When I got Jade #2 on February 11 at Ace Hardware, I knew it had at least five stems and needed to be divided, but I decided to wait until summer. I procrastinated, but today was the day.
I already have a number of Jade plants. This first image shows just what I have on the back patio. In addition to these, I have five propagations (leaves and stem cuttings) in the garage window, and Jade #1 at the greenhouse. With the division, I'll be up to 15 Jades, and I'm not sure where I will put them all in November. What I really want is a couple of BIG Jades, not 15 small ones.
From left, #2 rooted cutting, #2 main plant, another #2 rooted cutting, and the #1 rooted cutting. The two existing #2 cuttings here were put in 2-inch pots soon after I got the plant, and after about a month when it was apparent that they were rooting (the tug test), I potted them in what you see here. I got Jade #1 in January at Walmart, and one of the three stems was rotting. I beheaded and planted it January 27, and it has slowly developed in six months into what is shown below. It had a short stem due to the rot and has always been low to the soil, so I wanted to raise it up a bit in its new pot. As I have mentioned before, #2 has always been a much brighter green than #1, and you can see it in the following images.
It turned out that #2 had six stems, not five, and here they are after I cut them apart. They were packed tightly together and I thought I was doing well to lose only one leaf in the process. I put the ones that looked best with the biggest root balls at center, and those got the biggest pots. Jade do not need a root ball to start growing, but I figured it wouldn't hurt. The loose leaf went into the propagation bowl in my office. I suspect that these six big pieces were never just one plant, that the wholesaler put a bunch of small plants into one pot because they would grow to a saleable size faster. They do this with things like supermarket basil all the time. I have at least five basil plants that were teased out of one pot a few months ago.
Here is the #1 root ball. Not massive, but there was something there to work with.
This is the result. The #1 cutting is at lower left and is (as planned) riding higher in its new pot. Most of the #2 plants have a lean to them from being jammed into the same pot all these months. I haven't watered them in yet and won't for a few days, so there is still the opportunity to give them a few tugs to straighten them out.
Total tangent, but this image demonstrates that there are differences in size among pots supposedly the same. The two terra cotta in the back row are described as 6-inch, but the one on the left is obviously wider and taller. The three terra cotta in the front are all 4-inch, but the one in the center is a bit wider.
And here is the new centerpiece of my Jades in the 7-inch green ceramic pot that I recently liberated from a coleus. This is the one I hope develops into a tree, and if not I have 14 backups.
I took delivery of the greenhouse almost a year ago, July 29, 2025. I was so excited when I saw arrival of the truck carrying it that I forgot my phone was sitting on the back of my truck. It fell off as I drove away to greet the driver and somehow I ran over it. I replaced it with a hand-me-down from my spouse, and that one lasted until a week ago when I dropped it one too many times. The bathroom floor tile took out the screen, as in totally blank. Today I received the replacement for that, a Samsung S25, not a flagship phone but the closest to it I have ever had. My first tryout of the camera was my visit to the greenhouse today. Here is the very purple Jade #1, acquired January 17, 2026.
Jade is Crassula Ovata, and I also have a number of other Crassulas in the greenhouse including this Crassula capitella ssp. Thyrsiflora 'Pagoda Village' acquired from Mountain Crest Gardens May 16. I saw the little white spots on the stalks and wondered what that was all about. They are little flowers. Supposedly Jade will flower but I haven't seen it yet.
The Samsung camera has a top resolution of 50 Mp, more than the 45 Mp of my Canon R5 Mark II, which I often refer to as the world's most powerful mirrorless camera. While it seems the Samsung will make a fine point-and-shoot device, there is more to image quality than the number of pixels, and my initial impression is the phone does not hold a candle to the R5. The closeup image is less sharp the further away you get from the middle. The Samsung doesn't even hold a candle to my 10-year-old 24.2 Mp Canon M100 and 22mm f/2 lens, which I used for all of the images on the patio today. (In its development of mirrorless cameras, Canon abandoned the M line in favor of the R line, but I use my deprecated M100 now more than ever because of its compact size and built-in flash.) There are some modes that I haven't tried yet with the Samsung, including a RAW mode, but I don't think that will cover up the flaws inherent in a lens that is much smaller than the glass mounted on either the R5 or the M100.
I'm not going to count on the S25 for macro images, but for wider scenes it is OK. Here is an image of most of the greenhouse succulents, probably a bit oversharpened.
Next day: I figured how to use the RAW mode and change the f/stop. My conclusion is it is horrendous and I'm better off with a real camera. The basic camera mode on the phone takes JPG images better than the so-called "Expert RAW" DNG files, so I get to delete that icon from my home screen.