HI Grace

each and every one is unique in it own way.

looks kike you have been doing an excellent job, don't be afraid to chop them they will grow back even fuller. luv them all.

Richard

They are so well-grown and healthy-looking, Grace. A joy to look at.

Grace, they must all love your care as they look fantastic! Thanks for showing them!

Gorgeous!!

Wow, love that cute yellow rosette one in the second last pic. Lol, variegatas.

Grace- thank you for sharing your pics. I love all of them but, my favorite one is on the right side of the blue planter. I think you have panda plants in the blue one. What plant is to the right of that one?

How did you grow it like that? pruning ?

Hello, I think think they are so beautiful...YOu know what I noticed? The mix you are using///Is that the Gritty Mix or something like it? Now under they look so vibrant! Great job

What are the exact ingredients in your mix for those interested if you don't mind?

Grace - Those two unknown plants/cuttings in the front of your 5th picture are pretty neat! I'm going to assume you already know the ones in the back are Senecio crassissimus.

That mound on the right... I REALLY want to know what it is. There are two at my local nursery but they're not for sale and look incredible (easily 5x the size of yours).

Do you think it is Crassula pubescens subs. radicans? Ugh, it bothers me every time I see it that I don't know what it is and nobody local is selling it.

Anyway, great photos. =)

Thanks Richard. I don't have any qualms about pruning other plants but the thought about chopping this one gives me nausea!

Neil, that's a Jade, though I have no idea which variety it is. How you get that is to NEVER prune LOL. I haven't touched it in almost 10 years...but I can't imagine it's good for a plant to never be pruned when it can be. Like I said, I've done as much as I can for 2015. Maybe I'll take pruners to it in 2016. :-)

Mikerno,

Thanks! This is indeed a variation of gritty mix. Mine is usually made of much larger pieces that can always be reused. In this case, it's perlite and lava rocks (1/3 each) and about 1/6 each of pea gravel and something called river rocks. I sort of use whatever I want as long as the sizes are what I want but the one ingredient I always keep is perlite. So long as it's screened, I love the stuff. And it's so light, which helps a lot with gritty mix.

I tend to overwater (uh, tend? lol) so I wanted something really loose and one that wouldn't hold water because I *want* to water. Furthermore my sprinklers...between me and the sprinklers, some plants were sure to drown. So I changed it up.

I tend to use equal parts of all when planting water sensitive plants like Lithops but with my jades, the little extra of perlite and lava rocks works well. And with other pots where I don't get to them as often, I often toss in one part peat to increase the moisture a tad.

It looks clean, too. :-)

There's another rock I usually used but it's so expensive at $48 per bag vs these which range from $11-33 per bag. Seems the darker the rocks, the more expensive.

But in general, as long as I use perlite, have one particle that is slightly larger than the others and then fill the rest with whatever chunks or pebbles I can find, it works great.

I imagine this would be a nightmare mix for those who underwater, though. If I go a whole week without watering, some plants would definitely be affected negatively.

Eww, just for you, I looked up what the mound is. I kept thinking Crassula Swayze, lol--but as I typed it in, the name came up. (Whatever did we do before Google??)

The mound is Crassula swaziensis. :-) I can give you the whole plant when you come down to build my indoor setup. OK? ;-)

You may be right on that ID for those two unknown plants, eww! They had roots, all dried up though, but they're on the mend. Perhaps when they start to resemble what they are SUPPOSED to be, I can verify your ID. The name doesn't even sound remotely familiar and I have no idea which pot it came out of...I have a lot of overgrown plants where I find mystery plants under other things..so maybe something like that.

I hope it's what you guessed. That is awfully cute.

I'm so entranced by that plant. I wish we knew what variety of jade it is. Leaf growth seems to only be on the very tips of the long, thin stems. That's exactly what i love about it.

As Neil said, that's an entrancing plant - like tufts of hair on calico Caramella Fluffbucket's feet is what they remind me of. Nice collection of plants, Grace, and they're grown so well. With those larger pots, if I may suggest something of benefit, you could put more organic matter (sifted top soil / potting soil) - this will help those larger plants grow better, and there's no real concern of overwatering as they're large and your mix is proper porosity defined.

Neil. I only have 2 million cuttings going LOL. Want one?

I've sent some cuttings out and once in awhile, I feel like cutting one completely south-hanging branch so I root those. Couple of my friends took some cuttings and they've not killed it (amazing!). The growth continues like this.

I would love to have an ID on this Jade but I think it isn't possible because it's so strangely overgrown.

Here are some other shots I got that show the leaves:

Cactus, I did just that! :-) Well, not a lot of Pro-Mix but at least 1 part of Pro-Mix to 8-9 of gritty mix. This plant lives out front, and while my other jades are here only during the colder weather, they'll go back to the backyard come spring. The sun here is just too much. So they get a lot of attention paid to them whereas my front plants have gotta make it on their own for at least a week to sometimes two weeks. So nearly all of them out here have some potting mix in them. Additionally, I had grown this in all regular potting mix for years and only repotted it last month because I dreaded messing with it. lol It's a little dehydrated still, but nothing catastrophic, and because I messed with the roots so much, it's gotta adjust still, I imagine. I have watered it about three times so far. But the addition of a little peaty soil should help it along.

That is all I can do for it this year. I'll grow some balls and chop it next year, though I've now said this for about five years.

I only have my tougher plants out here. One Ficus, one Opuntia, and a pot of Aeonium that I combined (which are scorching but will have to work it out lol--I moved them back behind a pillar on the porch) that was put out here recently, and that big windowbox pot of jades shown in the original post and a couple mixed pots. Come next summer, it's likely I'll have to move some of them back to the backyard. We'll see.

Grace that would be awesome!

Please Grace, what's the blue plant in the blue pot beside the plant you were just talking about?

Grace, your collection is beautiful. Thanks for posting the pictures. Love all the different colors of the plants.

Neil, PM me your address. I'll send it tomorrow. :-)

Marguerite, that's a Kalanchoe tomentosa. Really adorable and hardy plant. :-) They should be readily available, I would think? But if not, let me know and I can send a cutting of that off to you, too, assuming you're in the U.S. These are also called Panda Plants, I believe. It multiplies really rapidly.

Thanks, Josh! Are you referring to my yellowing one? That IS a Sunset Jade? Is that also the same as Hummel's Sunset or different? How can you tell? And why does it burn so easily?? If you don't know, who knows, Josh? You're the Jade man!

I can see the difference in Gollum but not much else. I think the one next to it was Crassula monstrosa or something and it just looks like a mix of everything, smushed.

Ok thanks Grace!

Yep, 'Hummel's Sunset.' The coloration on the leaf-margin is how I identify it.

Josh

Thank you, Grace.

The plant on the Grace's last pics is 'Crosby's Compact', isn't it?

Oks, I have no clue! It does look like yours, quite red on the margin and a good mix of yellow in leaves, but it isn't compact. lol

Are all mini jades of the 'Crosby's Compact' variety? Or are there more?

Neil, I got your message though not the notification. Houzz won't let me reply! It keeps telling me "please enter your phone" --what does that MEAN?

Can you toss me an email? It's my < grace @ sffood dot net> --- remove all space and dot it a period. :-) I will get this out to you tomorrow as I'm already out of the house today!

Ok Grace I will try.

Grace

I don't know if all mini jades are variety of the 'Crosby's Compact'.

Happy Holidays, y'all! It's wintertime here in California--well, as winter as it gets here. It's been cold enough to freeze quite a few of my plants overnight, even succulents, but mostly in the backyard....which means it's way too cold for me and I lose all interest in outdoor activities. I seem to spend most of my winters under a blanket reading a book or catching up on TV shows.

But today, it's 64, and I finally peeked out at my jades basking in the southern sun in front. My oldest jade is blooming, but the others are all changing colors drastically. I've only brought all my tricolor or whiter jades indoors, since they seem more sensitive to the elements than the others, though they have never actually frozen in years past.

Heres my biggest one; can you see the blooms? :-) I will give this a hard pruning in spring, but I've said that for years.

This one is reddening up nicely. All of my mini jades seem to redden up more than my regular jades.

Mine of my regulars....needs water but oh well.

Not sure why I stuck my lavender seeding in this pot, but it's filled in nicely. Not sure where to move it, so I'll keep it there for now until spring.

So, just a little update and HI!

Grace

Grace, thanks for that terrific bunch of photos. How can you get such high temps in the day and frost at night?

Thank you, Marguerite! Well, when it's this warm, we won't drop that low but with highs of 55 during the day, it'll drop below 40 into the mid-30s easily. I'm not sure which day and at what temp these guys croaked on me but between that and the ridiculous wind we've had, I have some atrociously hideous plants out there!

Case in point, lol:

I doubt they will actually DIE, but I'll leave them as-is until the lows are not as cold, then prune them back to see if they bounce back. My Clivia plants and Aeonium are the most affected and based upon a quick scroll, one jade cutting I started but left out back has also frozen and defrosted. A few echeveria don't look so hot either.

Grace,

Super healthy looking plants, all beautiful. Thanks for sharing. I particularly like the 5th photo in your last big post - they look so full of energy, like they're getting ready to launch towards outer space. I think those are C. ovata ssp obliqua? Or something else? Whatever they are, I hope to someday make any plant that happy!

Daniel

Great shots! Yes, the small leaf Jades generally color up much better than the large.

Daniel, those do look to be Crassula ovata at all. I think the thicker clumps are Senecio jacobsenii ('Trailing Jade') and I don't know what the longer leafed plant is.

Josh

Got some update shots today as I brought out some of my jades to be watered. Perfect day for photos too -- cloudy but not freezing cold.

I laughed a little today, recollecting that we rented an additional SUV one-way during our move just to house my plants. (And for what it's worth, the our own SUV was used to house all the wine! Yes, I have issues.) From the ones I brought, so many burnt to a crisp, and some are still recuperating indoors, and others, all I have left are cuttings I managed to take, if there were any. My big jade that my grandmother started somehow mysteriously perished shortly after. It somehow rotted from the top of the plant, all the way down one stem. It did get damaged en route when another pot fell on top of it, but I didn't think there was major damage...but can't imagine how else it would allow in water from above. I managed to save the other large stem, but it's been sitting here for months not doing anything. I do have like 20 million cuttings, some even thrown into the ground, so...

I also received -- well, no, it was more like I couldn't stop talking about it so my friend gave it to me -- but anyway, isn't this jade a little weird (the one in front)? It looks like a regular jade but sort of different. I made 3 little pots from her one pot and have them indoors and outdoors now.

Anyway, here are today's guys. Come May or so, they'll all have to go back indoors, but they've overwintered without anyone croaking, so that's a plus:

I love this guy. He's weird. He always looks like he's ailing over winter, but then he chugs right along. In fact, I don't remember the last time he looked really healthy or normal, but there's also nothing really wrong with him either. Getting burnt didn't help him, but he'd have looked similar to this regardless. He looks like this even when fed properly, paid attention to, or forgotten for months. I recently repotted him, so we'll see. A trooper.

Finally coloring up outside. :)

Miss Priss is very sensitive so she never gets to go outside except to be watered. But she has now found a nice space in front a southern window so...she'll be okay. The photo of her as a baby is from 2013 when she first got planted into gritty mix! Cute.

Technically not a "jade," but a relative, sort of. :)

That's it for now!

Did I read correctly that you were able to save a lot of your grandmother's plant, right?

That is a beautiful collection, Grace!

They all look wonderful! You're bringing them back indoors in May? Is it too hot to summer them outdoors in LV?

Maybe the front one in the second pic is a Hummel's Ghost (variegated Hummel's Sunset)??

Grace

They look wonderful :) Which one are you referring as ..."Technically not a "jade," but a relative, sort of"...?

They could probably live in LV with some suspended shade cloth and some drip or buried irrigation but that would be a serious project. You could always use the shade cloth as protection on particularly chilly nights. It would be a neat tool for the extremes of the seasons to extend your outdoor growing time. I'm not sure how far you could make it go where you live though.

Rina, I was referring to the “Blue Waves” or whatever that one is called. Well, I suppose it is a jade in terms of C. ovata, but it’s not a “jade jade” to me. :) It also grows so smooshed together that it hardly looks like a jade.

Laticauda,
Yeah, I almost always have some cuttings of that plant somewhere. I just pruned the tips off of some cuttings I was growing out yesterday, but they grow pretty fast. Did you want one?

Shade cloth requires some kind of frame to be built, right? Ugh...I don’t know if that is my kind of thing, though I really do need some solution more so for my tomatoes and peppers than the succulents, which I can easily bring in. But between the houseplants and succulents all wanting prime sun, it’s so congested and wild around my southern and eastern windows.

Hi Liz!
Well, after being devastated at how quickly my plants roasted out there after I spent so much money and energy hauling them over, I’m not sure I want to risk it again. I was running a literal infirmary all summer through fall, trying to recover just one cutting or piece on every windowsill in the house.

I changed out the soil in most of my pots from gritty mix to potting soil with perlite in hopes of maybe increasing their ability to survive out there, but I think perhaps I did too much perlite because they are drying out rapidly.

Guess I’ll have to see. Thanks!

Beautiful plants you have there, thanks for sharing them!

I agree with Liz in her comment that the front one in the pic of the three you spoke about earlier does look very much like a small Hummel’s Ghost :-)

Gill

Hi Gill - is Hummel's Ghost a different name for Hummel's Sunset?
The yellow one in that picture is a Sunset, and I suppose this could just be younger and different growing conditions, but something about the leaves are... "creamy" or "milky," for lack of a better word in my vocabulary.

How are your jades recovering from that sudden freeze?

Coco chunks hold a LOT of water but require somewhat of a learning curve but I'd think it would stand up to the LV heat better than most other things.

Also you could do a lean-to style shade house for your tomatoes and stuff. They have all kinds of ideas for growing out there. Try to connect with some gardeners out there , they'll know all the tricks, secrets and short cuts!