BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

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Mad Dilys
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

LovelyLadyLux wrote: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!
That looks too familiar! I've got them outside now, had to wait until the rain eased off for a day or so - still rains every day, just softer and not so much.

However the Unknown plant that flowered all summer on ever lengthening flower stems at last gave up and stopped flowering. You could see how many flowers had been, one at a time on each stem. Some had had as many as 14 others as low as six. Less that a week after I tidied the plan up I saw a new bud peeping through the leaves and she's off again. I'm keeping her inside as she seems to like it. Great value for money.. :up


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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

How odd, just lost a reply again.

Anyway, Begonias that were put outside on temporary and hopefully slug proof table have bloomed beautifully in spite of neglect, storms and almost continuous rain and high winds for the last few weeks.

Most of them look lovely and they are the most expensive ones that just made masses of big leaves and sulked. I did label the pots and when they do die back I shall carefully keep these for next year. :up
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

Some of mine are still blooming in their almost water logged pots with no sign of mildew of course - one is particularly lusty and over 2 ft tall straight up single stem bearing single vermillion flowers. So far the slugs haven't got them but I did find a very small one on the leaves of a very expensive bulb that I can't remember the darn name of - absolutely shredded the leaves of course. C'est las vie! :lol:
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Wow - you're definitely lucky to have gotten your begonias to bloom. Mine was a total flop and so I'm not too encouraged to bother giving them another try........BUT.......sometimes when spring rolls in and I think about all the colour and how pretty they are I change my mind and try them.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

What I find weird is that the gorgeous huge early flower got struck with mildew in spite of my nursing it, making sure it wasn't too wet etc. I have one pot with a lusty plant outside that is actually waterlogged no sign of mould at all.

I have ordered a picnic table to go outside next to the big low window. It will look better and I can use the dustbins for storing pots etc. I am so short of storage space. :evil:

Anyway I thought I'd go for pansies and primulas for the winter. If I put the feet of the table in pots of oil it might deter the slugs and they are - fingers crossed - hardy and easy going. :up
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

To conclude my begonia adventure - yesterday I was out back throwing what was left of a half a bag of chicken manure onto the garden and dumping pots that are done. I also dumped the pot with the 1 begonia tuber I'd bought and "WOW" although the begonia tuber produced zip and basically languished yellow on the back deck most of the summer the tuber is now huge! Fits more than the palm of my hand.

Have brought it in to dry out. It is quite solid, not at all mushy but I am wondering how to keep it over the winter. I really thought it would be rotten.

Am thinking though - this tuber was large when I bought it and produced zip. Should it have been or should it now be cut into smaller pieces? (Going on the same idea as seed potatoes - they're always cut to encourage them to produce OR like splitting dahlias? Would it actually be better in smaller pieces? And if I do cut it does it just sit on the counter to dry out?

To a certain extent it was an approximate $3 waste of my time so I'm not too inclined to put too much more effort into it but as a learning experience I was thinking about experimenting with it.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

I think I would keep it whole LLL. I'm not brave enough to cut them up.

In spite of the weather, I have the two big red and two yellow begonias plus a geranium in a very small pot still in flower outside. It's been just above freezing and the pots are pretty well waterlogged. They obviously haven't read all the on line advice on begonia keeping. :lol:

I guess as it's time to put the Begonias to sleep I'd better have a look at the Amaryllis and see if they are waking up.:urm:
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

I've got some peat moss and I'm going to store it in that in the garage. Nothing freezes in there but it does get cold so will wrap it and store it and see how it grows next year. As it grew tall and leggy with yellow leaves and produced no flowers at all I truly ignored it so was quite surprised at the size of the tuber when I knocked the pot out into the veggie garden.

I've never cut into a tuber and have decided to just leave this one whole and see how it does next year. I have nothing to seal the wound with once I cut it so since it did manage to last through the summer and grow bigger it'll get one more chance to produce some flowers for me next year.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

The recent storm finished off the begonias, 2 of them flowered well into November along with a very pretty little geranium from last year, still in it's original small pot. Goodness knows where I'm going to put them. I've got 30 pots! :tk
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Last year MD started a Begonia challenge. I had 1 tuber. Can't remember the name at all but I potted it and it grew a couple long lanky totally yellow stalks and never did flower.

I let it die and ended up throwing the tuber last fall into my potting soil bag. A few months ago I found it. It had a few buds on it so I stuck it into a pot of soil, watered it and put it into the window and VOILA!!!
DSC_0034.JPG
It has so far this year grown lush and short - like a begonia should. No sign of any flowers yet but hopefully they're coming. I've got it outside out front with the hostas. Seems to like it there. Fingers crossed I'll get a flower from it.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Actually I just scrolled up and YUP there IS a photo of how it looked last year. Fortuitous I tossed it into my potting soil bag and it lived in the garage all winter.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Horus »

Well done :up
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

Well, I never cease to be surprised with the plant world. I didn't have an opportunityto deal with last years Begonias so they stayed in their pots outside, looking dead as doornails...…….

I returned from my trip this week to see sturdy shoots on more than a dozen of the Begonia pots outside in all weathers since last summer! Mind you it does average 2 days rain out of every 3 days. My slug barrier obviously works.

Amazingly my 2 Mandevilla plants in the house had grown, though losing most of their leaves, looking dreadful and wangling through the small gap in the venetian blinds had concentrated on those shoots with plenty of light and my favourite actually has two flower buds on it! No water for 7 weeks! The buds are about 10 feet above the pot - I have very high ceilings. :up

I thought they might have tubers or rhizomes. :tk
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

This is how it looks now complete with flowers. I basically tossed it last year cause I couldn't believe how totally terribly it grew however I've not got it out the front of the house and it is flowering to beat the band.
DSC_0012.JPG
DSC_0011.JPG
To me this begonia was a goner and I'd totally forgot I tossed the tuber into my bag of garden soil. It was only on a whim cause I was transplanting that I decided to give it a second chance but it has turned out to be lovely.
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by Mad Dilys »

Fantastic!
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Re: BEGONIA TUBER CHALLENGE

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Thank you MD. It did less than nothing last year and I was quite demoralized about the entire begonia tuber experience. This year I had no expectations other than to throw out the tuber with the soil when the time came and "Voila" it produced and is producing quite a lovely display. Not sure why this year it decided to grow unless it was the fear of death in the bin! ;)
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