We were over 250 posts on this thread,
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1046155/#new
Time to revive it.
The morning sun streaming through the window backlighted my New York Swirl Silver Mist Rex begonia. The red really comes through, it looks silver and green from the front without the lighting.
wow cool view!
Today I made the two leaves from stormyla's Marmaduke, into four cuttings. Each leaf got trimmed so that I had a stem with smaller leaf, and a piece with several cut veins. A page I read recently said you take that veiny leaf piece and form sort of a cone with it in the soil. then hopefully each vein roots and you get a few baby plants at once close together , and a nice full plant.
I find that leaf cuttings take some time to get started. Patience is the key here. And don't be in a hurry to pot up, I lost some by moving them to soon.
I have a nice chunk of Gita's beefstake begonia rooted in water, it's time to move it into some potting mix.
Sally & Lady, Here is what's left of the Marmaduke. It doesn't look too bad for giving up 16 leaves between the 2 swaps. That one in front of it is the NOID from Gita. It's doing wonderfully. Sally, Can you see yours lurking in the rear on the same shelf? Misting these has really helped with the leaf loss.
Here's the cane that Gita gave me coming back to life nicely.
Bunchi has held up pretty well, losing some leaves, but all in all pretty good. It's tiny Orchid like blooms are really cute. The cane to the right of it is coming back to life so is the one on the other side.
Chris, my four rexes are still hanging in there, but with about 3 leaves each. They seem to be the hardest ones to keep going, at least for me. I can't seem to get the watering right. The one type is too wet, the other always dry. Misting has helped the one, but I think it hurt the other.
So I mentioned somewhere that I was keeping my Begonias alive but they weren't growing. I have two tiny strawberry begonias Buttoneer gave them to me last summer. They are in 2in pots inside ziplock bags. Originally I thought they were so small that I would make a terrarium for them to keep the moisture in and I wouldn't dry them out. So every so often I would look at them and they seemed to be just fine but they weren't growing. I kept them in the shade of some other plants so the little bag terrariums wouldn't over heat like a few other ones did. When the plants went upstairs right before the holidays these little guys went too. I sat them on a shelf last Dec and haven't looked at them since, so as I'm cleaning off this shelf getting ready for seed starting I find these bags and yes the little plants are still just fine but still not growing. So I was thinking maybe a little weak fertilizer more light? Maybe I should do a "real" terrarium little glass bowl with some moss? I have a good size terrarium upstairs but I would need to pick up more small plants to fill that. So maybe a small decorative glass bowl? What do you guys think????
Holly---
I believe the Strawberry begonia does so much better outside--it spreads out nicely by the runners....
Not sure if it is perennial?????
Maybe you are just pampering it too much.......
We are going to have 65* sat. and 70* on Sunday. Nice time to give some things fresh air....
G.
Stormy, I wait till my Rex's leaves just start to droop and then give then a nice drink (not soaking). I do have my warm steam humidifier going near them. This has been working for me, so far.
Stormy I am pouting... sorry to say I don't think the Marmaduke leaves are going to make it.. got all brown & shriveled up .. maybe I took them out of the plastic too soon
:(
I just spotted this thread... My Marmaduke leaves are still hanging in there, but they don't look happy.
I bought a fun trio of begonias (including Escargot, which I've wanted for years) at the Philly show and potted them up together in a hanging basket. Yah, I know, I need to get a photo! LOL
If anybody is interested in tuberous begonias, there's a non-DG co-op open until Wednesday. Dmail me for details or look on the "other" site. :-)
I was afraid to look--but three seem OK, I had one cone style trimming that rotted. I left the bag open to dry the soil some.
