Tropicals & Tender Perennials: silly question from a newbie (sorry), 1 by hcmcdole

hcmcdole wrote:
Hey Spider,

Come to the Atlanta Chapter of the ABS and get lots of information and maybe some begonias. Next meeting is Sept 20th and is the begonia "dig" which is usually the best meeting of the year. Okay, enough of a plug on that issue.

Almost all canes cannot be grown from a leaf. I've seen many posts that say they can get the leaf to root but that is it - no new plants. That being said, there are probably exceptions such as B. amphioxus but is that a cane or something else?

For canes, take stem cuttings with 3 nodes or more; trim bottom leaves leaving the top 2 or 3 and bigger leaf canes may have the top leaves trimmed in half as well; remove blooms; push into good potting mix; water in; and set in a semi-shady area - they should root in a week or two. Water rooting works too. You can also use bare stems but make sure the bottom portion goes into the soil and not the top. You can also lay the stems horizontally on top of potting soil and water in - all the nodes should send up new shoots at which point you can cut these and start new plants as well.

All rhizomatous begonias can be started from a leaf cutting but there are degrees of difficulty depending on the plant. Rexes are very easy and so are a lot of rhizomatous but some of the bigger, succulent varieties are more difficult (at least to me).

There are many methods to accomplish this. The easiest is with the petiole pushed in a fast draining medium such as straight Perlite (I've done gravel, sand, Nature's Helper, water, etc.). Other methods are wedge cuttings, cone, tissue culture (if you are so inclined to set up this high tech lab) for some or most, severing main veins and laying the leaf flat on the medium. The safest method is using the petiole to anchor the leaf and provide some kind of humidity cover if doing this indoors but if you do it outdoors and with our present conditions you can dispense of the humidity cover.

Here is one of my favorite ways to propagate leaves now - a roasting pan with a clear lid that I can buy at any grocery store in a two pack. I poke holes in the pan with my pocketknife, add good potting soil, moisten the soil, stick my cuttings in, cover, set in a semi-shady area, and leave the rest to Mother Nature. The leaves here are B. 'Virginia Jens' and 'Raven'. I started VJ early this month and they are rooted. I started Raven a bit later but the leaf still looks good and healthy.