Congratulations Gabi, those buds look GREAT! I'm very excited for you. Can't wait for that to happen to my Jade someday, I'm new to growing them so I am always reading valuable information here. Looking forward to seeing blooms.

Hi Gabi.....I leave my Jade outside all year and only bring it in when the temps are going to be below freezing. We are zone 8 so that is not very often. Since you are zone 6, I would leave it outside as long as you can and then bring it inside to a cool but sunny exposure. I'm sure someone else will chime in.

Congrats! I laud you on not bringing it inside despite cool weather. Jade plants along with many other Crassula and similar species like to grow during cooler weather, and as long as sun and moisture are adequate, you will be rewarded with healthy growth and flowers. Note the wonderful color of the leaves, thanks to sun and cold.

Just keep doing what you've been doing, like johnh stated, keep it out as long as you can and indoors try to find a cool sunny spot.

After blooming, ease off on the watering and let the plant rest during winter's low light levels. In the spring, bring the plant back outside and start all over again.

x

Gabro14, I am so excited for you! Can't wait for you to post the pics when it is in full bloom. I have a jade plant as well but last fall the darn squirels almost ate the entire plant. But it is on a come back after a breif stay at the plant E.R.
Happy Gardening & Have a Blessed Day!

Fantastic leaves and buds, indeed!
(I, too, am new here, and I'm excited
to see so many wonderful jades!)

Josh

Thanks everyone!! I will definitely post pics when it blooms, and I appreciate your helpful tips!

Gabi

Congratulations on your jade coming into bud. I look forward to seeing the flowers. I left mine out till frost and nothing. So maybe next year I will get to share bud and flower photos.

Hi Gab..Congrats..Your Jade buds look terrific..How cold are the temps right now, and how low does it get? Is it still outside? Toni

Hi Toni. I would guess that the temps are in the 40's on average (at night). I'm sure it's been colder, but I haven't really paid attention! Yes, the jade is still outside.

Gabi

Hi all,

So I finally took my jade inside yesterday because of the cold weather here. The weather has not gotten to the "freezing" level, but I was afraid of it getting too cold. I would say that it was about 40 degrees (during the day yesterday) when I took it in, so I was assuming that it would be in the 30's when the sun went down, and I didn't want to take any chances.

Anyway, when I looked at the jade this morning, I found that a bunch of the leaves were dark brownish in color and had turned to soft mush. They had a "rotten" kind of smell. Most of the jade is still very healthy, but go figure that the leaves that are in bad shape are the ones where the buds are! Most of the leaves in that area fell off when I gently shook the branches that they were on. So I ended up pruning the branches where these rotten leaves were. As for the parts with buds on them, I left those intact (with the exception of the leaves that happened to fall off), because I don't want to cut off the branches that have buds. I'm hoping for the best, but I'm assuming I'm going to lose the buds.

Does anyone know what I did wrong? The soil wasn't too wet at all, and there was no frost in my area yet. So I'm not sure why this happened. I did what was recommended and left the jade outside for as long as I could. I'm not worried about losing the jade, but it's a shame that I had to prune so much of it off, and that I'm probably not going to see blooms. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated so that this doesn't happen next year - and maybe I can stop any further damage from happening to the jade.

I will try and post a pic when I get home from work.

Thanks in advance,
Gabi

Sounds like frostbite...are you sure your temps were not below freezing? New growth is most vulnerable. Where do you live?

Xerophyte,
I live in NYC (well, Queens to be exact). The temps haven't been below freezing yet - as far as I know. I see that you live in NYC too, so have you seen the temps go below freezing?

Ok, here are the pics...

This is of the "bad" leaves:
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This one shows the "bad" leaves on the left and the "good" leaves on the right (for comparison):
{{gwi:717967}}

This is another comparison picture. "Bad" leaves on the bottom and "good" leaves on top:
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The buds still look good, but there soon will be no leaves around them!
Any thoughts???

That is weird, doesn't strike me as frost damage by appearance but that is still the most likely culprit.

One night last week we had our first killing frost, temps dipped to about 27F. Before that there were a few nights of 30. The plant will recover just fine. Sometimes freeze damage doesn't appear right away. Keep a better eye on the temps next time :-)

BTW, I live in LI (Nassau Cty), moved from Manhattan 2 yrs ago.

x

Thanks X,

I thought I was doing a good job keeping track but I guess not! I'll do better next season. I hope I still get blooms, but at least I got buds for the first time.

I grew up in Nassau County - in Merrick. Now I live in Queens but I work in LI (New Hyde Park).

Gabi