Baby Jade Bonsai Group Planting
If you’re either looking to buy one of your first indoor bonsai trees or you’re looking for a gift, one the best starter trees is commonly known as the Baby Jade. The real name is Portulacaria afra and as you might have guessed from the name this tree is a native of South Africa. It looks a lot a like the common house plant we simply call a Jade, but the leaves are about the size of a dime. One of my favorite examples is a planting of Five Baby Jade Trees.
What attracted me to this example, is that you simply don’t see a lot of baby jades featured in a grove planting. It’s a style far more frequent with a Japanese bonsai which, by the way, is actually restricted to outdoor bonsai. The indoor bonsai are Chinese and in spite of what you’ve probably heard, it was the Chinese who brought bonsai to Japan and not the other way around. Although it looks unusual the real charm of a baby jade as a gift is that it is among the toughest of the bonsai. No. It is not indestructible. But it is forgiving, which a tree like a Serissa is not. So if you want to venture into this wonderful pastime and you need a safe tree to get you started, here is the one for you.