Jade

Although I get to the greenhouse every few days to do off-season chores, in reality my greenhouse in winter is our garage, which currently is heated to 55 degrees. It has two south-facing windows and a closet with grow lights. With the door shut and the grow lights on, it gets up to the low 60s in the closet. With all of my garage space already crammed with garden and house plants at various stages of development, I decided now would be a good time to add more succulents to the collection.

The two plants I have had for decades are succulents (Aloe Vera and Cuban Oregano), and I do have a Thanksgiving cactus, but I decided to branch out and add a jade plant. I found a tiny one in a two-inch plastic pot at WalMart for $3.97. I potted it in a four-inch terra cotta pot using commercial cactus soil. Since this is going to be a slow-growing plant, I thought it would be a good idea to document the starting point so I can see if it is actually doing anything. The official height at the start is 2.25 inches.

My sister gave me the Thanksgiving Cactus last summer. I don't have a "before" picture to prove it, but I think it has grown quite a bit and is now six inches tall. It had been in a 4-inch pot with potting soil, and I repotted it in a 6-inch pot with catcus soil.

In all the reading I've done on succulents lately, rule #1 is "Don't overwater." I will try to abide by that, but the aloe and Cuban Oregano have always soaked up all the water I have dumped on them. I usually have four or five of each going at a time. Upon further reflection, perhaps it is no coincidence that my best examples of these two are in terra cotta pots which allow the soil to dry out, and the ugly-looking ones are in plastic pots which hold in the moisture.