Designing your Corporate Office Indoor Plantscapes with Crassula (Jade) Plants.

1. Commonly known as jade plant, friendship tree, lucky plant or Money Plant, Crassula ovata is a succulent plant with small pink or white flowers. These succulents are great Boston indoor office plants. It is native to South Africa, and is common as a houseplant worldwide. It is sometimes referred to as the money tree; however, the tree Pachira aquatica is also so called.

2. Jades are evergreen plants with thick branches and smooth, rounded, fleshy leaves that grow in opposing pairs along the branches. Leaves are a rich jade green; some varieties may develop a red tinge on the edges of leaves when exposed to high levels of sunlight. New stem growth is the same color and texture as the leaves, but becomes brown and woody with age. Under the right conditions, they may produce small white or pink star-like flowers in early spring.

3. As succulents, they require a normal watering when the soil is dry in the summer, and very little watering in the winter. Over watering will cause them to lose their leaves (it is easy to identify over watering by the characteristic crinkling look that the fallen leaves have) and eventually the stem will rot away.

4. They will grow in full sun to light shade. However, they do not tolerate extreme heat or overexposure to direct sun very well.

5. Mealybugs are common pests to jades and can cause deformation to new growth.

6. Aphids are also common pests, though they tend to infest only the flower stalks. Red spider mites can also cause problems.

The use of pesticides is avoided with Jades, as they are very sensitive to them.

7. Jades grow best in well drained soil that does not have peat moss. They can make a great statement in your office plant designs.

Plantscape Designs Inc. uses jade plants in high light low humidity Boston, MA office environments.Visit us on PDIPLANTSBlog.com for more info.