Tropicals & Tender Perennials: The Ho-Hum dreary days of winter, 1 by begoniacrazii

begoniacrazii wrote:
Here's how I grow 'Flamingo' - I'm so afraid of losing it. I got it as a cutting a few months back. So it went into a 30/30/30 mix and promptly into a bag. It's been there ever since. I just clipped it to one of my grow carts. So far so good. But I dare not take her out of the bag! The longest leaf is about 9 inches - give or take. It doesn't seem to mind hanging out with African violets and petrocosmea.

I think B. incisa is more vigorous and so far less temperamental than B. bipinnatifida. And I killed at least 6 B. brevirimosa (or those others that look just like it - B. exotica etc) before I got this one to grow. When Morris gave it to me, I said 'Say good bye! I've killed all the others' and he gave me this look like 'You better not!' so on my life I've got to keep it happy! LOL.
It did lose several lower leaves but then put on at least 3 inches up top.

One caveat - for the most part these are not what I would consider begonias for the beginner. All (at least to me) are the diva's of the begonia world and require a lot more attention than my others.