Gardening Topic for February 2008
Jade Plants

Provided by the Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Association
www.wmassmastergardeners.org.

Houseplants have been a part of my life since I was a little girl. My mother always had a coleus or two. She had hanging plants in each window in macramé hangers in the 60s and 70s, and she often had us grow carrot greens from the end of a carrot on the windowsill, but that is another story.

When I had a place of my own I got houseplants immediately. It was hard to leave my Croton behind when I came home from a year and a half in Germany. My young husband was off being a soldier a lot of the time. My plants and my books kept me company.

Upon return to the states I was given a heartleaf Philodendron by my mother, and a crown-of-thorns (Euphorbia) by my mother-in-law. Somewhere in those early days, I think maybe at a yard sale or rummage sale, I acquired a small jade plant (Crassula ovata). The conditions in my home at the time must have been right, for it grew tall and straight. At some point I decided I wanted it to look like a tree, so I removed the lower leaves and made a “trunk.” What a gorgeous plant it was!
Seven or eight years went by, and my jade “tree” was 2 feet tall (at least). One day my son came running to me with some distressing news: “Mealy bugs, Mum!” he reported.

Sure enough, there were cotton-like masses in the notches of the “branches” of my little tree.

I went right into action and read in my books how to get rid of mealy bugs, pronto. The answer was the pesticide Sevin, highly recommended to kill almost any insect. I sprayed every inch of my Jade plant.

Now, the apartment we lived it at the time had a lovely second-floor bedroom with a balcony. A huge sliding glass door and picture window opened onto it. It was a great place to grow houseplants. So Jade was in my bedroom.

Sometime in the night a day or two later I heard something heavy fall to the floor, then something else hit the floor with a thud. I turned on my light to find the branches of my beautiful plant falling off! Sevin had not only killed the mealy bugs, it was about to kill my plant.

I washed it thoroughly and thankfully my plant did not die, but I learned an important lesson: Read the package thoroughly BEFORE you use any pesticide.

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Provided by the Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Association
www.wmassmastergardeners.org