Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Humidity 101, 0 by hcmcdole

hcmcdole wrote:
Kim,

I would've thought TX would've been a great place for begonias (check the ABASTRO site). Maybe you are in the more arid part of Texas.

I have one episcia and it is about to take over half of the big aquarium in the above picture (the other side not shown).

Aquariums are great for propagating especially for saving any plants that are close to death (I saved 'Chivalry' with a couple of leaves this way, not once, but twice). That brings up the other thing about these ideal conditions - if you start a plant in a terrarium do not pull it out after you get it going and expose it back to the same conditions that put it into a downward spiral in the first place - you will kill it this way. I did this over a year ago with several begonias. They were growing so fast that they were crowding out each other. I pulled the most robust ones out and lost them all in a matter of a few weeks. Lesson learned.

Here is that old tank - most of these were started with a leaf. 'Purple Snow' and 'Deco Deviltry' were fighting for space on the left. The right hand corner was some kind of bowerae ('Kit Kat' or 'Tiger Kitten' whose leaves were 3 to 4 times larger than normal). 'Marmaduke' was doing great. What is not shown is 'Chivalry' and another 'Purple Snow' in the left hand corners. I was able to salvage the last two leaves of 'Chivalry' and save it.