Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Too many begonias, 1 by hcmcdole

hcmcdole wrote:
Dawn,

That is 15 cuttings I received off eBay. I rooted them all in water for about a week or two and then stuck them in a bowl (15 inch plastic you can get from HD for about 4 dollars or more). I use MiracleGro soil now since I can get the large bags at Sam's. Another thing I've noticed is you can use Nature's Helper (ground up pine bark and maybe some sand) and begonias root easily in it but I will warn you - it is a lot "dirtier" than good potting soil but it's also a lot cheaper. If you are growing outdoors I'd use it instead of good potting soil.

The one thing to observe about a community pot is to grow the same size plants in it. I've learned that sometimes you put a lot of things together because they are small and think it would work out really nice, but you could have some brutes in the mix that will eventually take over the whole pot.

So I would put small canes together, large canes together, etc. if you want to economize. You will note on the 'Sinbad' pot, I actually have 3 other canes and a trailer in the same pot. Sinbad is a brute but the others fared well last summer (they were 'Torch', 'Maribel Pink Shades', richmondensis, and 'Chocolate'). Torch is the only one that came back along with Sinbad.



Sue,

For Sophia or any other cane, you will have to take a stem cutting (include at least a couple of nodes). They will not propagate by leaf cutting. You can cut the top out and easily water root it in a week or two. Remove all the leaves except the top two and blooms. If the leaves are extra large then you can trim them as well. When roots start forming you can stick it in a good potting mix and go from there.

You can actually cut the whole plant down to a few inches above soil level and the stubs should put on new growth (leave a node or two) and also new shoots should come up from the ground. The longer stems may be cut into shorter sections as long as you have a couple of nodes or more and either water root them or simply stick it in some moist growing medium. You do not need rooting hormone for this.

Butch

Here is a community pot from a few years ago. Everything looks good after a couple of weeks.