My 10-year-old jade plant (Crassula ovata) is blooming for the first time

[Mousetoescamper]

76. Thanks!

I'm in Pennsylvania. All of my houseplants are usually outdoors from a few weeks after Mother's Day, well after the last frost, until nightly tempertures start dipping into the lower 50s, usually around the first of October. They're in full sun in the summer after they've been acclimated by keeping them in a shady spot for a few weeks. In winter they've done best when directly in front of a south-facing window. I lived in a north-facing apartment for two years with no place to take the jades outdoors in summer. The plants became "leggy", even when I used grow lights.

My jades are repotted in a larger pot when they become rootbound; when the rootball can easily be lifted from the pot. I also prune them in the spring before they're taken outdoors. I repotted my 10-year-old jade for the third time last year. I use cactus potting mix soil and fertilize with Plant-tone when the plants are taken outdoors in the spring.

I water when the leaves become a little thin and wrinkled to the touch. They'll recover from having too little water but overwatering can kill them. Overwatering can also occur when they're outdoors and there are several days of heavy rain. I usually cover the top of the larger jade's pots with plastic, wrapping it around the trunk and over the edges of the pot, when prolonged rain's in the forecast. The smaller jades are brought indoors, as are some of my other houseplants.