Ask Pirate Girl, she is from cold New York, she will be a great help. Denise from Denver, will also know exactly what to do.

Sorry, I can't help either. Just here to tell you thats a really nice compact looking jade. Wish we got enough sunny days around here to keep a jade looking that good. Sandy

I think your plant looks great but at the same time, it's hard to tell if it is toppling over. You have a close-up view of it and you can tell if it's starting to lean over or not.

I think there's no special time of the year to prune a jade plant so if you think a pruning is needed for its benefit, I say go ahead.

As for splitting three plants into separate pots, that's up to you. Do you like the idea of taking care of three separate plants or do you like how it is in one pot right now? :)

Thanks Sandy for the compliment. It can get mighty cold in Montreal but the coldest days are the sunniest. IT can be very deceiving! :0)

As for you Dragonstone, I don't mind keeping the plant as one entity, but I wonder I should cut back the thick root that are spinning around the rootball and repot in a pot one size bigger - maybe a terracota which is heavier and can balance out the top-heaviness of the jade plant.

Hi! Lauren - I am near you - just outside Ottawa. We have lots of jades, both big and small. You can try this without repotting: place your jade, pot and all, into a larger pot - fill the space in between the two pots with tiny pebbles, such as you might buy (even in winter) to put at the bottom of an aquarium. This will make the bottom heavier and your plant won't topple any more. I do this with my succulents in the house in winter. I give them very little water and so the top is definitely heavier than the bottom. In the summer, I place them outside sitting directly on the ground and surround them with a lot of tiny gravel, which keeps the plants upright.

Hi Lauren,

Your plant looks pretty good, I think. Since it is winter and a time when it is hard to produce good sunlight (think day length, not sunshine--I get more light to my plants that are under lights for twelve hours than in the window with the short 8 hr days here) for stocky growth, I wouldn't repot now but would wait for spring. Shapiro's suggestions seem pretty good for the interim. I may try those suggestions myself, because I have a lot of plants the size of yours that tend to get blown off my porch by the ferocious winds we have around here. I make sure to use clay or ceramic pots that are heavier and have even made up my meduim with gravel rather than something light like perlite. In the spring you could repot it in a bigger pot, and trim the roots first if you think they are doing something bad. I used to think roots were sacrosanct, but now I often trim them if I am trimming the top growth, especially if they are looking poorly. If you do trim them, don't water the newly potted plant for a day or two, so the trimmed part can harden off some. Enjoy your plant!

Thanks to both Shapiro and aseedisapromise....I LOVE this website. IT is so much fun to ask for advice and discuss plant info with people from all over the world. Some people are closer than others, ofcourse, Ottawa is about 1.5 hours away by car...ANYWAYS I digress. I will probably try Shapiros idea with the gravel and a bigger pot atleast until the Spring.

Aseedisapromise....what tool would you use to prune the tough "branches" of a jade plant if I decide to in the Spring? I thought that you were supposed to prune when the plant was dormant? Also, what you said about not watering it for a day or two after trimming the roots, does that go for ALL plants, or just Jade plants? I, a serious newbie, thought that after repotting a plant, you were supposed to give it a really thorough watering? Am I mistaken?

lauren.g, I think your jade is gorgeous. It looks like you have been taking excellent care of it. It doesn't "need" to be pruned but you could do so anytime if you wanted. We have umpteen posts on pruning jades. I like shapiro's idea of using a cache pot. Jades like snug roots so you wouldn't have to necessarily go up on container size. Your jade is beautiful, keep up the good work.

Thanks a milion Fred. I am fairly new to houseplanting and have tried my best not to screw up by making any rookie mistakes. Thanks for the positive feedback.

I think the reason I got a little parnoid is because of a post I read a few months? weeks? ago about a person with a very "leggy" jade plant and everyone in the forum was saying how unhealthy looking it was. I just wanted to make sure mine wasn't verging on overgrown.

I am pleased to hear your feedback and find out that it is not.

CASE closed.

: 0 )

Hi again Lauren,

This is a cactus and succulents forum, and those are the plants that could rot if the roots are trimmed (especially with tools with "germs" on them, or soil with the wrong type of microbes) and then the plant is repotted and watered. If your plant is not designed to hold water in, and easily loses a lot of water to the air, then you should probably water it right away. I have had lots of "house plants" that I watered right after repotting and really never had a problem with rot in this way, but then I am new to cacti (but not to jades). Especially if you decide to prune your jade and start the cuttings, you will need to let the cuttings callus over before you put them in a medium to root them if you intend to water. If it is humid when you try to root them, you can not water them at all, or just mist the surface of the medium. Last summer I threw some cuttings out on the hard dry clay dirt under my porch, and darned if they didn't root sideways with the stem up in the air! You can prune jades with any sharp knife; the stems are succulent with no real skeleton and easy to cut through, even when large. The knife should be clean, just like for any surgery!