Jade plant

The jade plant is a shrub from the dry eastern parts of South Africa, where it grows on rocky hillsides and holds enough water in its leaves to sit out a long drought. Left alone for decades it becomes a small tree with a thick woody trunk, which is why it is such a common inheritance plant. Everything it wants indoors follows from that background: hard light, a gritty root run, a proper soak followed by real dryness, and no fuss at all in winter.

Light

Four hours of direct sun a day is the target, and more is better. A south facing window in the northern hemisphere or a north facing one in the southern suits it, and a summer outdoors is a treat as long as you introduce the sun gradually. Well lit plants stay compact, hold their leaves close together and often develop a red rim on each leaf, which is the plant’s sunscreen rather than a problem.

In poor light it does not die, it stretches. The stems lengthen, the leaves space out along them, and the whole plant becomes top heavy and starts to lean. That growth stays stretched, so the fix is more light now and a hard prune in spring.

Water

Soak and dry. Water thoroughly until it runs from the drainage hole, then leave the plant completely alone until the compost is dry all the way to the bottom. In a warm bright room that is about a fortnight in summer. In winter, in a cool room, a mature plant may want nothing for a month.

Judge it by weight rather than by the surface. The top of a gritty mix dries within a day while the middle is still wet, and a small drink every few days keeps that middle permanently damp. Wet compost around a jade’s shallow roots in a cold month is how the base goes soft, and by the time it does the plant usually cannot be saved, only re-rooted from a cutting.

Feeding and repotting

Two or three weak cactus feeds across spring and summer is all it asks, and none at all after late summer. A heavily fed jade grows soft and floppy.

Repot every three years at most, in spring, into a pot barely wider than the canopy. Choose something shallow and heavy: the roots are shallow, so depth only holds wet compost the plant cannot use, and a large jade in a light pot spends its life falling over. Do not water for a week afterwards.

Pruning and propagation

Prune in spring. Cutting or pinching a growing tip makes the plant branch just below the cut, so a few well placed cuts turn a leggy plant into a dense one over a season, and every piece you remove is a cutting.

Both methods of propagation are easy and both need patience at the start. For a leaf, twist a whole healthy one off so the base comes away cleanly, leave it on a dry surface for two or three days until the break seals, then lay it on gritty mix and water only lightly; a small rosette appears at the base within a month or two. For a stem cutting, let the cut callus for a week before potting, and wait another week before the first watering. Cut succulent tissue pushed straight into damp compost rots almost every time.

Ailments

Falling leaves that are still plump mean too much water, and that is the single most common complaint. Wrinkled leaves are the opposite and are fixed by one good soak. Stretched pale stems are a light problem. A soft brown base is stem rot and is terminal for the root ball, though the top can usually be saved as a cutting. Mealybugs hide in the leaf joints and are the one pest worth checking for. The ledger below has the details.