Crassula ovata, commonly known as Jade Plant, is a common houseplant that even novice gardeners can grow successfully. Getting a Jade Plant to bloom requires mimicking its native growing conditions. Lack of water, cool nights, and bright days encourage the plant to form buds and finally flowers. It is a bit of a trick, but you can fool your plant into producing pretty star-shaped, white to pink flowers in late winter.
Jade Plant is primarily known for its thick, glossy, fleshy leaves. This succulent reproduces by vegetative means but can also flower and produce seeds. We often hear, "my Jade Plant does not bloom," and strive to provide information on what may cause a Jade Plant not to flower and how to promote blooms in reluctant plants.
Jade Plant grows for many years without blooming. Even in its native habitat, the plant must mature before forming flowers. Among the many Jade Plant flowering requirements is an arid ambient environment. Interior conditions are often too humid for the plant to form buds.
Getting a Jade Plant to bloom will require you to remove it to a dry location, withhold water, and expose it to cooler nighttime temperatures. Of course, your plant should be an older species for blooming, or you will still not find a single flower. Given the right setting and environment, a Jade Plant not flowering may simply not be old enough to reproduce.
Getting a Jade Plant to Bloom
All plants need the environment they would experience naturally to promote flowering and fruiting. Some require a dormancy period, some a photoperiod, and other extreme environmental conditions.
Jade Plant flowering requirements are a combination of all three. The plant does not exactly enter dormancy, but it does require a rest period before buds form. As the days become shorter, reduce watering and do not fertilize.
Keep the plant in an area of 60 °F (12 °C) during fall but protect it from freezing. Blossoms should start to form around the shortest days of the year and bloom in late winter to early spring. These little star-shaped flowers are produced in clusters at the tips of branches and are short-lived.
Once the flowers fade and the stalk becomes brown, you can cut off the flowering stem. Begin to increase water and temperature as the spring progresses. In summer, move the plant outdoors gradually to an area with some protection from searing sun rays, but it is bright for most of the day.
Water when the surface of the soil is dry. Jade Plant likes to be crowded, so it rarely needs repotting to a larger container, but it needs fresh soil every three years. Repot after the flowers have bloomed and at least a month before you move the plant outdoors for summer. Use a good potting mix for succulents for a plant left indoors but add a bit of humus-rich soil to a plant taken outside.
From spring to late summer, monthly fertilize with a diluted balanced liquid fertilizer. However, do not expect annual blooms, as the plant needs time to store adequate energy for this infrequent floral spectacle.
Source: gardeningknowhow.com
Links
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