A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Nooo! Not my Jade!

I just moved into a new condo this weekend. I carefully placed my jade atop the gas fireplace while we moved to keep it safely out of the way. Last night, my well-intentioned girlfriend turned on the fireplace while I was napping on the couch. I woke up to find several large branches of my beautiful plant COOKED ALIVE!!!

I can only hope Jade will weather this storm. My question, naturally, is where to prune it and when. Should I prune it just below the damage? Should I do this ASAP or wait for it to recover from it's traumatic experience. It's gone through so much in one weekend.

Thanks all!

oh, boy! the poor thing...being moved and then 'cooked'.

can you post a pic so we can see how extensive the damage is? i wouldn't want to advise anything without seeing it first.

I would love to post a picture, but I would have to find my camera first! It, like everything else, is hidden in a box somewhere.

I went "out on a limb," so to speak, when I got home and just cut the damage off. It was a substantial chunk of plant, but was so brown and limp and heavy, I thought it might be best. I hope I did not do the wrong thing, but I can't see how leaving it would have been right. It's a big plant, so hopefully it won't miss a couple arms.

So my question now is, should I find the sunniest place possible for it now? It was used to tons of direct sunlight in my old place. There is less of it here. Water it?

Any advice would be great!

well, yes, i think i would have said cut the burned parts off...

take a look at the inside of the stems you took off - if they look salvagable at all, pop the stems in another pot of soil, they may just root! it's trim off from the top and get the most severely affected parts off. these plants are pretty hardy - you never know!

when it comes to lighting for the original plant - try to duplicate the same lighting it had in your previous place.

jades don't like changes in light, so you may see some leaf drop...it WILL adjust to lesser conditions, it will just take a bit.

if you can't find a spot that exactly duplicates previous lighting, do the best you can. when it comes to watering, if it's getting less light, then you'll need to cut back on the water accordingly...just keep an eye on it for the next couple of weeks and see how it's using up the water in the soil...

it's so easy to overwater...remember that you've just pulled it from it's nice comfy home - it's going to be a bit pouty for a bit and it may look like it needs watering (that leaf drop), don't fall for it, tho! check the soil and when it's dry a couple of inches down, then water - not before!

lol, on the lost camera!! (i STILL have boxes i haven't unpacked - 7 years later). when you come across it, post a pic!

Thanks you SO much for your help, Joclyn. I've been wandering around the place looking for the sunniest spot for my poor, shell-shocked jade. I'm a little sad for all my plants, really. They all used to live in front of a huge sunny window in my living room that got oodles and oodles of direct sunlight. They all loved it there and grew like weeds. My new place isn't the sunniest except for the bedroom. And I do love to have plants in the living room. Guess it's time to find some low light plants! Any suggestions for attractive plants that thrive on indirect light?

The boxes have taken over! There was an alarm clock going off in one of them this morning. It took me a half hour to track it down! I was carefully listening to each and every box!

rofl!! i can just see you trapsing around in your pj's checking all the boxes to turn off the alarm clock!!!

i like plants in the living room too...and the bedroom, makes for good air while sleeping.

some plants that do well in less light (or indirect light) are: aluminum plant, chinese evergreen, parlor palm, pineapple dracaena and most of the bromeliads.

if you really want to stay with plants that require more lighting, and you have room, you could get a small plant stand - they have light fixtures on them. or, you could just spotlight an area or two with small fixtures that you put the correct type light bulb in. you don't even have to stick with the long tubes fixtures either - they make grow lights that will fit into a regular lamp now, so you can just use an existing item and fit it with that type of bulb.

Oooh, good idea. Why don't I think of these things? Grow lights! I guess I've always been a person to let plants do their thing in the environment they've got and see what happens. I guess that makes me like a Foliage Darwinist. The weak ones will sometimes die, but the strong ones get so big and pretty that I end up becoming really attached to them! And then I baby them excessively and become heartbroken when they're cooked alive and have to join gardening forums!

i'd always let them be too...until i was given a plant stand. WHAT a difference!!! (especially when you don't have proper natural lighting to grow the plants you want to!)

regardless of how you arrived here, we're glad you found us!!!