03 Jan Bloom Time! Snowfall on the Jade Plant

We don’t get snow out here, but when our six-foot-tall jade plant — west-facing and located behind our garden pond — is in full flower, it happens to resemble an enormous snowball. We call her “mama jade” because her stem cuttings have been planted in locales as close as across the yard and as far away as Washington, D.C.

We noticed the first handful of buds a-popping in December, and things have, ahem, snowballed from there. (It’s believed jade plants bloom in response to the stark differences in daytime/nighttime temps.) The tiny, star-shaped flowers of Crassula ovata are mostly white, with a warm blush at the center.

Hummingbirds and bees are already clamoring.

The birds

The bees!