Jade plant’s bloom a portent of spring Once winter solstice has
passed, those few additional minutes of sunlight each day never
fail to bring on yearnings for springtime. In the Campbell River
area, however, spring’s first wild blooms will elude us for at
least another month or two. Nevertheless, one of my faithful
(albeit neglected) houseplants just surprised me by breaking
into full bloom, something not seen in many decades past. A
close inspection of the rarely-seen pink flowers on my jade
plant immediately showed an uncanny resemblance to spring’s
saxifrages. Jade plant (Crassula ovate) is classified in the
same scientific order as the saxifrages, and is a member of the
stonecrop family. One might say the jade plant is a ‘cousin’ to
the saxifrage and stonecrop. Anyone who has ever examined the
lovely stonecrop flowers will know them by the flower parts in
fives. And so it is with my jade plant, now alive with bursts of
pink five-petalled flowers, each one-quarter of an inch in size,
further embellished wi