Jade group first put together in February 2013

Jade group first put together in February 2013

Succulents make great bonsai, and one of the most common is the Jade plant or Crassula. There are many different types of Crassula, some with large thick succulent leaves whilst others have tiny leaves. They have flowers but some flower more readily than others in my experience.

This is a Jade bonsai group (Crassula ovata) that has been developed for just under two years after staring with a developed Jade plant already that had been grown in a flower pot. The majority of stems are suckers from the original plant and the stems have been cut to different heights to achieve a group effect. The leaves initially were large and pale green with a slight red tinge as the Jade plant had been kept outside during the summer months.

It is now kept inside and the leaves are much darker in colour and also less fleshy and have started top reduce in size following regular pruning. The pruning has been to focus on removing large leaves plus the new growth tips to encourage further bud and leaf development so the group now has more leaves but smaller ones.

One error that will not be repeated was to try to get the leaves to shine more prior to a show and in order to achieve this leaf shine was used on the leaves. However this caused them to go mushy, the chemicals in the leaf shine potentially caused the cells in the leaves to burst and the leaves across the whole group wilted, went mushy and the group ended up totally defoliated which was initially a concern but the leaves came back quite quickly.

If you are keen to know more about Jade plants then check out a new article on epic gardening which is well worth a read too.