Thanks Laurent.

Wow, STUNNING!!! I had to bump this one up again! Mine is growing like a weed because I fertilizer and never reverts back to green..It stays just as colorful in the winter as it did all summer...Thank goodness...I think I will root a few cuttings too...Good work all..
Hello Ben)

Hi Mike, nice to see you here again. If you find some time it would be nice if you can make some pictures of your plants, too. Its always interesting to see the progress ....

Hi Mike! Missed you! And would love to see pictures of your babies!

Hey Ben, I hope you are ok over there..Did you ever get a cold harsh winter like we are getting? I will take pics soon, definitely,.I wish you the best)

Camellia..Thank you I will .I wish you all the best too)

Hi !

I have removed some leaves to see why my little Legolas was producing so many "albino" leaves.
In fact, half of the main stem is green/variegated while the other side is totaly albino.
I hope that it won't degenerate into a 100% albino plant that will die. I will try to select a cutting with a better balanced variegation as soon as possible.

Laurent

Legolas with its orange friend :

Very interesting! I hope it all works out for you and begins to grow.

These are hard to get. I guess cuttings are more readily available in Europe than US?

Camellia, no it's not available here. Ben grows one too but I don't know if someone else grows Legolas in Europe.

Where did Legolas originate, Laurent, do you know?

I got mine from Glen Lord (USA) but I ignore if he selected this variegated form or if he imported it from another country like Japan for example.

Laurent, good luck with your Legolas ... hopefully it will get more green over this year.

I guess all Legolas cuttings originally came from Glen ... Josh and Mike have one, too. Glen also sold them on ebay but nobody was really interested at that time.

I have two little cuttings but both suffer from to much albino leaves like Laurents plant :(

Thanks for the answers, Laurent and Ben.

Ben, do you have a recent photo of your Legolas ?

Laurent, here some pictures of my two Legolas plants. The smaller one was the first cutting I got from Glen two or three years ago. It had grown already twice as big as is it now, However, last year I cutted back most of the albino branches. Unfortunatelly the new growth seems to be again albino, even though on the picture it appears to be light green ... but in Legolas it is the same as with ovata variegata and young albino leaves start with a green appearence and than get more pale over time ...

But i don't give up and hope that on one of these two there will be some new branches with a better balance of green and white in future.

kind regards,

Ben

... here an older picture of Glens mother plant in 2013 before he took the cuttings.

Nice pics ! Thank you Ben !

"young albino leaves start with a green appearence" ...reading this ruined my day lol

sorry for the bad news.

I guess the highest chance to recover your plant to the green side would be to cut it down to that part of the stem that once had the more greener leaves. However, on such a small cutting the risk to loose the plant might be high. Alternatively you could try to take leaf cuttings of better balanced leaves. As we saw here in other threads on GW sometimes leaf-cuttings could also lead to variegated plants ... even though in most cases they result in either completely green or white plants.

Unfortunately I can't cut it, the balanced coloration was at the soil level.
It will soon be too hot to propagate crassulas here. I will let it grow until october and see what to do next. I hope that it won't degenerate to albino nor reverse to green.

Ben, what type of fertlizer do you use ?

Thanks Laurent, I was reading your last sentence as though they were...LOL!

Mike has commented on another thread that his is growing like a weed with fertilizer and hasn't reverted back to green. I hope he post pictures soon; would love to see his plants. The last picture I remember seeing was a pretty good size one.

Laurent, i fertilize my plants very rarely with standard cacti fertilizer. However, when i see the plants of Mike i maybe should change my frequencies ...

Hey, LOVE all the jades here. I am looking for some direction on varietal names. What am i looking for if i want the non-variegated version of Legolas? Ben, you mentioned you think it is Skinny Fingers, but I have not had much luck finding one of those. Are any other names used? I am also in Boston (seems like there are lots of Jade lovers around here!). Do they ever turn up at Mahoney's?

There seems to be some debate over the differences of 'Gollum' and 'Skinny Fingers'. Personally I call them all C. ovata 'Gollum'.

-Erica

In my country the name 'Skinny Fingers' is not used, we use 'Lady Fingers' even if it's difficult to know if it's a valid name or not.

Thanks ehuns and Laurent. I also found this post after some digging:

gmaculata(5):

"Just a little Book keeping of my own as a note the Variegated 'Gollum' as it is called here several times is actually my cultivar called 'Legolas' just want to make sure that people see that and use the name so there is no confusion. The plant actually is a variegated sport of 'Fine Finger' and not 'Gollum' and when kept more dry and less food will exhibit the proper growth habit."

It is from this thread: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1776969/colorful-jades-after-a-long-winter

Thanks all. Still need some advice on where to find a 'Fine Finger'Jade in Mass or online. Just love the look of them.

I would just check around at local nurseries. They are not particularly rare. I got mine from my Mom who picked it up for me at a really small local nursery in town.

It seems like this species is more prevalent in Japan, been searching the Japanese names, and found these..

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/nihonkakiryuutuu/item/10001493/?s-id=borderless_browsehist_en

Gorham Nishiki

http://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/w119274577

Bernardyjh, the first photo is not Legolas, it's variegated Gollum.

The second photo is a non-variegated Lady/Skinny/Fine Fingers (I ignore which name is the valid one)

Maybe we can simply call them Finger Jades?

Josh

Did somebody try to grow Gollum variegata or Legolas from leaf? I know, that when you grow it via this way, it go to green or white without chrorofyl. But sometimes it can have the same properties as mother - variegated.

Martin

BTW: Josh, Glen, Mike - I am still looking for Legolas or Gollum Variegata to my collection, if you have some cutting for sale, could you please contact me? Email is under my profile. Thanks, Martin

Josh, do you propose to call "Finger jades" just the not clearly identified monstruous jades like Lady/Skinny Fingers or like Nancy's Trumpet-shaped jade ? Or do you also include Gollum and Hobbit ?

I would assume there are 3 separate varieties. The Hobbit, Gollum, and Finger jades. I see clear differences in each of the leaves and how they grow. I think the ones that are considered Trumpet jades would fall under the Gollum name.

-Erica

Yes, as Erica says: 'Hobbit,' 'Gollum,' and then the non-'Gollum' Finger Jades (those with narrowing tips). I call 'Hobbit' a spoon Jade rather than a finger Jade.

Josh

OK I understand, thank you ;)

Thanks for the clarification, so I should be safe to say finger jades have its leaves grown structurally in thin tips. Right?

Bernard - You are correct; Finger Jades have thin leaves and tips. Mine are also usually a bit longer than my Gollum leaves that are grown similarly in culture.

-Erica

Erica, can you please help me decipher these once more?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/95934203/3-large-finger-jade-succulent-cuttings?ref=shop_home_active_9

The seller claims they are finger jades, but they look like gollums to me. Really confused with telling them to the tee.

Hi Bernard, I saw this same listing :).

From the angles they posted pictures from they do appear to be Finger jades. I believe Gollum leaves have a larger suction cup appearance and this is why they are also commonly referred to as Trumpet jades. I find these harder to come across.

When I shop online I tend to place a heavy emphasis on the photo they offer rather than their ID.

Culture tends to create varying leaf shapes and sizes so focus on distinctive features that never change :).

-Erica

Thanks Erica!

I get effy sometimes when it comes to pictures, because they use one generic photo for all their cuttings, so my next best line of option is read their description.

Probably I'm still new to these, but these jades do look like they have the occasional tooth like heads, I just assumed they have to be all thin tipped to be consider fingers.

Do u plan to buy them? I'm looking into it once my new pot of soil arrives. Cheers -Bernard

Bernard - I do not plan to buy them, I already have one.

Please excuse the horrendous lighting in this picture...

I know what you mean about generic pictures. I just try to find someone reputable by looking at their reviews, etc. Once I find a good seller I tend to keep an eye on their new plants.

-Erica

Hey Erica, does Jades (particularly finger ones like yours) apply to the "pots must be relative to plant size" issue? Your jade looks kindda too big for the pot and some of the leaves look a little crispy. But it's still a great plant!!

I just re-potted so that's why the leaves are shriveled. It should bounce back in a couple good weather weeks.

Especially with gritty mix I think you can grow them in any container you'd like as long as there is a drainage hole and it's not fostering moisture and humidity.

-Erica

Hi I saw your posts about the variegated gollum or legolas plants. I was wondering how you got them from Glen Lord? Does he have a site and for how much was he selling them for? Please let me know since I am very interested in this plant!

my email is jyk032003@yahoo.com if more convenient by email, thanks! Jim

Jim, the variegated Gollum is a very rare and slow growing Japanese cultivar (and fragile), it's not from G. Lord.
It's sometimes sold in Asia ( auctions most of the time) and very rarely on international ebay auctions (sold at high price).
The demand is encreasing every year but not the production. That's why it gets more and more expensive.

From what I know, G. Lord is a private collector who just gave a cutting of his Legolas to his very best friends and sold a few other cuttings on ebay auctions. I bought mine on ebay a few years ago. I think It hasn't been proposed for sale again.

As new rare variegated jades cultivars have been identified recently, the private collectors prefer to exchange cuttings in order to expand their collection. They only sell one cutting on ebay when the exchange is not possible and they need cash to buy a new expensive plant.

- Update -

Winter is over. My Legolas is growing and branching. It might be stunning soon. I will post new photos next october.

Just revisiting this thread since 'Legolas' recently came up again. I really like these variegated tube and "skinny finger" jades. They can be a little more work than their all-green siblings but they are fun to grow and look cool when/if well grown. A few neat ones in this thread.

I just saw on Ebay,a seller just sold a 2" unrooted piece of Legolas and it went for $132.00 plus shipping. Guess I'll never see one in my plant collection...... and I do envy them.

sharon

I think the variegated Gollum is much prettier, to be honest. Much rarer too, I think, though. But they seem to be very delicate - if they show too little green they hardly grow, or even die. Both types. I do think, though, Laurent, yours is the nicest Legolas I've seen. They look better with a trunk.