Sunday, March 18, 2007

Ms. Jade - A dwarf variety?

My oldest jade plant is Ms. Jade who I've had for just slightly over ten years now. I got her several days before Christmas of 1996.





It's funny because I remember walking around the garden center of Wal-Mart and I saw this tiny jade plant in a pot. It reminded me of when my teacher gave me a jade plant (which unfortunately died after shortly moving down south and was exposed to the sun and heat) so I decided to buy it. I don't know if the garden center was exposed to the winter or if winter was mild that year.

Then, over the next following years, I'd get frustrated because she got very leggy. I posted pictures online and I was told that if I wanted a big huge jade plant, I'd have to keep her pruned. I did that... but still, she won't grow any bigger.

About two or three years ago, I bought another jade plant from a local nursery because the leaves were tri-colored. I was told that it'll "turn green after you water it". I liked it too much that I decided to buy it. Later on, I posted it online and a few agreed that it was called Hummel's Sunset and that's why it was getting tri-colored.

What blew me away was that in a very short amount of time, the jade plant thickened up and was growing. So here I was, agonizing over my poor location with all the humidity just knocking down Ms. Jade when this other jade plant was doing extremely well. Even the cuttings I made from it did very well while cuttings I made from Ms. Jade were all not doing much.

Now I'm convinced that Ms. Jade is a dwarf variety. Some suggested that she was Crosby's Compact but she's never ever turned very red or yellow like the pictures I've seen online.

Whatever she is, I never expected to have a plant for a decade now.

3 comments:

Ki said...

It looks like your jade is getting too much direct sun. Try putting it in dappled light. We put our jade plants out when the temps don't go below 50 shaded partially by a small tree so it they get only early morning and late afternoon light. Even so the edges turn a bit red and the leaves look the same color as your Ms. Jade. When we bring them in for the Fall they turn a dark green with light only from NW windows. They don't seem to grow much while outside but really grow indoors. Probably storing up nutrients and sun for the growth spurt.

DragonStone said...

I'm not sure. All the other jade plants receive the same amount of light and they're doing fantastic.

Later today, I plan to take the plants out of the greenhouse and I'll take a picture to show them in a bunch and see how they're all like.

MrBrownThumb said...

That's a long time to have a plant. I don't think I've kept one for more than three years. They'll either croak or I give them away.