Money tree
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Cottage tales | 20 comments
Many years ago I was staying with a friend with time on her hands. In the past, I had noticed the tall green leaved plants that stood in three pots in her drawing room. They didn’t flower. They just made up a dull wall of leafy greenness.
When I arrived for this particular visit, they were covered in tiny white flowers, as insignificant as the plants.
“The flowers are not real,” she whispered. “They are teeny pieces of tissue paper secured with a twist of florist’s wire. It took me two days to make them. My husband didn’t even notice them, having complained how dull the plants were.”
Yesterday I was astonished when I spotted that our giant money tree was in bud. This plant is a hefty specimen. It languishes in an old porcelain washbowl on Danny’s desk in the Rat Room. Had Danny been busy with the scissors and tissue paper?
I examined the flowers carefully. They are real buds on slim, delicate stalks compared to the sturdy trunk of the tree.
This money tree was given to me by Peggy and Tommy. They were moving house and it was too big to take with them. Peggy filled me in on the tree’s history,
“My sister gave me this tree. Ever since it arrived we have had enough money. Not loads of money but enough to get along. I do hope that it has the same effect on your life.”
I tottered to Jalopy with the massive plant and it travelled home in the front beside me – its seat belt on.
This evening Danny carefully examined the buds as I photographed them.
“Do you think that they might unfurl into large cheques? Or even small ones?”
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I had a money tree given me about ten years ago. A year after I had it, it flowered, the only time ever. around about that time I had quite a large sum of money left me in a Will…. when I moved up to Cumbria, I left it in the conservatory and to my horror, found that it had been burnt by the strong sunlight… I took what was left and planted it in pots… which are now thriving and well recovered… But I always wonder about the money tree and whether it really does flower before some funds come in… and I wonder why it’s called the money tree…. interesting
Hi lou jack
You are right that flowering can be a sign that all is not well with a plant. Having flowered ours is fine. We water it about once a month. It is big. Probably a meter high.
I think that your plant is suffering. If it is in the biggest pot in the world and has become pot bound all that you can do is ease it gently out of its ot and cut the roots back by about 30%. Then put it back with new compost and feed and water it well. Money plants don’t like loads of water so leave it for a couple of weeks before thinking about watering again.
If the leaves have shrivelled they will drop off. Hopefully new leaves will grow for you.
Just read your comments re flowering money trees. Mine has done it twice now and it looked fab. It is very mature and I’m concerned that flowering is a bad sign as it often denotes that its last deserpate attempt to survive and its very much on its last legs.
This season it didn’t flower and is wilting terribly. The leaves have shrivelled up and it seems very pot bound – its in the biggest pot in the world.
so flowering is often a sign that all is not well with your plant.
Hi Ann
The correct name for the plant is Crassula ovata, It is also called the friendship plant.
My research has shown that there is another money tree http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachira_aquatica
My mum always refers to our tree as the coffin tree. Apparently these grow vast in more temperate countries. There they have enormous trunks. She always swore that these humungous trunks were cut open to store bodies before burial.
Before I left home this plant was known as a coffin tree.
hi
also have a money tree that is in flower , for the first time, what is the correct name for the plant
Hi Kate(uk)
Ours was very, very dry althugh the leaves were still plump. It could be nicotine…
My mother had one that bloomed- just the once! She never managed to get it to do it again and couldn’t work out why it decided to do it in the first place, was it water, light, heat – or the fact that one of my father’s premium bonds came up trumps?
Hi Celia
A few flowers have opened and they are exquisite. Just like tiny stars. Examining them with binoculars reveals no cheques.
The plant was really dry. Now it has had a good water, Perhaps the flowers were a result of desert conditions in the Rat Room?
Hi Z
I would never give away our money tree. P and T took a small baby with them.
I’ve never seen one in flower before this week.
I’m quite concerned for Peggy and Tommy’s financial future, now that they have given their Money Tree away.
Well done for getting it to bloom, I’ve never seen one in flower.
Ever since seeing a friends Money Tree in flower I’ve been hoping ours will bloom. I remember the flowers as being like white daisies.
I love plants with history – being passed on like heirlooms. Our plant, or to be accurate, Cliff’s plant, was a little cutting he took from his grandmother’s Money Tree in her house in Liverpool (sorry! Crosby). This must have been in the early 1960s. If I neglect ‘The Plant’, it reminds me by shedding a branch as I walk past. I then feel guilty and sometimes the branch gets potted up and becomes one more of it’s many offspring.