The jade plant’s leaves are plump little spoons of green, densely set along the branches like a miniature tree, cool and smooth to the touch. Drop one leaf onto the soil, and after a while it roots itself and grows into a new plant.

Thick Leaves Making a Little Tree

The jade plant’s leaves are plump little spoons of green, densely set along the branches like a miniature tree, cool and smooth to the touch. It grows slowly; keep an old trunk for a dozen years and the branches become woody—then it truly has the look of a tree.

Set a pot on the windowsill and year after year it keeps the same face; but to raise a real old trunk you must wait, and must be hard-hearted enough to water sparingly—most of the art of succulents is in keeping your hands off.

— Botany Notes, self-inscription —

One leaf leaves the branch and stands on its own,

by the window owing nothing to the four seasons’ wind.

Drop a Leaf and It Roots

The jade plant’s finest gift is propagation by cutting: knock a leaf onto the soil, and after a while tiny roots sprout from the leaf base, slowly pushing out a new little plant. One leaf is one way out.

That is also why it is so easy to keep. Cut a section of stem, let the wound dry, insert it in loose soil, no shade needed—it stands within weeks. Effortless propagation is its capital for living on ten thousand windowsills.

A Guest from Southern Africa

It is native to southern Africa; because it tolerates drought and is easy to keep, it has spread to windowsills all over China, where folk call it the “swallow palm” or “Sedum tree.” Many names, but all pointing to this one thick-leaved succulent shrub of the Crassulaceae.

Its flowers are small and unshowy, pinkish white, clustered at the branch tips; many people raise it for years before seeing it bloom for the first time. First-timers often say: so it can flower too.

• How to know it: Evergreen succulent subshrub; stems cylindrical, becoming woody; leaves opposite, obovate, thick and glossy; flowers small, pinkish white, blooming winter to spring.
• When to enjoy: Possible bloom from late winter to early spring; the rest of the year it is a foliage plant, leaf margins flushing faintly red in autumn sun.
• Caution: Avoid standing water and severe cold; cut watering in winter; the plant’s sap is irritating to pets—mind where you place it.

Measure on the Windowsill

Two rules for keeping it: first, light must be ample—without it the stems stretch and the leaves thin out, the so-called “etiolation”; second, water must be scarce—better drought than flood; a pot kept long moist will surely rot the roots.

In winter guard against freezing: once room temperature falls below five degrees, stop watering and move it indoors. It does not fear cold so much as cold plus wet—most of the grievances a succulent suffers are inflicted by water.

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Keywords: jade plant · leaf cutting · windowsill · Crassulaceae