Is it time to bring in the begonias?

It has been getting pretty cool here - low 40's last week for the lows but the highs this week have been in the high 80's. With those temperatures watering is needed almost every day. Mildew has set in on Sinbad due to the very cool night temps (ugly). Tree leaves continue to fall and smother small plants and cuttings so a daily cleaning is almost mandatory. Leaves also penetrate begonia leaves leaving wounds that can easily become infected with fungus and other germs. Squirrels have been knocking over smaller pots and digging in larger pots with soft soil to bury acorns and other "treasures".

Several rhizomatous (mostly rex heritage) have been blooming for weeks and setting seed.

Time to spray, prune, clean pots, and get them ready for the migration back to warmer quarters.

Here is an example of falling leaves on Selph's Mahogany.

Leaves penetrated B. parvifolia - that's going to hurt.

Yes there are actually cuttings under all those fallen leaves.

Ugly Sinbad. Only sprayed one time so far and that was weeks ago. Now all the leaves will have to be removed and hope the plant survives.

Cooler weather brings out new colors on some begonias. This Silver Queen is now Pink Queen!

More leaf litter.

Caravan is blooming nicely though.

Bill Claybaugh is blooming nicely too.

Green begonias still looking good.

Taconite in bloom - dark large leaves with dark pink blooms - what a combo.

U357 blooms and developing seed pods.

One more leaf litter scene. Add your own frustrations and successes.

Great set of photos! We're wrapping it up here too. But the main reason for my post is your B. 'Taconite' because it made me laugh!
When I got this begonia a few years back, it was labeled B. 'Taco Nite' so I tried to figure the hybridizers motivation (Burritos, taquitos) anyway, just thought it funny!

It's a nice dark begonia, nice to see it in bloom!

I can see that - a begonia named after a food and a special night for Mexican food at that. I searched for Taco Nite but only found one reference on the entire web.

I knew taconite was some kind of mineral but according to Wikipedia it is an iron ore mixed with quartz. I wonder if that is what Tim named it after?

It is a difficult one to photograph since it is so dark especially in dappled shade. Here is a photo of it with better light (flash, sun?) back mid July.

Bill Claybaugh caught my eye, going to have to find that one!

Around here it is the pine straw that is dive bombing all plants with leaves, they make tiny holes holes in everything.

I live in Baja Norte, and although the temperature has cooled a bit, hopefully it's not enough to stop the growing season. It never gets very cold here. Maybe 50 degrees at night in January/February, so I'm gonna try to winter them in their pots. This is a shot of a few hanging baskets begonia's.

Here's a close up of a red hang basket.

I've combined some hanging baskets with some California Calla's, and they seem to play well together.

One last macro of California Calla's and Hanging Baskets.

And here it is with the actual attachment. Oops...

Here's a shot of the whole self watering pot containing both Hanging Baskets, and California Calla's. Their environmental needs are similar, and seem to compliment each other well. My only question is: Do they both go dormant at about the same time? Does anyone know?

This message was edited Oct 15, 2010 7:57 AM

Ardesia, I had the same problem with pine needles in the past. Got our two huge pines removed earlier this summer so that problem went away. I was fortunate that when the pinecones fell or even worse - big limbs broke off and fell 60 feet that not one hit any of my pots. My neighbor's hickory tree was loaded this year and when you hear them fall, it makes you glad you didn't get hit on the head by one of those hefty nuts.

Deepwater, lovely pictures of the tuberous begonias and calla lilies. In your zone, it is nice that you don't have to worry about moving plants inside for winter. Callas can be wintered here in the ground where they become kind of weedy from seed. I don't know about dormancy periods for tuberous begonias and calla lilies being in sync with each other. Only one way to find out - experiment!

U501 in bloom

very lovely begonias to all.

try hard all these months and still lost a few of my begonias,
but still had some success in propagating some.
i'm not giving up.

and i to am going to search for caravan and taconite.
really caught my attention.

i have a question for hcmcdole,
u know a lot about all plants
and i have been growing them for quite some years myself by trial and error.
question cane begonia
why are the leaves all on one side(rotate it every day)
and how do the seeds set when the blooms fall off??

Hmm, if the leaves are all on one side and you rotate the plant every day then I would quit rotating the plant. Leave the bare side to the light and see if that makes a difference. I think I read somewhere to rotate the plant 1/3 once a week. I rarely rotate because of the sheer number of pots.

For seeds to set you need a pollinator (are your canes inside or out?) and the canes in question have to be fertile. Some canes are sterile due to their hybridization (kind of like a mule). If the canes are outside you should have plenty of pollinators but if indoors you will either have to introduce some insects or do it yourself.

Here is a Good News Bee (actually a fly that is a good imitation of a bee) visiting B. 'Ginny' this summer.

seedpods on a rex begonia (Georgia Tasker I think).

Begonia seeds are very small (these are on a papertowel and those are the dimples in the towel)

Seedlings from my own seed started earlier this year.