An identification question, and a frigid problem

[dameroxy]

Hi everyone, my first query is: does anyone know what this plant is? I adopted it this summer from an elderly man in town who couldn't move it anymore, but no one seems to know what it is. I've heard rubber plant and jade plant but neither of those is correct. It's quite robust, a piece broke off while we were transporting it home and I stuck it in a new pot and it's happy as a clam! I'd like to give some cuttings to friends but would like to be able to tell them what it is. [img]https://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/roxyholmes/Captain.jpg[/img]

Secondly, my potted geraniums and peppers were frozen on my sun porch due to a power outage. javascript:emoticon(':(')I brought them in immediately I got up in the morning, but the leaves and pods were beyond saving. The geraniums still have firm green stalks and new leaves are already emerging so I think they're all right. The peppers however didn't fare so well. The stalks near the soil surface are still normal looking, I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on how to (hopefully) help them recover? Trimming away the dead? Maybe cutting it down to the viable part and hoping for new growth? Any help would be great![/img]

[Kisal]

Welcome to the Helpful Gardener forum! It's nice to have you with us.

The plant looks to me like Crassula argentea, commonly known as a Jade plant. They become quite large with proper care, and cuttings start very easily. Is there some specific reason you doubt that is the correct ID?

[dameroxy]

Success at last! I'll tell you my problem with IDing it. Every plant ID site I've been to today has not produced a picture of a plant even closely resembling this one when I entered "Jade." Maybe they are just incomplete databases?
Thanks so much for letting me know, I love this plant and wanted the most complete picture of what it's all about. Having a name gets me started in the right direction!

YEE HA!

[cynthia_h]

Agreed. Crassula/jade. I have several of these in the ground, and they're almost 6 feet tall--tall enough, anyway, that I have to stand on tiptoes to cut them. I'm just about ready to whack 'em down because they inhibit my view driving backwards out of the driveway.

Anyway...jade plant.

Where did you see the not-jade-plant photos which made you doubt the identity of this classic jade plant?

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[Kisal]

It's always better to go by the scientific classification for a plant, rather than the common name. It's not unusual for many different plants to be known by the same, or similar, common names.

I'm sorry I can't offer advice about your pepper plants that suffered from the freeze.

It sounds like your geraniums are going to make it, though ... which reminds me, I need to go bring mine in for the winter, since it's supposed to be somewhere around 19º outside tonight. Brrr!

[rainbowgardener]

I'm afraid the pepper plants are goners. They are tropicals which just don't tolerate freezing! All the rest of us who aren't in Southern California and points south grow them as annuals anyway.