Want More Luck? Feng Shui Says To Put Your Jade Plants Here

Who hasn't wished for a little more luck on occasion? While we can come up with complex schemes to bring luck into our lives, one simple tactic that has been a staple in Chinese culture is to have jade plants (Crassula ovata) in your home. Known colloquially as "the money plant," jade is believed to bring financial prosperity to those who have it in their homes. The trick, though, is that you need to put it in the right place.

To do this, you need to enlist the help of feng shui, an ancient Chinese home arrangement philosophy said to create harmony and balance in the home. If you are looking to bring positive energy into your home, place your jade in an indoor entryway or plant it in front of your house. Feng shui principles also apply to businesses, with the idea that it invites prosperity and luck into the proceedings.

Placing a jade plant in the southeast is said to bring wealth and luck, while a western placement brings an energy of creativity. Eastern placements are probably the strongest, as they are said to promote health, wellness, family luck, and good luck in school for the kids. Feng shui works with the five elements — wood, earth, fire, metal, and water — to create an energy (chi) map of your house that balances with the natural world. Through the intentional placement of plants, décor, and furniture, you can bring positive energy to your home. 

Where you place your jade plant should be based on what exactly you want the feng shui energy to provide. As laid out above, proper placement is said to yield energy flows of creativity, prosperity, and positivity. But you also need to make sure that the placements are appropriate for the jade's natural needs. Jade is not cold hardy by any stretch of the imagination. It will only truly thrive outdoors in USDA zones 10-12. Thankfully, those living in colder climate zones can successfully grow all types of jade as indoor plants. With that in mind, remember that jade prefers sun to shade, and therefore needs to be placed in the sunnier spots of your home to grow at its most vibrant. 

There are only two places you should not place jade in your home: the bedroom and bathroom. Jade's positive, active energy is believed to disturb sleep in feng shui, while the heat and humidity of the bathroom can cause jade to wilt, lessening its spiritual powers. Ultimately, whether you ascribe to feng shui philosophy or not, having jade plants in your home certainly makes things a lot brighter, and, hopefully, a little luckier.