HouseplantsucculentStraightforward

Jade plant

Crassula ovata

A succulent shrub that becomes a small tree over decades and is regularly passed between generations. It roots from a dropped leaf, tolerates being forgotten, and wants a cool dry winter — which a centrally heated room does not provide and which is why so many stay leggy.

Position: Bright with direct sun
Water: low demand
Drainage: Free-draining
Grows to: 60–180 cm × 45–90 cm
Frost: Frost tender
Difficulty: Straightforward

August

Take cuttings

Jade plant’s year

Resolved for United Kingdom (general). Every window is stored against a climate event rather than a date, so a late frost pocket runs later than the band shows. What else August calls for.

Activity	J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D
Prune				April.	May.
Take cuttings					May.	June.	July.	August.

Timing that travels

The band above resolves this plant's windows into months for one region. These are the windows themselves, stored against a climate event rather than a date — which is the form that survives being carried to a colder garden, a frost pocket, or next year.

Conditions it needs

Light: Full sun
Frost: Frost tender
Grows best at: 15–27 °C
Soil: Sandy, Peat-free compost
Soil pH: 6–7.5
Drainage: Free-draining
Water needs: low
Drought: good tolerance
Waterlogging: poor tolerance
Heat: good tolerance
Wind and exposure: moderate tolerance

Where these figures come from

LightSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Jade plant — position
Checked 2026-08-13
FrostSourced guidancehigh confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Jade plant — hardiness
Checked 2026-08-13
Grows best atSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Jade plant — temperature
Checked 2026-08-13
SoilSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Jade plant — soil
Checked 2026-08-13
Soil pHSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Plant Finder — Missouri Botanical Garden: Crassula ovata — culture
Checked 2026-08-13
DrainageSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Jade plant — soil
Checked 2026-08-13
Water needsHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
DroughtHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
WaterloggingHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
HeatHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
Wind and exposureHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13

On your soil

Computed by comparing this plant's recorded requirements against each soil's recorded characteristics. A recorded horticultural fact overrides the comparison where GrowingHQ holds one.

Soil	Verdict	Why
Heavy clay	Works, with one condition	Jade plant will crop on heavy clay, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It needs ground that drains, and this soil holds water. For a crop lifted before winter the risk is not rot but the season: waterlogged ground is cold and unworkable in spring, so sowing is late and germination patchy.Improve the drainage before planting — a raised bed, or bulky organic matter worked in over several seasons. Do not add sand to clay in small quantities; it makes the problem worse.
Sandy	Prefers this soil	Sandy suits Jade plant as it stands: The pH suits it: it wants 6 to 7.5, and this soil is in that range. The free drainage is exactly what it wants. Sandy soil is among the soils it is recorded as suiting. It stands dry conditions better than most, which this soil will test.
Chalky and alkaline	Grows well here	Jade plant grows perfectly well on chalky and alkaline without special measures, though it is not the soil it would choose.
Loam	Prefers this soil	Loam suits Jade plant as it stands: The pH suits it: it wants 6 to 7.5, and this soil is in that range. The free drainage is exactly what it wants. The soil holds moisture, which saves a great deal of watering.
Silty	Prefers this soil	Silty suits Jade plant as it stands: The pH suits it: it wants 6 to 7.5, and this soil is in that range. The free drainage is exactly what it wants. The soil holds moisture, which saves a great deal of watering.
Peaty and acid	Works, with one condition	Jade plant will crop on peaty and acid, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It needs ground that drains, and this soil holds water. For a crop lifted before winter the risk is not rot but the season: waterlogged ground is cold and unworkable in spring, so sowing is late and germination patchy.Improve the drainage before planting — a raised bed, or bulky organic matter worked in over several seasons. Do not add sand to clay in small quantities; it makes the problem worse.
Shallow over rock	Prefers this soil	Shallow over rock suits Jade plant as it stands: The free drainage is exactly what it wants. It stands dry conditions better than most, which this soil will test.
Made ground and urban soil	Works, with one condition	Jade plant will crop on made ground and urban soil, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It needs ground that drains, and this soil holds water. For a crop lifted before winter the risk is not rot but the season: waterlogged ground is cold and unworkable in spring, so sowing is late and germination patchy.Improve the drainage before planting — a raised bed, or bulky organic matter worked in over several seasons. Do not add sand to clay in small quantities; it makes the problem worse.

Not sure which you have? Four hand tests will settle it.

Space and spacing

Mature height: 60–180 cm
Mature spread: 45–90 cm
Rooting depth: 15 cm

Where these figures come from

Mature heightHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
Mature spreadHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
Rooting depthHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13

In a container

Minimum volume: 3 litres or more
Minimum depth: 15 cm

Where the container figures come from

Minimum volumeHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
Minimum depthHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13

Where and how you can grow it

Each way of growing is assessed separately, and “not assessed” is a real answer rather than a gap we have filled in with a guess.

Method	Suitability	What it needs
Indoor pot	Well suited source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13
Windowsill	Well suited source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13
Container	Well suited source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13	Indoors, or outdoors in summer only
Greenhouse	Well suited source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13
Open ground	Not suitable source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13	Tender: will not survive a British winter outdoors.
Hydroponics	Not suitable source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13

Growing it

ProtectionGive it a cool, bright, dry rest from November to February — around 10–13 °C is ideal. A jade plant kept warm and watered through winter grows weak stretched shoots with widely spaced leaves, and that growth never firms up.
PropagationLet cuttings dry and callus for two or three days before putting them in compost. A fresh cut surface pushed straight into damp compost rots rather than roots, which is the usual reason jade cuttings fail.
WateringWater thoroughly and then genuinely leave it, which is the hardest part of growing one well. Soak until it runs from the base, tip away anything left in the saucer, and do not water again until the compost is dry throughout — in a cool room in midwinter that can mean six weeks or more, and a jade plant kept almost completely dry from November to March is a jade plant doing what it should. Overwatering shows as soft, translucent, dropping leaves and a stem that gives slightly when pressed; by the time it looks like that the base is usually already rotting. Underwatering shows as slightly wrinkled leaves and is trivially fixed.
FeedingTwo or three half-strength feeds spread across spring and summer, and nothing else. Jade plants live for decades in small pots on very little, and the tree-like trunk that makes an old one worth having is built slowly — feeding hard produces a big soft plant with heavy branches that snap at the joints under their own weight. Stop feeding at the end of August so growth firms up before the light goes.

Where this guidance comes from

ProtectionSourced guidancehigh confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Crassula — winter care
Checked 2026-08-13
PropagationSourced guidancehigh confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Crassula — propagation
Checked 2026-08-13
WateringSourced guidancehigh confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Crassula ovata — cultivation
Checked 2026-08-13
FeedingSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Crassula ovata — cultivation
Checked 2026-08-13

The rule is the same in all four: the new piece needs both a growing point and roots of its own. A cutting is the exception that has to make its roots afterwards, which is why the node matters so much.

What goes wrong

Start from what you can see

White fluff in the leaf joints

Safety and edibility

Cats and dogsPainful or persistently unwell; veterinary advice worth taking

Listed as harmful to cats or dogs

Jade plant is listed as harmful if eaten. Listed as toxic to cats and dogs, causing vomiting, marked lethargy and incoordination. Unusually among common houseplants the responsible compound has never been established, so there is no dose-response to reason from and the sensible reading is to treat any quantity as worth a call to a vet.

source

Sourced guidancehigh confidence

ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center — toxic and non-toxic plant list — American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: Crassula ovata — toxic plants list

Checked 2026-08-13

Affected parts: all parts.

Pets and livestockpets
Toxic to cats and dogs, causing vomiting, lethargy and incoordination. The mechanism is not fully established, which is itself worth knowing — the effect is documented even though the compound responsible is not.
source
Sourced guidancemoderate confidence
- Royal Horticultural Society: Crassula ovata — toxicity
Checked 2026-08-13
Keep out of reach of pets. Contact a vet if a pet has eaten any part of it.

Sources for this page

GrowingHQ editorial synthesis · Plant Finder · Royal Horticultural Society

Each figure on this page carries its own citation, under the “where these figures come from” note in its section. Record last reviewed 2026-08-14.

If something is wrong with it

Lower leaves turning yellow — 2 causes GrowingHQ holds for jade plant

Something else? Work through it with the diagnostic tool.