BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

WOW!!!!!!! That IS huge! And more than lovely too! Way to go MD!!!! Truly lovely!

Will have to go out and talk to my spindly plant (which doesn't even have a bud on it!)


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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

9208This is not a good photo but it does show the plant which flowered first.
It was a leftover from last year that was put in a small pot to start this year, but I ran out of compost while it was shooting up. It looked very fragile, so I left it to do it's thing and it proved me wrong.

It's bolt upright, though unsupported and has a cascade of apricot/yellow blooms. Not very large and with flowers about 2/3 inches across each. I am amazed it is doing so well in such a tiny pot.

It has never been near the glass, nor turned as often as I'd like, but for early blooming and stamina I would recommend it.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Horus »

Another little beauty :up
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Wowwwwww - that little apricot begonia is gorgeous and what a prolific bloomer! Looks lovely.

I looked at my begonia yesterday and not 1 flower bud on it. It was SUPPOSED to go out front on the table for colour and contrast but :td :td :td it has been relegated to the back behind the wall outside the door. Not happy with it so it is 'out of sight,out of mind' until it decided to PRODUCE! ;) ;)

Yours look lovely. Quite like that colour too.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

Most of the plants are either in flower or at least I can see what colour they will be. I am amazed at the variety of leaves, size and habit of plants and flowers that should be similar.

I am trying to sort them into categories, photograph them and give them a folio number. All information will be written on the outside of the pots so that when they die back I will be able to trace their full information back to point of purchase.

At the moment Tesco's rating is surprisingly high, but I have a lovely plant that came from Poundland too.

I don't think I would grow from tubers again - well, I've got plenty anyway - I would prefer to buy small plants just coming into flower. I think it's worth a £1 or so extra not to have to fiddle with small pots, compost, watering etc and to be sure that you have the colour that you want. :up
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

I've noticed that here the $$ are same for a tuber as an already started plant except all the started growing begonias are very much only red, yellow, white, pink..........nothing fancy at all (however that doesn't really matter as my 'fancy' begonia is showing no sign at all of even having a single bud :(
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

You aren't alone LLL :lol: I have a group of 5 growing in one south facing window which have grown into sturdy plants, with plenty of leaves just showing bud colour - yet the windows e :tk ither side have plants that have been first bloomers. Downstairs facing north west there are another couple which seem to match up.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

I've grown begonias before and I truly love them. There is a delicate fragility to the leaves then they produce large lovely flowers = gorgeous. Not sure what is wrong with this begonia. Might flower but if the flower is of any size it'll break the stem as they're real spindly.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

My favourite so far is an un-named Non-Stop variety that my daughter bought for me in late February covered in vermillion flowers. It's still covered in flowers though there are more leaves showing through. There are no single flowers just double flowers like 2inch roses. Then when a flower drops there is another ready to take it's place on the same stem. Some of the stems on my plant have had 8 flowers!

I don't see them very often and certainly haven't seen any tubers for sale.


I must admit I'm very fond of the Begonias with decorative leaves. Mmmm maybe next year?
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

I especially love reiger begnoias - those are the type with big showy multi-coloured leaves (flowers are small and fairly insignificant).

My only problem with ferns and begonias is getting them watered when I'm gone. I can trust the daughter to pick up newspapers & mail and do umpteen other tasks I ask her to do BUT watering plants doesn't happen. She has tortured a few of her own to death ;) by never watering them so most of my house plants are the iron clad will never die types (Mother In Laws Tongue/Snake plant or jade plant types that rarely need watering)
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

LLL Do you know I think my "non-stop" begonias are Rieger that you mentioned. I've never heard of the name before, I had one plant last year and this one this year also unlabelled.


I've found a bit on the internet about them but they are very difficult to purchase except as full grown plants. I'm going to watch out for different colours and I'll ask the plant manager at the garden centre for more info. :up
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

I've had "reiger" begonias in the past. The leaves are, in a word, GORGEOUS!! The deep burgundies to almost black and some with silver - they're lovely. They like IMO conditions similar to a Boston Fern.

Way in the past when I thought they were the most striking plant I've ever had (and cause I was working in greenhouses) I figured out how to propagate them.

You basically take a healthy leaf and put it onto a soft growing medium (I used peat at the time). I took toothpicks and staked the leaf bottom side down to make good contact with the moist peat underneath then took a sharp knife and cut across the veins of the leaf in a random pattern. Couple of slits here and there. Not enough to kill the leaf but 3 or 4 good cuts. I put a plastic lid on my efforts (I essentially created a mini greenhouse) and VOILA in a month or so all these tiny begonias emerged from where I cut the veins of the leaf. Easy peasy and I had these up the whazoo and they were all gorgeous. (I might have done something else as this is from memory but I don't think so). They were pretty easy to start and grow.

I cannot for the life of me remember IF these new plants grew true or if they grew different. That memory is temporarily or permanently gone right now.

I don't really see too many of them here anymore and honestly for me, since I travel out and away a couple of times a year I've tended to get plants that don't die as in snake plants, dracenas. I no longer have anybody who is tender to grow and by that I mean WATERED. I can get the daughter to do most anything else except WATER MY PLANTS! She just can't seem to remember that one particular task and her NON-GREEN THUMB means she'll water a cactus to death whilst leaving a fern gasping for water.

Back to Reiger begonias - as I remember they do flower but pretty small and insignificant. I also think they grown new leaves from the stalk end so sooner or later you end up with a bare not attractive stalk end in the soil with the leaves growing at the other end. I rather think that is how my begonias met their demise (when I tried to re-pot deep and it didn't work).

Another popular Begonia here is call "Angel Wing." It has a much waxier shiny leaf (unlike reiger begonias where the leaves are texturally fuzzy (if that is a word) like an African Violet. The Angel Wings IF they like where they are will grow in offices in next to no light other than artificial and produce tons of small pink flowers. Sometimes the leaves are solid green other times they're spotted but the leaves grow very much like what you'd stylistically see on an Angel.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

The biggest lesson I've learned with the Begonias I've grown this year is ……….. if you only have south facing window sills to grown them on...……….then don't :cry:

I'm mounting a rescue attempt at the moment, I may save the tubers, but don't expect many more flowers, if any.

I really didn't expect a heat wave in this locality - on average at this time of year it rains every other day at least, and temperatures are pretty low. Usually about 4C lower than London for example.

In spite of all my efforts the pots got well and truly baked and Begonias just don't like those conditions. However I have had a good crop of early blooms to encourage me to grow them again outside.

In an attempt to defeat the evil slugs and snails I have decided to make an unlovely, but I hope pest proof new place outside for the houseplants for the rest of the year, using a couple of dustbins used for storing my empty pots etc. with a sheet of marine ply across the two of them. I've got a narrow sheltered west facing area that is quite discrete and will put them there. I shall also put slug traps out.

My biggest disappointment was that the plant with the huge early flowers succumbed to mildew without setting seed and it was the only one to get mildew too. It was an un-named tuber from Tesco Superstore - one of the cheap ones! :up
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Horus »

Thats a shame MD, but who could have guessed that the waether would be so hot :tk
Maybe the Tesco tubers are not treated for mildew and all the others are?
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

I think you are right there Horus, because one of the Tesco pots has seedling grass and it must have come in on the tuber. :up
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

My begonia has done exactly nothing. I grew about 8" high with 2 shoots and has since sat there. Not a flower but to be seen anywhere, no branches and no more leaves. It has been a total bust so doubt I'll be bother with these next year. I'll try and rescue and keep this tuber but not sure that'll be worth it if it is only going to produce nothing again next year.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

I have some out of the strong light on my big kitchen table again the window. The lovely yellow one was the only one to flower, except for one small bloom on another plant. But the foliage is strong and lush and they came from different places. I give up. I'll buy plants in bloom even if they cost more I think.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Do you know - I paid $3 for the tuber and then a month or so later I saw big lush FLOWERING tuberous begonias for $3 so I did kinda scratch my head and wonder "what am I doing?" but I did rationalize it that "I" bought a super duper colourful one and soon as it started to flower I'd enjoy a much nicer blooming plant......BUT ??? Nothing has flowered or done much of anything. I'm not too sure what I'll do next year but I think if I do decide to grow begonias I'm just going to buy ones that are already flowering.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

This is the Fat Ladying Singing - it is over for this begonia. Definitely not worth the effort as it never got much better than this:

9570

Bin time!
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Horus »

Never been a big fan of Begonias, that’s why I didn’t bother. :D
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