Leaf rooting experiment

Hillbilly_Gran.
I am afraid to tug on my leaves. They have survived two weeks and look ok on the Perlite side. Were your rooted leaves on the paper towel?

On my visit to PHOE I saw tables full of leaf rooting. Check this out. I am trying with some of the begonias I brought home.

Here's another pic of their successful leaf rooting. The intern said he cut the leaves' stem off and put in in the Pro Mix you get from Canada ( I have it too for my seedlings so it's easy to get).

So what all did you get while you were there?

Butch, Do you have an endless supply of Begonia pictures?

I have thousands begoniadude. That was Judy Cook above taken at PHOE last May.

Here is one of the jewel begonias at the same place.

Love those jewels. Is that button fern on the right? Is it cold hardy for you?

I think that was a maidenhair fern. The last two pictures are at PHOE which is located in Miami and probably in a greenhouse as well. I can't remember if it was covered or not.

Butch,
Funny you askedwhat I got. I just got a new ap for my iphone that keeps track of my begonias. It's essentially a database program but the best part is that I can add picture to each listing.
Here's what I got:
red road, glory bee, guinevere,escargot, red dunes ( a new hybrid), delta, golden glow, maggie nodal, june, oleta,
manaus, zipper, versachi, bertha, othello,red swirls, chauncey, daddy's coffee, glass glow, lauderdale lakes,doppleganger, barsa louxide, crazy quilt, raspberry.
In the bonzai version, I got abu daby, brown eyes, red eyes, glory bee ( why did I get two?),royal luster, olympus.
A couple of canes: amerituso japan, and maculata.
I also met a guy who was selling some rex out of his van. Yes it sounds contraband but I couldn't help myself. The rexes are Harmony red robin, Marion Palmer,Snow capped,purple snow, ember, peace, flamingo soup ( though I wonder on these names).
Although the plants looked a little pitiful after tehir transit in my suitcases, they rebounced the next day. Barsa Louxide took a heavy hit and lost all its leaves but the rhizome looks ok.
A cool pic below of B. maculata that looks like a marching army.

Sounds like you made a haul!! I think some of the names are off or misspelled - barsalouxiae, Royal Lustre (English spelling), Abu Dhabi (Arab capital of U.A.E.), and maybe a couple more. Is that Queen Olympus or just Olympus? My Q.O. is looking very good (so is R.L.)

Maggie Nodal gets HUGE!! Not the biggest leaves but the plant gets very large. My Golden Glow didn't perform as well as I hoped it would so I hope yours does better. Purple Snow can be a stinker (mildew magnet in winter) but is one that looks great when it is growing outdoors. June has done very well for me. It looks similar to Marmaduke without a lot of fuss. Lauderdale Lakes is a so-so begonia for me - maybe it needs repotting.

Some I haven't heard of - must be Tim's newest ones or ones he changed names on.

I think the Flamingo Soup is really Flamingo Soul.

Love your picture of maculata. Here is my picture of probably the same scene but it is slanted.

I told you that the suitcase method works pretty good. Maybe a few damaged leaves but for the most part they travel well.

Thanks for the correct spelling. I think barsalouxiae is featured in the Begonian I just received yesterday. I was glad I could get Maggie Nodal in a 4 in pot. I love big begonia. I have Shadow Boxing and it'sthriving indoors. I couldn't take home Carribean King because it was 2 ft tall in an 8 inch pot. I really need to drive a truck down there...
Flamingo Soul sounds a heck of a lot better than Flamingo Soup!
Here's a pic of some new unamed ones. I can't believe it takes 2-3 yrs to get tested and then it may not even got to market. These have no names.

I didn't see any small pots of Maggie at PHOE but they had a couple of big 8 inch pot of it at the convention. I missed getting either one but did buy two 4 inch starter pots. They grow quick!

Hybrids are a dime a dozen it seems. How does the hybridizer pick out just a few out of thousands of seedlings?

Here is my Maggie from Sept 4

I can't believe how HUGE yor Maggie is. I can't wait to get mine outside. Here's a pic of some big begonia at PHOE. I didn't look at the name.

Did you see the absolutely huge Maggie in the ground at PHOE? Now that was huge. Lotusland is my biggest leaf begonia with Challenger behind it. Selph's Mahogany is another very large leaf begonia. Maggie is not as big a leaf but gets to be a big plant in no time.

Caribbean King and Queen are two more huge growing begonias. My first year with these two grew beyond all expectations. Unfortunately I left them out too late and they got severe frost bite. Then I kept them in the garage for the next two winters and they kept getting smaller and smaller in the same 18 inch pots. I finally potted them down and it appears the King is making its way back but the Queen has a ways to go. Maybe this summer I can move them back up to huge pots so they can regain their glory.

Here is a picture of them at their height. Queen in front and King on the other side of the sidewalk. C. King is not quite as big as C. Queen but still impressive.

I have to say that my senses were completely overwhelmed as it was my first visit but for sure not my last. I did not notice Maggie Nodal. Can you get C. Queen or King from place other than PHOE?

I've only seen them offered at PHOE but that doesn't mean there aren't other sources.

Here is C. King at Fairchild (early March 2006)

Wow! I wish I had enough time to go to Fairchild...My brain just got fried picking out the 40+ begonias I couldn' t leave behind. I couldn't handle any more begonias that day...
You can see the tables in the background is full of begonias in this pic.

Hi Butch
I have a question for you. I got B. maculata. There was no indication of variety. On sites such as Taylor greenhouse or Logee's, they sell something called begonia maculata var. wightii. Are those different? They look the same.

Good question Tru.

Personally I think maculata var. wightii and maculata var. maculata are the same by what you can see on the web. I'd like to see both side by side in person from a grower who is an "expert" on these matters.

See if you can make heads or tails out of Mark Tebbitt's notes on the two. I can't. I see even he makes mistakes (wrightii vs. wightii - which is the correct spelling?).

http://books.google.com/books?id=TFWbRbHSowAC&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dq=begonia+maculata&source=bl&ots=ST9eEK4eEJ&sig=duOVb8KlnfUdAs8Kp9IppHaO1O8&hl=en&ei=iLGKS-OsHcqttgev_8zHDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAoQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=begonia%20maculata&f=false

I lost my maculata var. wrightii ( spelled on logee's site) this winter so now I can't compare and contrast in person and see the size of the spot. But from my memory, they look exactly the same.

I went to the Logee's site and read the name as Wightii. Do you need new reading glasses? (just kidding)


http://www.logees.com/prodinfo.asp?number=B3110-2

Here is my maculata from last summer. I bought one of those gallon sizes at PHOE back in early May.

Here it is in bloom.

Actually I do need reading glasses. How did you guess? Just kidding too. I say Wrightii, you say Wightii....
I need to see mine when it grows up. It's just a baby in a 4 in pot right now. But the 3 leaves that are on the plant look very much like yours.
I have spotted the perfect ( i think) area for all my new acquisitions for this Spring. Morning light, midday shade and perhaps light afternoon light. Can't wait!
Below is PHOE's water gardens. It reminds me of thermal baths.

I guess I am going by the larger number of hits on Wightii vs Wrightii. ABS has it as Wightii as well as The RHS and our own DG. Wright does seem like a better choice but maybe it was named after the Isle of Wight.
Anyway if a misspelling is repeated enough does it become (w)right?

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/113488/

http://www.taylorgreenhouses.com/bemavawi.html

http://www.begonias.org/search.htm?cx=003818858473749387496%3Azaeqvaybb-e&cof=FORID%3A11&q=wightii#671

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/plantlist.asp?code=CSpe+

http://www.themarthablog.com/2008/03/begonias-in-my-greenhouse-have-a-look-at-my-photos.html

Here is Caribbean Corsair in the landscape at the Orchid Center in West Palm Beach.

Hi Hillbilly_gran,
I won't be able to visit the College of O until April. I wanted to also the begonias at Hilltop Farm ,near Ash Grove MO. They are unfortunately closed until April. Maybe by then my leaves will have rooted. The paper side is not doing as well as the vermiculite side...

I could meet you at Ash Grove, I used to live very near there(Everton) but never visited that nursery. Just let me know when you will be going and we can work out the details.

No problem.

Begoniadude,
Have your begonias rooted yet?

Still no roots but the leaves look good still.

Here are my first babies ^_^ the petiole had roots forming on the portion above the substrate-- So I added a little perlite up to the bottom of the leaf. Nothing else is doing anything that I can see--everything loks fine-- except Last Laugh which I pitched a week or so ago.

Hillbilly_gran
Thanks for the pic. It's worth a thousand words as they say. Don't you get algae growing on your perlite? Mine is all green.
Were these guys rooted on perlite only?

Looks good Hillbilly.

A little algae won't hurt anything. Algae is more a problem with seedlings.

A couple pots have algae--but like Butch says-- it doesn't hurt anything--only ugly. These are in straight perlite-- this is the method that works best for me when rooting streptocarpus-- so thought I would give it a try with these guys. so far so good.

this is the cane begonia i started last summer and it has really taken off.i'm hooked

Here's a pic of the leaf I rooted successfully this fall. It's taken through the glass of the aquarium the plant is sitting in. Notice the tiny plantlet on the upper left corner of the leaf. Tough to see tough...

Here a picture of the tray of leaf rootings I started with Hillbilly_Gran one month ago. On the left, paper towel, on the right perlite. I got lots of algae on the perlite side.

On the paper towel side, I had a part of the paper towel folded over the cut end of the petiole and that's where the roots grew.

As I lifted the leaf of an unnamed plant from the perlite, I notice tiny little roots.

Not all the leaves took roots. Some rotted. The more successful leaves are those that are larger. Hocking Flourish (11:10 and 11:12 postings) was successful in both types of media. Mad hatter doesn't have anything and appears to want to rot... Wedges of other leaves dried up on me.

I think it might take another 3 months before I will see plantlets on the rooted leaves that I just potted. So perhaps I should see Hillbilly_Gran in June? Just kidding!

It seems like the critical steps were to treat the leaves with Neem and have all the equipments cleaned with soap and bleach beforehand. I did not do this in the past. Another ingredient like Butch said is to have healthy leaves. A third is distilled water (Hillbilly_gran trick). A fourth requirement is a longer cut petiole. The leaves cut right at the junction of the leaf and the petiole just want to rot. Longer petioles (1 in) fared better.

Lilspirit-- aren't they so addictive? Your plant looks great!! Truongr-Thanks for posting an update!!! We sure learn as we grow don't we? So far only Harmony's Red Robin is doing anything here, babies on one leaf have doubled in size since I posted the last picture--at least you will get more than rooted leaves on at least one when we get together!!

This message was edited Mar 6, 2010 12:39 PM