Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Begonias in Switzerland, 1 by hcmcdole

hcmcdole wrote:
You must really love begonias to keep yours alive and growing. My peltata always looks great in summer but is a shrinking violet right now. My venosa is doing okay but it seems to be a very slow grower.

Begonias are challenging enough with bringing them indoors for winter but luckily we have hot, humid weather for half the year where most of them do thrive. Lights, heat, and some kind of humidity control helps them do well indoors as well but that can get costly. It would be wonderful to have an aquarium for the majority of my plants but for now I make do with gravel trays and plastic covers (including drinking cups, cake covers, plastic bowls from salad materials, etc.) for the worst looking ones.

If begonias weren't so enchanting, I'd throw them all out and find something a lot easier to grow. Here is my biggest tank - I think it is a 120 gallon tank with 3 fluorescent lights. Most of the begonias are fairly new so they get the best attention until they put some size on and I can propagate them.