Jade Plants Hanging Like Spider Plants

Question

I read your advice on caring for overgrown jade plants. It was very helpful but missing one detail that I hope you can help with. My problem is that two of my older plants have grown into hanging plants. They are tall but almost like a weeping willow tree’s branches, growing up and hanging down–long and lovely but very difficult to trim and control. I’d love to take the clippings and repot them, making lovely new plants. However, what can be done with the hanging branches? Also, they have grown too large for the largest pots reasonable and require two people to move them, yet I see they are now in need of larger pots. I am at a loss as to what to do with them.

Answer 1

For the weeping branches, you can prune them back and they will start to grow new stems from the old, which will make the plant more bushy and upright.

In terms of the size and repotting, it sounds like your plants need to be divided. Take the plant out of the pot and with a sharp, clean, large knife, cut the rootball apart into sections you find manageable and then repot them. Just make sure that a stem above has some roots below to sustain it. I know it sounds a bit brutal, but really the plants recover quickly.