This plant does tend to have a more drooping habit than other crassulas, but I've seen some with superb tree-forms, as you mention.

Pruning will encourage a thicker trunk, and it would give you cuttings to start new plants. In the meantime, you could actually prop or stake these trunks upright.

You can root them like jade. Take your cuttings, set the cuttings out of direct sunlight, let them callus slightly, and then either pot them in fast-draining soil or just set them in a terracotta pot until you see roots forming. Like jades, they need roots before they can use water.

I stand cuttings upright (if I want tall, erect plants), otherwise I find that they have a tendency to bend toward the sun while they root, which can give the trunk an unwanted initial curve.

Josh

Hi greenclaws, I have a couple "Elephants Bush"(Portulacaria afra). I bought this one plant from Lowe's 7-8 months ago. It is a bush type plant, they do have the tendency to droop sometimes, I think it is just some of its growing habits. I have it in full/ filered sun under a palm tree outside all year except when we get temps below 35 degrees. What I did was remove a couple of the stalks with a single trunk. I picked the ones that had the biggest trunk size and removed some of the leaves and pruned it to try and grow it like a tree. It is growing and I am shaping it every couple of months or so. As you can see it has a long way to go. I am trying for a bonsai look. Not sure if the one you have will work, you might have to get one with a little straigther stalk. Rooting these are similar to rooting jades...

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^ there's an idea of what i have in mind for my plants. isn't it BEAUTIFUL??
of course, that plant is about 30 year old, which leaves my plant with.. 29 more years to go! but still, one can dream -_-

well, i trimmed off the two end pieces to the longest branches. im letting these callous up along with my jade cuttings to experiment with some new plants.

puglvr, how did you get your plant to start growing leaves farther up the stem? or does it naturally become like that with age? should i try ripping off my lower leaves or will that just make more branches grow back in their place?

If you look at the first pic, you will see some of them have a stem w/out any leaves on the bottom. That is the one I picked to grow tree like. I'm sure you should be able to remove the leaves and try and create a trunk I have done that with other small jades.

WOW That is one awesome plant, 30 years wouldn't cut it for me, if I grew it for 100 years, mine would never look like that, lol...

Anyone just starting off with Port-Afra will be amazed how fast they grow. I bought this tiny 2-inch pot of port-afra at a lowes-like store two years and it had three small plants growing in it. I planted them in larger pots (10 inches and deep) and they are huge now. I live in Colorado and the amount of sun we get here combined with the intensity of it (roughly 7K feet) get these plants growing like weeds. And unlike jade, my trees drink like sailors. I let them dry out once a week, but every day they get a drink and seem to love it.

If you want your port-afras to look like trees (ie bonsai), these are fun to use. One of the three is being styled by pruning, another just go a trunk chop and a branch wired to become the new leader (this promotes a very healthy taper often seen in many older trees in the wild) and the third I have is allowed to grow wild and as it happens, it is taking on a beautiful shape all on its own. Right now it looks like one of those huge trees one might see in the Serengeti that has been pruned over the ages by animals.

It is nearing autumn here quickly but I will likely keep these guys out until the first frost threatens to hit. They then go onto a ledge in our basement that is flooded with sunlight all day long.

Just for comparison's sake, two years ago I had three 2 inch high port-afras that were no thicker than a pencil. Today all three have bases larger that 2 inches in diameter, all are under 2 feet tall.

I love these plants.

Ryan

I have a 'wild' portulacaria in my garden. Their habit is to grow a central stalk and have branches coming out the sides in sort of a chevron pattern or like a half-opened fan. I hope my photo illustrates my point (and I can figure out how to post it).

Mine was planted as a 'fan' with a central stalk pointing up. They do grow fast! I had frost last year and these came out fine too.

So, if you want yours to go up you need to start with a stalk pointing up. I think the stalk that droops will continue to droop, but form more branches that point up.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:558014}}

Green Claws, I dont know if you're around, but your plant is absolutely gorgeous. Wow!!

I agree w/Ryan that Portulacaria is quick growing. Quick for a succulent.
I got mine about 2 years ago..It's grown quite a bit in that short time..It's in a dog planter, 2-3" diameter pot. Should I repot?

Thegarden..yours is huge. It looks so pretty growing in the area. Do they bloom? Toni

This is not a Crassula, it is a PortulacariA Afr. There is a weeping form of this plant also a veriegated form. Norma

Norma, I think ppl get confused because of its common name..Baby Jade and Tree Jade are just two floating around.
I've seen the varigated which are really nice..may even have one..LOl..gotta look through succulents..it's green and cream, right?
I wonder if Portulacaria flowers..Do you know? Toni

Didn't mean to suggest that it was a Crassula, if that was meant for me. I should have said it tends to have a more drooping habit than the similar-looking crassulas. A confusing sentence, agreed. Otherwise, I think everyone has distinguished between this plant and other "Jades."

Oh, and Toni, yes it flowers! Never seen them, myself.
But I hear they're pink.

Josh

I've read in several places that it does bloom and as Josh said they are pink-- however, from what I understand is that these plants endure some pretty significant dryness (soil or humidity, I do not know) which when that dryness is broken, the flowers come out. The photo posted of the forest planting above by green claws is by a gentleman in Florida-- he is the one who mentions his conditions not being dry enough for flowers in the book "Bonsai Master Class," in a section devoted to Port-Afra.

I can't flower them, the Huntington can't flower them and theirs are over 60 yrs old. I've seen them in flower and they flower at the nodes, lavendar/ pink.
The bush can get several feet high and wide.