you like. So jades can be worked into it nicely. With succulents, typically keeping the plant in a smaller container it will not grow way too big. Jades drink a lot of water during hotter days, so the stems get nicely fat in time. I think the greatest challenge here is leaving it alone for awhile as it acclimates and makes new growth.

Nice side info Ken, and yes that happens quite a lot with succulents, at its worst, some will etiolate when not getting the amount of sun it needs.

Thanks, tarev.