If possible improve the soil. At the very least, add perlite to your current soil. It will allow you to water more often. It would be a good idea to use fertilizer more often at a reduced dosage also. It looks like you have a nice yard. Can they be moved outside? Gradually move them into more sun to avoid sunburn. If that is a Hummel's the yellow color isn't a bad thing.

I'd take it out of the pot and get a look at the roots. When a plant is failing to thrive, the answer is usually there.

Thank you both for your replies. The soil is a peat / sand mix. I can get some perlite tomorrow and check the roots. Do you have a rough idea how much I should mix in? Or will the packet tell me? I'm afraid they're in the sunniest spot available. I live in the UK - I think they'd drown in the garden!

Ooh...peat and sand is a bad combination. It becomes compacted quickly and the sand fills all the air spaces, reducing oxygen in the root zone.

You're on track with the perlite but I'd mix that with bagged potting soil rather than straight peat. 50/50 perlite and soil. If you have pumice there you could try planting it in straight pumice, then you'd be able to put it outside and let it get rained on. :-) Plants in coarse mixes like that must be watered and fertilized more frequently, but the upside is superior air circulation to the roots and low chance of root rot. A lot of people in the UK take that approach with C&S due to your climate.

I highly recommend reading this if you haven't already, it's a bit long but totally worth it: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/2842847/container-soils-water-movement-and-retention-xxii

Correction - It's sand, peat and loam. Desert cacti & bonsai soil but says good for succulants on the bag. I tried to choose the right thing! lol. It does seem very compact. The water sits on top for some time before draining, then drains out the bottem very quickly. Ok, I shall get some potting soil aswell tomorrow and have a read of the link you sent. Thanks! :)

Yellowing can also indicate a higher than needed does of UV rays. As would the flattening of your foliage. Do you have low - E windows ? If not then move the jade AWAY from the harming summer UV

Serena, get a bag of horticultural grit from B&Q, mix equal parts of it with same of perlite and a general purpose potting compost or cactus mix and re-pot into it. Water once and keep out of direct sun for a week or so. Watch out for the predicted heatwave this week....if it ever arrives, lol!

Gill UK

^^^^ Excellent, we needed someone from the UK to chime in with available ingredients. :-)

I think pre-packaged "Cactus and Succulent Soil" can sometimes be worse than regular potting soil because the manufacturers often add sand thinking it will help when in fact it doesn't.

Go with Gill's suggestion if possible. It's more in line with my preference for using coarse mixes as well (again, I'd recommend checking out the link I posted). But in a pinch, if you cannot get the ingredients required for a coarse mix then the mix of potting soil and perlite will work.

Hi! Thank you Gill and Andy. I had a b&q trip and made the mix you suggested Gill. The roots looked ok to me (white and dry) and they'd grown a lot since I last re-potted it - so I think that's positive. If it would be better out of the heat during our 'heat wave' (hottest day in 9years!? Apparently) I'll pop it in one of the other rooms for a while. I did read the link you sent Andy, very interesting and informative. I admit I never even thought about air availability in the soil! Bought a good quality potting mix instead of the cactus mix. Thanks again. I'll let you know if it's improved in a week or so! *fingers crossed*

Yes a lot of people don't realize that roots are just like people: they need oxygen and water to survive. :-)

Wow! What a difference! Thanks for the update, love seeing plants thrive.

Cant believe it improved so quickly!

HS is so beautiful it makes my toes curl!

ez

That's certainly turned a corner and you now have a very nice looking plant. Well done for doing what we suggested! Now it's getting colder here, don't be tempted to water it too much, jades can go for weeks without a drink and cold and wet will rot it. Keep it in the sunniest/brightest place you can, (not necessarily the warmest though, they can live in a cool room) during winter to keep the growth compact as because we have short dark days it could become etiolated (long gaps between leaves) very easily.

Gill UK