Jade Madness

Daniel Hunter is known for many things, not the least of which is his mighty Jade, which he's had since the mid-1990's and has multiplied into an unbelievable network of Jades spreading from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Northwest. it is a Super Jade. when the mood strikes me, i'll climb up in the attic and pull out some old photos so you can see how far back this thing goes.

the day before he married his lovely wife, Jamie, i found a squirrel munching on my then prized jade (lower case b/c it's of no relation to the Super Jade). i closed the porch door, trapping the squirrel, and proceeded to beat the life out of it with a 6' Cold Steel bamboo staff. for a couple years after that, i was jadeless.

almost 2 years ago, just before Daniel and Jamie moved to Corvallis, they gave me a large shallow pot with the trimmings of one of their Jades. today, Andrea and i re-potted it. it was long overdue, as it has gone from from 4" to 5" in height when they gave it to me to over a foot. here's what it looked like about 6 months ago:



it started getting top-heavy and spreading out over the sides of the pot lately:





Healthy Leaves!


on our way home from church today, we stopped by Lowe's and got a bunch of clay pots and dirt. they didn't have my usual brand of dirt and i had to get Miracle Gro, which i hate. it's just overpriced, chemically treated peat moss! i should've made my own mix, but it's too late for that.



good thing we had leftover vermiculite and peat moss from our garden! we would need it.

the first step was to dump the Jade out of it's old pot and separate the root mass.



this is always the most stressful part for me. this thing was so intertwined and tangled, i definitely snapped some important roots and will be lucky if i didn't kill a few of them. i made sure to keep them nice and moist:



i took this opportunity to consolidate Christmas Cacti (visible in the upper right corner of the above photo) that were originally in the same pot many years ago, but i split out b/c it got too big. i had to free up this great white pot (also from Daniel...seeing a pattern??) b/c i felt it was time to reunite Hunter Pot with Hunter Jade:



i was feeling good:



and then the rains came:



i decided to stay out and finish the re-potting:




...but Andrea wisely suggested otherwise. and check out Krust in the 2nd pic! this is the dog that's afraid of rain and thunder/lighting...riding out the weather with his old man, shoulder to shoulder! i was proud of him.

we took advantage of the rain delay by eating a delicious dinner Andrea whipped up and taking pictures of ourselves:



it finally stopped raining, but was still pretty windy, wet, cool and generally kind of nasty. Andrea came out and helped me finish, which i couldn't have done without her help. check out our new Jade Arboretum:





pretty cool, huh? we got the blue pot intending to make it the flagship Jade, but it didn't go down like that. it never does. whenever i have a big re-potting project, i start freaking out half way through when all the plant pieces are laid all over and i have to try and arrange them in a pot, fill it with dirt and try to keep them from falling over and/or breaking off branches. it stresses me out, man. this time was no different. but unlike past experiences, i had SO MUCH Jade to work with, there wasn't a whole lot of pressure. the Flagship Jade turned out to be the one on the top step, in the middle. it's the biggest pot. the other pots are probably not big enough to handle all the plants we crammed in them. i may be re-potting sooner than i'd like to remedy this, but not for at least another year. the one in the white pot turned out great, too. i'm sure there will be more pics coming as the roots take hold and they get used to their new diggs.

i made reference to the Super Jade at the very beginning of this post. it's funny that i again have a Jade from that line. way back in the day, Daniel had 2 plants and gave me one. i was an idiot and gave mine to a girl who's long gone. so let that be a lesson to those who are now in possession of Super Jade: don't let anything happen to it. there's a 10 year wait to get another one.

a big Thank You to Andrea and Krusty for their help and to Daniel for giving me the love for all things Jade, as well as giving me actual Jades! your lineage is thriving in Raleigh!