Hi Linda,
I'm just the opposite, it's warm here in Tucson, 88 right now!

It is my understanding they are winter growers for the most part, but it goes more by length of days than it does temps.

Hopefully the pro's will be along soon, and than we will both have a total understanding. :)

If you do a search for "jades" a FAQ page will come up. I just did about an hour ago. LOL!

Mine are starting to grow, so I was poking around.

JoJo

Winter grower is a misleading term. What most S African succulents prefer is to enter a dormant period during those long, hot summer days and warm, muggy nights. Growth tends to be most active during the spring and fall. In the winter, unless you are in SoCal, these plants will enter another slowdown in growth when temps are too cold to sustain the growth.

During dormant periods (mid-summer and cool winter) watering should be minimal. During growth, water, fresh air and sun are needed.

Some climates are conducive to good growth all summer if it doesn't get too hot...but some species require a dormant period in the summer and will only grow when nights cool down.

Jades can grow all year in the right conditions. If you see new leaves forming at the ends of the branches and they are bright green, chances are the plant is active.

X

X- a perfect post!

The plant has a way of adapting to a variety of local conditions, within obvious limits. C. ovata will survive brief periods a few degrees below freezing, but at the expense of some frostbitten fingers (branch tips). Prolonged sub-zero temperatures like winter in Minnesota are certainly lethal to this plant. ;(

Thanks for your post X...very informative.

For me, my Jades do not grow(once our temps get over 85° and the humidity gets very high...it just sits there and does nothing, I also lose all my pretty colors around that time...I live in FL. I have my best growths and I get the best and beautiful colors around late Nov till around the end of March. I've noticed that I need the combination of both Sun and colder nights...below 65° before I start to see the pretty colors emerge.

I've yet to see my Jades bloom...I have however had blooms on my other Succulents just none on any of my Jades or their sports? I'm still hopeful...one winter it will happen?

Winter Growing is, indeed, a misleading term, as noted above. If I may re-iterate:
In South Africa, southern hemisphere, Jades are entering their growth season.
In the northern hemisphere, however, we can't recreate those solar values or
those warm temps (for the most part). So, although our Crassula *are growing*
at this time, they aren't growing as vigorously as those in habitat. For this
reason, we water less frequently than we did earlier in the year.

Josh

Josh, I mean no disrespect, but in my opinion your post only confuses the ideas X so elegantly expressed. You are propagating the myth that plants from the southern hemisphere stay on the same annual schedule when they are raised in the northern hemisphere. They don't.

A winter grower from South Africa is still a winter grower in North America: the North American winter, not the South African winter. Plants adapt to local conditions wherever they are. They have no plant ESP that tells them what is going on at the other side of the world.

People do all sorts of mental gymnastics trying to justify the idea that plants 'know' what they are supposed to be doing in their natural habitat that month. But jades blooming in December in North America will bloom in June in South Africa. A cactus that blooms in the Spring of the Northern hemisphere (e.g. May) will still bloom in the Spring when grown in the Southern hemisphere (e.g. November).

Winter is winter, spring is spring, fall is fall, and summer is summer, no matter what month it happens to be on your side of the planet.

~B

No disrespect taken, although your choice of language seems a bit insulting.
Perhaps that's merely for rhetorical effect?
Please take no disrespect in turn:
I am not propagating that myth, at all.
Plants are genetically programmed to take advantage of local conditions.
Circadian rhythms and such.

I am not saying that plants have ESP.
(Nor do I hunt ghosts or chase aliens...;)

And I am not doing mental gymnastics to justify anything.

"But jades blooming in December in North America will bloom in June in South Africa"
- That's precisely what I'm saying.
- They'll bloom in Africa in ~June when the conditions are similar to the conditions here in ~December.

Josh

Josh, thanks for your reply. I can see now we agree. I wasn't sure earlier. Please excuse my somewhat pedantic and redundant rhetorical style. I just wanted to be perfectly clear about my meaning.

It's not so easy to be unambiguous about the point. It's easy for folks to get the wrong idea, and I tried to make the point several different ways. I read and reread your first post, and obviously thought you were saying something that you were not.

Thanks again for your gracious response. I must admit being surprised at what I thought your were saying, since your posts here have always been the work of someone who knows what they are talking about. Please accept my sincere apology for my tone and style.

Brad

Whenever someone gets confused about the hemisphere phenomenon, the following point is clear:

If I planted a Japanese maple in the springtime in Australia (which is fall in the northern hemisphere) then what will happen?:
A- the plant will be leafless by December in Australia because maples in the USA have already become deciduous, or
B- the plant will be in full leaf because December is Australian summer.

Much of S and SW Africa, where so many collectible succulents are found, receives precipitation and heavy fog during the African fall and winter months. Some plants (Conophytum, for example) will only grow at this time of year when the temps have cooled down.

Most S African succulents, however, are opportunistic and take advantage of moisture whenever it comes because in habitat, it may be years before the rains return. But even opportunistic perennial species shut down during the hottest time of year, probably because they have evolved to survive the extended and predictable droughts.

This behavior is characteristic of cultivated plants for the most part. In fact, if you overwater a dormant plant, you are putting the plant in harm's way because it will not use the water for growth, instead a wet, stagnant soil promotes fungal activity to which the plants have a low resistance.

Another point to consider is that many S African succulents like light, frequent watering vs. A heavy weekly watering. Some species can be watered almost daily without harm when actively growing and flowering.

So don't sit your plants in the hot baking sun because you think that is how they live in habitat. On the contrary, in habitat one will find healthy plants under a shrub or besides some large rocks where they are afforded some protection from the hot sun.

Know your plants!

X

And I thank you, Brad!
I apologize for adding any confusion.

Josh

Hi .....thinking of all that you guys said wooooo thats alot....
I couple of summers ago I had a small jade and it just was falling apart..so I set it on the west side of my house and my peonies grew up over the jade and I forgot all about it...after it froze here that fall and I was cleaning up my frozen off peonies I found my dying jade, it was beautiful the trunk had gotten bigger and the new growth was very nice I was amazed....soooooooo this is what you guys are saying that the jade liked the shade and dryness unter the peonies better then the full sun and regular watering....right????? linda

Linda,

No, I don't believe that's being said at all.

You and your plant would do well to read the number of posts in the last few pages on 'jades' or 'Crassula ovata' - your knowledge and appreciation for this plant will increase tenfold.

Crassula ovata likes a lot of light - if you can't give it that, it should be dry. Crassulas as a genus tend to do their growing/flowering during the short daylight hours of the year, when it's also cooler. That's not to say that they won't grow in the heat of the summer - they will, just at a reduced rate.

There have been thousands of words written, by folks who grow them much better than I do, on this plant. You'd gain a lot of knowledge reading the posts on the plant.

Hi cactusmcharris,
Yes I am reading and my jade are doing lots better and I will read alot more..as I said I really love this plant and the pictures that everyone has posted have made me love this plant even more and that is why I am always here reading and searching...thank you, linda

I think I fried my poor little brain today! LOL!!

Gosh, I've read so mcuh!

I've put me together a note book, and print things I find useful! It sure helps and I hate storing everhthing in the computer. I like to curl up and actually hold a book!