"Joe" wrote in message
. ..

I found out what my plant is called thanks to David, it's a crassula
ovata
aka money tree).

This plant is called a "tree that turns into money" in Japan, apparently
because the shapes of the leaves look like an old Japanese coin. I suppose
the name was translated into English "money tree".

Here in Japan they sell special potting mixtures for it. I don't know about
Britain. The stuff just looks like vermiculite to me.

Personally, I have several pots of Crassula Ovata. They are easy to
grow and appear to tolerate most soils and temperatures, except frost.
I find that I need to water them all year round. However, mine have
never flowered!

Mine flowered this winter. Apparently the trick is not to water them! Having
said that, my father in Britain has a giant one, which is really ugly, he
says he has never watered it, but anyway it never flowers, just keeps
getting bigger and bigger and more and more ugly I think. According to my
gardening magazine, there are a lot of varieties of the plant, some of which
are much better at flowering than others.

Mine was out in the garden during the summer, but I didn't do anything to
it. It got a little damaged by the cold weather and all the old leaves fell
off it, which strangely made it look much nicer.