Looks like it to me, but I'd defer to those with more experience. What does your cousin say?

He sent me a message ( attached) . however he bought it as Jade plant from a nursery.

Because the leaves are much finer it looks more like Portulacaria afra - often used for bonsai.

https://fyi.uwex.edu/mastergardener/files/2015/12/Portulacaria_afra.pdf

This is an article that talks of Elephant bush portulaca. I am more confused now as they seems to be a crassula portulacaria in this post

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/grow-crassula-portulacaria-21892.html

Now need to find out how to know the difference if any...

Sabji, I'm not good enough with these to tell the difference from the photo, but here are a couple of links that review distinguishing features between the two.

https://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/32992/how-to-differentiate-between-portulacaria-afra-and-crassula-ovata

https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2224

https://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/32992/how-to-differentiate-between-portulacaria-afra-and-crassula-ovata

this link tries to differentiate,.. but,...?

Karen, Thanks !! I was looking at the same info too and posted without looking that you had already posted it. Same here, i did not know the difference.

Casa lester Wow!! Thank you so much!! I will pass this info to him. Thank you. both!!!

Vlad, am thinking I really need to visit.

Hey, is there a spring exchange started yet? I always have problems finding that...

Vlad

Yes. You need to save links to the exchange forum:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/carolina-garden-exchange
where all swap-related announcements are made,
as well as the primary Carolina forum (parent of this thread):
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/carolgard/
where lots of interesting stuff is being posted - we never see you there :-( .

Catching up with a few pictures from the fall.

Flowering Rhipsalis from the Spring 2017 swap (Karen's R. agudoensis?):

After a few attempts to squeeze out Huernia zebrina from Vlad, and always getting H. macrocarpa (see the first post, will share the extras at the swap), finally a success - already blooming at the stage of a barely rooted cutting:

Surprised to see a flower on a small Pachycereus pringlei purchased at HD:

This flower doesn't look at all like the flowers of P. pringlei and upon closer examination it turned out to be a dried flower from some other plant glued on to the spines of the cactus. Isn't it outrageous? There is even a Youtube video instructing how to remove this kind of fake:
How To Remove Hot Glue From A Cactus - Cactus Rescue

As seen in the picture, one of the three plants in the pot is already fully rotted and there is also rotted damage at the bases of the other two. But we were very eager to get this only one P. pringlei that was left as it is considered a faster growing saguaro replacement (known as False Saguaro) and decided to perform a radical surgery, on which we will report separately.

Thank you HD for making this unique combination available: a fake flower on a rotted false saguaro.

Les, the nursery where I got that Rhipsalis agudoensis has reviewed the ID and is now calling it a Hatiora sp. Apparently the true R agudoensis only comes from one location on one hill.

Les, I didn't have time before to watch the video, but I did just now and love this one. Right up there with the youtube dyckia dividing demo that ends in bloodshed. I've passed up cacti at the big box stores because of those fake flowers. When I started the video I thought maybe I would give it a shot, but after getting to the part where he's holding it by hand and still dabbing with alcohol ('going in with my hands ... that kinda hurts' and 'sacrifice of love ... sharp') I'm not so sure.

That's a good video ... except alcohol does nothing. The hot glue does not dissolves in alcohol. I tried pulling it, cutting it, using fire (latest try) ... I don't really believe that anything works... You may luck out and the bloom is glued on the side and then you can just pull it. If it is on the growing tip ... tough...

Vlad, maybe isopropyl alcohol works not by dissolving the glue per se but the thin wax layer that covers many succulent parts and to which the glue attaches? Maybe some succulents have no wax on their spines and cannot be easily separated from the glue? The guy has more videos and in all of them the separation seems to be working.

Maybe succulent enthusiasts should start contacting state and federal consumer protection agencies and demand that such deceitful and fraudulent product manipulation be prohibited?

Hmm maybe ... and yeah about fraud!!!

I will check his other videos out but I think it is just blunt force for the one you linked.

The last 2 I got ... let's just say that the worker that glued the flowers did a REALLY good job :-(. The glue really really REALLY got down all the pricks and in the growth point ... I used heat to take as much as I could off ... we will see if they survive!

Ananas comosus starting to flower (forming a pineapple) during winter time as a house plant:

Glaucium flavum var. aurantiacum, started from J.L. Hudson seeds in the fall of 2017 and planted out in raised concrete one year ago is blooming:

Contrary to the species name ('flavum'), the flowers of the aurantiacum variety are not yellow but orange. They last only 1-2 days, but are replaced quickly:

It is very vigorous in raised concrete - previously it suffered and finally died in our regular clay topsoil, in spite of being planted in a hot dry and well drained location in full sun.

Nice! I tried that years ago and lost it, looks like you’ve figured out what it needs to be happy in central NC.

My Notocactus bloomed this year!

And here’s Ananas Ablaze, in bloom now.

You know Karen that you're not allowed here to color your photos in Photoshop, don't you ;-) ?

Our plain Ananas still has some attractive coloring on the developing fruit and leaves:

Lester, I never mess with the color in my photos - it really looks like that! And your ’plain’ Ananas is also striking. I’m equally attracted to the flashy cultivars and the more subtle species.

We discovered that JCRA is growing Anomatheca laxa in its xeric section (in X05, under the older name Lapeirousia laxa), so we planted it out in our raised rock bed:

We were always interested to add iris-like plants to our succulent beds, but no one seems to have any xeric irises from the Reticulata group, so at least this is the first small step in that direction.

A. laxa seems to be doing equally well in regular clay-based soil:

(underplanted here with Origanum 'Norton Gold').

One of Karen's Dyckias, for several consecutive years the winner of the Most Dead Looking Plant competition, is blooming:

Nice! I'm germinating seeds of Dyckia brevifolia now so maybe I'll have some to bring to the next swap.

Hey guys, wanted to let you guys know that my greenhouse is gone! We had a microburst of wind last weekend and took 2 big pine trees down from the neighbor. Both houses were fine, everything was fine ... EXCEPT the greenhouse that got creamed! The greenhouse is unrecoverable but I have been doing a LOT of re-potting lately and pretty much all plants will be saved. LOT of work though. We also decided to re-build with the same greenhouse AND get an extra one to make it bigger.

Vlad

Horrible! Were you at home when it happened?

Oh yeah.... SCA-RYYYY

Vlad

Did the saguaro survive?

Yes, with flying colors! The Saguaro was on the retaining wall close to the deck. That got pounded with the HUGE tip of a pine tree but it missed the cacti there. ... Well, some turned but eh, no problem.

Vlad

Vlad, glad to know you and your plants are OK! !! Hope the new green house will add to your collection,

Vlad, am glad you're able to save the plants, and I'm glad this happened now and not in January when you'd have had to haul everything into the house while you rebuild. Better for your marriage this way.

Yes indeed Karen. All in all ... really lucky. ... Well, I mean, it would have been better for the trees not to fall down...

Vlad

I've only had one pine tree fall on my greenhouse so far. It pushed in one of the roof panels but didn't break it, fortunately, and it was flexible enough to snap back into place. I was really glad I didn't go for a glass house.

Speaking about seeds, our Glaucium has produced many seed pods (the elongated structures in the picture) and the seeds will be available at the Fall Swap.

Speaking of seeds...

https://youtu.be/1YH2wZ76WPY

https://youtu.be/Zd9cvbe30HE

Vlad

Nice video, the seeds are bigger than I thought cactus seeds would be. How long will they take to germinate?

And Lester, I'd love to get some of your Glaucium seeds at the swap.

Yes, Karen, I had the same shock. But cactus seeds come in all sort of sizes... No clue about the germination times ... We will see...

Good to see, Vlad, that you are following your true calling as a Youtube celebrity.

Thank you Les. Yes, indeed ... although, I will never become a youtube celebrity because I actually post useful things ... Only the ones that post trash and paparazzi type news become really big :-)!

As our Ananas matures the fruit turns golden (the stalk bent under its weight) and the leaves turn red. Plus a second flower is emerging on the right:

Here's the final image of our pineapple, fully ripened, shortly before it was eaten (credit card for size):

While smaller than what you get at the store, it was very sweet and had great flavor and aroma.

The idiocy of succulent-abusing vendors has reached a new level: now they are selling at big box stores plants with plastic brush-like "flowers" glued on and brag they are "permanent". The good news is that these fakes seem to be easier to separate as they don't fall apart as much like the fake straw flowers.

Here's our first report on successful removal of those stupid fake flowers (from the summer).

Parodia magnifica a.k.a. Notocactus magnificus has been on our wish list for a while, so we were delighted and abhorred at the same time when we saw one at HD:

One message we got from the removal videos referred above was that isopropanol was applied many times over the course of several minutes. In order not to waste so much time, we performed one generous application on the glue and put the whole plant and pot into a plastic bag to soak:

After about 15 min, the flower was easily separated:

The glue mass appeared more flexible after this soaking, but it clearly wasn't dissolved. Many spines were embedded in it at the attachment site and ended up being torn away, but no damage was done to the surface of the plant.

After 2 months, the plant has grown from the center and its balloon has expanded - the damaged/missing spines were visible as an 1 inch wide circle:

such a beautiful flowersssssssssss

Our Sansevieria cylindrica, still awkward after being divided from an overgrown rhizome, has been forming nice flower stalks over the winter:

We have neglected to report on the rescue of the Pachycereus pringlei pictured above on March 9, 2019 at 9:28PM from the double jeopardy of the fake flower and rotting stem tissue, so we need to catch up about the successful outcome.

Here's how the three plants looked in October 2018 after separation:

After several days of drying and healing the wounds, they were placed in pots and survived until June 2019:

well rooted:

The fake flower was soaked for 15 min in a plastic bag after a generous application of isopropanol:

The fake flower was separated, leaving only one areole torn off:

Will update with current pictures this summer.

WOW. VERY successful rescue! Good job Les