Has anyone grown these through the winter in a cold greenhouse. I am wondering how cool they can handle.
range of Temperatures
I saw somewhere that minimum temp should be around 55, but my greenhouse has gotten down to about 45 a couple of times (accidentally) and the begonias came through just fine.
I have several outside, kind of against the house or clustered with other plants but all look fine so far. I will be getting rid of things that I have to coddle or move inside to protect from the winter, as mild as our are. Thank goodness the begonias are looking good because I plan to add more to my collection, especially after seeing Lali's pictures!
Jerodsmom,
I'm in colder northern Cali and my temps in my greenhouse get to about mid or low 40's, but I don't allow a freeze since i have a small radiator heater running during the night. Outside it hovers in the high 20's to low 30's and frosty on the pumpkin up in Calistoga!
If you can protect them from frost they should be ok to mid 40's outside. They might look haggard after a winter, but will probably sprout back when the weather warms up. (I'm of course speaking of the more readily available rhizo's and canes and not the type like b. exotica or breverimosa or more tropical types)
A good point made during the seminar is just how extensive the begonia family is, but that the average weekend warrior gardener is really only familiar with Tuberous, wax (semperflorens) and reigers that are sold in garden centers. There are so many more (I think the general agreement among the experts there is in the neighborhood of 20K or more known varieties)
Not that those three above aren't scrumptious in their own right, but with the beauties I saw this week. I haven't even touched the tip of the iceberg with my minute collection!
As soon as I get the sticky links gathered, I'll be able to consolidate all the vendors who I know of that sell online. any help with sending me additional links you all have found is always appreciated too!
My thinking is that I will use that Bubble insultation to line the inside of the greenhouse to help hold the heat in that builds up during the day. On the coldest night's I can run the heater on low which keeps it at about 45. But with our Gas and Electric running around $750. a month right now, I know I have to do something. It just isn't fair to my husband. And most of that amount was the electricity, and the only thing I can think of is that the heater in the greenhouse is drawing it. I think next winter I will bring a couple of my more special begonia's in the house and then see how the other's do.
At my other house I had a greenhouse that I heated with kerosene. That was two years ago and kerosene was about $3 a gallon then. The last winter I had several nights where I did not light the heater and the indoor monitor got down to 33 several nights and 28 one night. All cacti and succulents had no problems as well as a lot of other houseplants (calatheas are not as forgiving I found out). Anyway almost all my begonias had no problems except for the tropical ones like exotica, brevirimosa, and luxurians which all bit the dust, and the finicky 'Escargot'. In other words begonias are hardier than most information you read. Maybe the minimum temps cited are for keeping begonias looking their best?
One year (this was before the greenhouse) I took cuttings of my canes that I had in the ground and successfully rooted all of them except for one that I can't really ID (At PHOE this past week, it came close to 'Flamingo' maybe 'Di-erna'). Anyway the next spring, one cane came back from the roots in the ground and it was the one that I lost. Amazing. Temps in Atlanta get down in the teens some years and always low 20's.
One more story - I didn't start bringing in any begonias this past year until early November. Usually our first frost is around Halloween but it actually frosted the week before. My front yard had some hard frosts (about a whole week) which wiped out the leaves on any pots in the yard (the ones on the porch were okay). The rhizomes are fine though and new leaves are coming on while waiting out the winter in a very cool garage.
Butch
Here is 'Caribbean King' after a week of hard frosts.
Well, you have certainly given me some hope. I will bring my finisky 'Escargot' in the house overwinter and leave most of the other's in the greenhouse.
Patrica, my rex all lived all winter outside, if we have a cold one they lose their leaves but come back in spring.
My angelwings took winter the hardest. I do not think I lost any, but they sure look bad. One huge one got mildew so bad and was in a free fall until I took it under the overhang of the house and sprayed it with a fungicide. It looks like it it is starting to put out new growth.
My hairy rhizomes did the best, they mostly suffered from lack of love. I kept forgetting about them.
I usually keep mine up on the porch entry, but have been afraid to leave them out all winter. Maybe I will try it with some of my not as special one's.