I'm looking forward to hearing from some knowledgeable growers! For years I could not get a jade plant to grow decently, kept trying to prune it here and there to keep it in balance, finally gave up and started one and just let it do it's own thing and now it has been quite happily growing for at least 6 years... the biggest problem it has had was one winter when our furnace went kind of crazy and first WAY overheated in the sunroom where the jade is, then we had to shut it down so it got pretty cold out there -- lots of leaves dropped, but eventually everything turned out okay. Mine definitely has a thick trunk at this point... but how in the world do you get one to flower??