AngelWing Begonia Questions

Hello,

All the angelwing begonia pictures i have seen on the net show a plant around 18-24 inches tall, Single stemmed plant, packed with close growing leaves and a beautiful blooming flower. My angelwing begonia is about 4 feet tall has 4 main stems and has never bloomed. The plant itself is about two years old, perhapps more, i'll explain. I got this plant as a clipping, it was in my randmothers windowsill for about a year, in a mason jar of water, it had good root growth but it never grew taller or branched out untill i took it and planted it. once planted it took off like a rocket.

It has been planted for about two years now. each winter it drops all but a cpl leaves, but comes back each spring and summer with a good 12 inches of new bright green growth. ive heard that an angelwing begonia will get about 4 feet, drop its leave and have that stem die, and will grow another, but this one dosent seem to want to do that, it just keeps growing. It is in a south window, and i water it with a cpl Oz of water every 2-3 days.

I guess my questions are:

why is it getting so tall and not bushy
why hasnt it bloomed
can any chemicals make the folliage brighter, like phospherus does with some plants
whats any other general or detailed knowlege that could be helpfull

You need to cut it back in the spring. Cut it to 4" or so--paying attention to cut above the node.
Get rid of the tall stems--but keep the top ones and put them in a fresh pot to root.

The old one will grow back--and the new cuttings will give you a nice plant.
I have been doing this for about 25 years--same plant. Every spring--I cut it back and then it grows beautiful.

Look here....This was cut back to the nubs this spring. Be brave! Just do it!!!
This picture is from June. The plant is now at least a foot taller.

Gita

LOL! My plants are from one that grew about 15' in an office. My first plant was about 30" or more when my parrot had it for lunch. Compared to its cousins, the blooms on this are pretty insignificant so I don't worry about that part, but you could change your fertilizer to a bloom type in spring.

Jr----

Just looked at your picture again. I don't think it is an "Angel Wing" at all. The leaves are totally different....
look at mine again--each leaf is shaped like an angel's wing.

We sold a similar Begonia this summer at HD. Will take a pictute--unless they have canned it...
My neighbor also has a Begonia that resembles yours. She got it from Spain and calls it
her "Spanish Begonia" She is not a gardener--and tends to kill everything--much to MY dismay.

You can Google . When the page opens up--look to your top left toolbar at the top.
There should be an option that says "Images". Click on that--and a zillion pictures of all kinds of Begonias will ome up.
If you hover your browser over any picture--it will enlarge--and many of them give the name. See what matches yours.

The link below is on Propagating Begonias. I had that saved in my Bookmarks...Thought I had a Begonia page as well. will look again..

http://www.bradsbegoniaworld.com/prop.htm

Ahh! Here is one! It gives you many side links to explore. have fun!

http://www.bradsbegoniaworld.com/

Gita

Here! This is what came up when I Googled "Begonia" and clicked on "images"....

Lots and lots to look at. You nan do this with anything you Google--Love this feature!!!!

http://www.google.com/search?q=begonia+pictures&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1272&bih=784

You know--I may have to take back what i said about it not being an Angel Wing--just because it does not look like mine
doesn't mean anything.....Seems some others in the link above are called that...

Gita

Here is another picture of mine--from 2008.

Normally when plants get leggy / tall, with large spaces between the leaf, it is because the plant is shooting up to try get light, I would suggest your plant can be cut way down to the lower leaves (you can use the cut off stems for taking cuttings) once you have cut it back, move the plant to an area with better sunlight, NOT direct sunlight onto the plant but, a brighter room with natural light, turn the plant in the pot say once a week so all the plant gets equal amounts of light, in the shorter days of winter, move it closer to the window but NOT against the glass as it will maybe get frost at night.

To use your off cuts for cuttings you need some pots filled with potting compost, the pots will take several cutting per pot, you need a sharp clean knife (craft knife with razor sharp blade will do) Lay the branch on a flat surface, cut STRAIGHT across the bottom of the stem just below a leaf joint, then cut at an ANGLE just above the next leaf join, remove all the bottom leaf AND the little bit of soft growth that is left at the leaf joint, either dip the STRAIGHT cut end into rooting medium and shake any excess off, use a pencil / pen to make a hole in the compost right at the edge of the pot, and insert your cutting, you can fill all around the pot with cuttings working the straight (BOTTOM and SLANTED TOP) this way of cutting helps you remember which way up the plant grows, it wont grow IF you put the cuttings up-side-down. IN between the leaves at the top slanted cut, you will probable have to re-cut every time as you don't want to have too much stem between the bottom cut / leaf joint or the bottom will rot before it has time to make roots.

You can place a Polly bag over the pot (use canes to keep the bag up-right and away from the foliage. after about 3 weeks, you may find that the cuttings have some roots, a gentle tug will tell you, IF you feel they have made enough roots then pot the cuttings up into individual pots that are not too large, if the pots are too large, then you use more compost and more compost at this stage means that the new cuttings cant survive in a large pot of wet compost, smaller pots are always better for all types of Begonia cuttings as the fleshy stems are susceptible to rotting.
Hope this helps you out and you have lots of fun with your new cutting program.
Good luck. WeeNel.

Yes it is an Angel Wing. Could be Crackling Rosie, as that one has the same glossy leaves and red undersides. It looks very healthy. The above advice is good. Just whack off the tall shoots and re-start them. barb