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Crassula ?
Contents Watering & Feeding Light Pests Flowering Pruning/Taking Cuttings Pots & Soil
What's in a name? most people seem to call them either Jade Plants or Money Trees, it would appear that we are now supposed to
call them Crassula ovata but in my 1964 copy of Vera Higgins' book "Crassula in Cultivation" Crassula ovata is not mentioned,
Crassula portulacea is the preferred name with both Crassula argentea and Crassula obliqua being rejected (Crassula obliqua
considered as Crassula portulacea var. obliqua).
Going further back I have a 1955 handbook by H.M. Roan which lists only Crassula
argentea and Crassula obliqua and a 1955 book by E. Lamb that only mentions
Crassula argentea. I suppose that the most authoritative book I have is volume 14
of the Flora of Southern Africa Crassulaceae by H. R. Tlken, which gives
Crassula ovata as the name for the Jade plant (if I am reading the key and
botanical Latin correctly).
Crassula obliqua
variagated form
'Nobbit'
It would seem that the nurseries supplying plants use names that they think will sell the plants
regardless of the accepted name. I've noticed recently that B&Q were selling Crassula "Money plants"
(this was on the large sign by the plants), looking at them it was obvious that there were at least four
different plants on offer but on all of the pots the label said Crassula portul. mix.
This was one of the plants, to me it looks more like Crassula arborescens.
The leaves are bigger, rounder and paler than I would expect for Crassula ovata.
They also had a cylindrical leaved form ('Hobbit' or 'Gollum' or 'Coral'?), one that looked similar to
'Bluebird' which I think is Crassula arborescens ssp. undulatifolia, and they had Crassula ovata in both
its normal form and a more colourful variety that could have been 'Hummel's Sunset'. I didn't buy any of
these as I already had some similar plants.
Bluebird?
Coral/Coralle ?
Hummel's Sunset
one of mine
Hummel's Sunset
shown by Craig House Cacti at
Malvern Show May 2001
The plant to the left is a small Crassula ovata 'Hummel's Sunset' as this picture was taken in February
the leaves have not developed their yellow/red stripes that come from full sunlight.
When deciding what compost to put your plant in and which watering regime to use it is always useful to have some idea what
conditions the plant puts up with in habitat treatment. On one of the Garden Web forums I came across some pictures of Crassula
ovata in habitat (they were actually on the Bonsai gallery!). These plants are about 2m (that's 6ft in English) tall, and can grow
even taller, which means my 7 inch Hummel's Sunset shown above has a bit of growing to do.
couple of hours and the compost has dried out after the last watering.
Another picture I found at Garden Web was a plant growing outside in Southern California grown by cactus_corner and included
here with his kind permission.
Light
Contents Crassula ? Watering & Feeding Pests Flowering Pruning/Taking Cuttings Pots & Soil
In order to give some of my plants as much light as possible they spend the summer outside. As last year was one of the wettest
ever the compost seldom dried out between natural watering. It seemed to do the plants no harm, presumably because it was
never hot enough for them to go into a Summer dormancy. Unfortunately I didn't bring my plants in before we had a couple of
hailstorms, which did cause some damage to many of the leaves.
Even here in the UK it is possible to give these plants too much light.
I recently gained some extra growing space on the south side of the house as a result of having a new porch built over the front
door. One of the plants that I moved into the porch was a C. ovata "Hummels sunset" which had not been getting enough light so
its leaves were all green.
Unfortunately the week after I moved the plant coincided with unusually hot and sunny weather, and the result was
a number of scorched leaves on the plant, one of which is shown in the picture to the right.
Some leaf loss appears to be normal during the Winter, this usually takes the form of the leaves shrivelling up before they drop so
that the plant doesn't lose any moisture. Green leaves dropping off is not normal in my experience unless the plants have been
kept too cold/dry. The plants in my main greenhouse, where I try to maintain a minimum 5C (40F), have not dropped any green
leaves but they have been watered and most of them have flowered. But in the small leanto that only has an antifrost heater I
don't water any plants apart from Crassula sarcocaulis (I keep some of these outside all Winter and so far they have survived) and
here some of the Crassula ovata have dropped green leaves and none of them flowered. The leaves remaining on these plants are
noticeably paler than those on the other plants so it could also be that they are short of light. However I have plants on
windowsills that receive no more light than the leanto and these have remained healthy with no leaves being lost.
In extreme cases stems can drop as well as leaves, again the more normal behaviour is for some shrivelling to take place before
the stem drops. Many of these bits that drop off can make perfect cuttings, in some cases the plant will start to form roots near
the end of the stem before the branch drops.
Pests
Contents Crassula ? Watering & Feeding Light Flowering Pruning/Taking Cuttings Pots & Soil
After watering the next most asked question is about mealy bugs, although sometimes people don't know that is what they have
got. Although physical removal of the bugs is best you can never be sure you get them all so I used to recommend a systemic
insecticide containing dimethoate (available here as Doff) and warn against malathion as although it will kill the mealy bugs it will
also damage the leaves. I also prefer to soak the soil with the insecticide rather than spraying. These insecticides no are no longer
available and I now use products from the Provado Ultimate Bug Killer range.
Although this plant is covered in white spots it is not infested with mealy bugs (the spots do not move).
These spots sometimes appear on some of my plants, perhaps the plant is getting rid of excess Calcium
like some Saxifrages.
The new leaves on this plant are misshaped, I think this was due to mealy bug damage as the leaves
where forming.
Flowering
Contents Crassula ? Watering & Feeding Light Pests Pruning/Taking Cuttings Pots & Soil
The other main question is how to get your plant to flower. This seems to be impossible to some people, and all I can say is that
most of the large plants in my greenhouse are flowering now (mid February) and have been flowering since mid December. Most of
my other plants regardless of size have not flowered. From this I assume that the conditions in the greenhouse are those required
for flowering, once the plant is about four years old and about 12 inches tall. Flowering appears to be triggered by the plant
experiencing "short days", ie natural light only and also nighttime temperatures of about 5C (40F), with higher daytime
temperatures. I am not sure how long before flowering the buds are formed so cannot say exactly what is required, and I have
seen pictures of much smaller plants than mine flowering, so my conditions may not be the optimum.
One thing is certain about flowering, the flower buds form at the end of the branches, so if you prune at the wrong time you will
not get any flowers.
or even 7
It is also possible that keeping the plant potbound may promote flowering, most of my large plants are in bowls or
bonsai pots. I'm not sure if this does help flowering, but it does make the plant more stable.
Pruning/Taking Cuttings
Contents Crassula ? Watering & Feeding Light Pests Flowering Pots & Soil
These plants are very easy to propagate, it is even possible to grow one from a single leaf.
21 July 2001
25 Nov 2001
21 April 2003
A feature of Crassula ovata is that the leaves grow in pairs, with each pair at 90 to the previous pair. Between each leaf and the
stem is a bud that can grow into a new stem, thus by choosing where to cut you can try to influence the shape of the plant.
Unfortunately these buds do not always grow, sometimes only one will grow, and sometimes neither grows and the stem dies back
to the site of the previous leaves.
In the picture to the right both buds are growing, and another is growing at the next lower site so I now have to
choose which way I want a new stem to grow, or to leave them all on so that I get a bushier plant.
I try to make the cut between two "rings" on the stem (these rings form were the leaves grow). If the cutting is long enough
remove the any leaves on the bottom two inches (or 50mm if you are metricated). Leave the cut stem to dry for two weeks but
place the leaves immediately on some moist soil. It is normal for the stem between the cut and the nearest ring to dry and fall off,
you might also get some roots forming. After your cutting has had two weeks (even longer if you forget about them!!) you can pot
them up into individual pots no bigger than 3 inches (75mm).
This is one of my larger plants having
its annual trim, 8th June 2001. All I
am trying to do is make sure the
plant will fit back in my greenhouse
and that it is not too tall to fit in my
car when I take it to a show.
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