I got these in the spring with another Davesgarden person....I love the colors of these leaves..Judy
My latest begonias
Judy - very, very pretty. They look like very happy plants. Love the colors too.
Great selection Judy! They all look so healthy!!!
They do look great. I love those colors.
wow judy, Lovely colors, so bright
cool
kathy
Judy are those rex begonias or rysome type?
I just love the colors
These are rexes Kathy....Judy
Judy, Your begonias are looking great.
Gorgeous! Does anyone know what the third one from the right is?
Kelly
Looks like b. 'Benitochiba' to me.
Ah, thank you :) It's beautiful!
Today I think Ive got to bring these begonias in..we have had temps in the low 50s and still are ok...my escagot is still doing ok under the deck umbrella but looks like it may start to whine with these cool temps...I will take another pic of them now since I gave them alittle messenger...Judy
it is getting to be that time of year isn't it! Our temps are in the mid 50's overnight and 80-90's during the day. So far everyone is growing and happy.
But it wont be long before the trip to the greenhouse is in order! Sigh! I'm not ready for Summer to be over.
I've got to the end of October before the first frost, but I went into the second week of November last year which made for lots of frost damage to the ones in the front yard but very little in the back yard. Talk about micro-climates. The ones under trees or overhangs had no frost damage while the ones with no cover had the most. The rhizomes fared well whereas the leaves were mush.
at least this year you don't have to bulid all the bench system and lights. That's probably a load off!
So you have at least a month to really start moving stuff in right? That's about what I have. DH Jeff said he'd take Friday off this week to help me rebuild the melted PVC portion of my greenhouse. When it was over 130 this spring the PVC pipe melted flat! Talk about needing to vent!
Well Im starting to worry about leaving my begonias out in this 55 degree weather..its raining out now and they still look pretty good out there...any words of wisdom?..Judy
I suppose better safe than sorry. You know your climate best. sorry, no pearls of wisdom from me.
Even though our temps dip, it's still warm and dry (20-30% humidity) here so no worries of them mushing on me just yet. I have about a month or so to start worrying. We wont get a rain again until around Halloween. That's my mental deadline for moving things into my greenhouse. That and the leaves on the walnut trees here (7 acres the dang things) start falling all over and if they get wet that's when I have trouble. The clean up is tedious as they turn mushy very quickly. Yuk.
Pearls of wisdom? Here they are: Move south, far south. Mexico or further south should be safe - weatherwise. OR - get an extra large greenhouse with adequate heat, because anybody who owns or owned a greenhouse will tell you that whatever you think is big enough will quickly overfill.
Laurie is right though. You know your weather best. In the Atlanta area, our first frost can occur right before Halloween or get close to freezing temps overnight. I've covered my begonias in the past with thick plastic (when I was erecting a greenhouse and had no place to put them) which will get them through light frosts but when it gets down to low 20's, you are pushing it. Lots of begonias can even survive that with frost protection but some are more tender than others.
The nice thing about pushing the envelope is begonias (and other tropicals) seem to put on their best growth during these last few weeks. Sheer size and vibrant colors are what is so exciting about growing these *&%$ things!
What is really aggravating is after you move them in, then it warms up again for another 2 to 3 weeks and I'm not moving them back out until April or May. Then they start pouting sometime in Feb. or Mar. and the cycle is complete.
Another thing is to have a realistic idea on how much time it will take to move everything indoors. If you are cleaning up the pots as you go along, it can stretch into hours, possibly days depending on the number of pots and the size of the pots. Nothing worse than having to bring them in when the wind is whipping (wind chill feels like Arctic air blowing down your neck) or it is raining cats and dogs. It's really a crapshoot - move them in early and be disappointed that you could've let them have a couple more weeks of excellent growing or cussing the weather (and yourself) as you're scrambling to get them all indoors.
Ahhh, spoken like a true begoniac! LOL, isn't it always like that! Add to the mix that as you start stuffing the greenhouse you start offering to send people the cuttings you take so that you can stuff more in or better yet, start rooting a bunch of them, and a one or two day project quickly becomes a 'I could kick myself for taking on this much' project!
Argh!
p.s. I'm all for the move to Mexico thing (better yet, MAUI!!!)
I had the experience of not having any place to put my plants in the winter time..so my hubby fixed up my breezeway with a heater and insulated walls..I can get away with around 50 degrees out there, my problem is that I brought everything in...the brugmansias took up the most area and that left me with not enough room for everything else..I went from nothing to something and then no room again....wish I could add another level to the house and have a glass roof..lolol...judy
That proves my point - you build a bigger storage area (or greenhouse) and it quickly fills up. George Carlin had a saying about this - your house gets full of "stuff", so you move up to a bigger house to hold your "stuff" but you continue buying more "stuff" and the next thing you know, you need a bigger house to hold your old "stuff" and your new "stuff". Now there talking about the "micro" condo. Your whole house in a space less than 300 square feet!!!!! My old greenhouse was almost that big. (14'x18')
I guess brugs wouldn't survive in the ground in your area?
Is there some cheap property in Maui? If so, let's go.
I think cheap property in Maui is an oxymoron. No such thing exists, but we can dream right. Though the values are about the same as here in the Napa Valley. 2 bedroom shack 'with potential' on a postage stamps goes for half a mil!
My 'stuff' might fit in a small condo so long as you dont count my plants as stuff. otherwise we're talking warehouse. Jeff's making noise about building me another greenhouse, he keeps scratching his head and asking me 'Where are all these going to go this winter?' (I dunno!)
Last season, I left all my new brugs in my garage (it's one of those white tarp type things you can get at CostCo) all did just fine in there so this year they all go in (old and new). Where I'll park my beetle is another story.
I sure wish my brugs would be able to stay in the ground and then I could have my storage area for the tropicals and begonias....it isnt going to happen though so I have to down size....or start more into the house....Judy
Lali, I laugh at all of you in zones 9...I would give anything to be that zone?..I thought the brugs could stay out where you live...I think some zone 7s are doing it...letting them die to the ground and they come back....Ive heard some friends shipping plants back and forth just to keep them alive....thats a hoot..hmmmm maybe I can find a snowbird to take mine to florida in the fall and bring them back in the spring...lolol..Judy
Folks keep telling me to put them in the ground but I'm a big chicken! Since I've only been growing them for a few years now, I hate to see them turn to mush in the winter just to start up again in the spring from the ground. Especially the 8' tall 'cutting' of Butterfly that Kell gave me.
Anyway to get back on topic (sort of) I got this email from gflora.com today and the first thing in it is this
Quoting:
If your house plants spent the summer outdoors, now is the time to bring them back inside. If you live in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 through 6, you should bring in your plants right now. If you live in Zones 7 or 8, you should keep watch of the night temperatures. When the night temperature falls below 60F, you must bring the plants indoors, but remember that you should transfer the plants during the day, and the indoor and outdoor temperatures must not differ by more than 3-4 degrees. If the temperature difference is higher, you must water the plants with tepid water as soon as possible (the temperature of the water should be 78-80F). Certain plants can survive lower temperatures, but that does not mean they should be subjected to them.
Some plants do not like having their relative position to a light source changed. So, try to place your plants indoors such that their position in relation to a light source is similar to the outside. You may change the position slightly 2-3 weeks later.
Check carefully the leaves of each plant, and use insecticides, to not bring insects indoor. Start misting the leaves of the plants which require high humidity.
In any case, you should check the temperature requirements of your specific plant(s), which can be done at www.gflora.com
So, for what it's worth, looks like they're thinking the same thing.
You talked me into it...Im heading out in the rain and bringing them into the breezeway...its not worth losing them....its suppose to get up in the 80s this weekend, so maybe I will put them back out then....thanks for the info Lali....Judy
I'd plant your brugs next year and take cuttings for insurance. I know they survive winters in middle TN and probably further north but how far is a big question. Winters have been milder for the past several years which is probably a plus. I even let my pink one out in a big plastic tub this past winter with hellebores and they came back with no big deal. My golden one has always been reliable but it will take a number of years to get as big as it was at the last place.
I think the quote is definitely a conservative approach. You'd think all tropicals would croak if the temps got below 60. Granted there are some more sensitive than others (calathea and heliconia to name a few) but most are tougher than even the experts give them credit for. If you ever have surplus, it's a good idea to experiment on how tough they are and what you can do to help them get through a winter outdoors. See Brian Williams posts on tropical gardens 101. Also Plant Delights Nursery is pushing the envelope on lots of plants considered tropical at one time. A couple in Oregon make their property look like Bali through the warm months then store some plants (big banana trees) in burlap and store them under their crawl space. Time consuming but.....
Speaking of temps and begonias, the ones that get me is not to subject your begonias to high temps. What am I missing here?
One of our local begonia growers left a pot of B. 'Grey Feather' outside the door of his greenhouse two years ago and it came back from the soil the following spring. I had a coccinea type that I let the roots in the ground years ago (I took cuttings which I lost) and then it came back up from the ground the following spring. That was a big surprise.
If I remember right from one of the numerous plant magazines, there was a couple in MI that put out a large C&S garden each summer, then had to dig them up for winter. Talk about dedication.
Gee Lali, I just read your email and thought they were talking about begonias at first. I thought I am already in trouble then for my night tmps fall into the 50s all summer long. LOL.
I never baby my plants like that. They get moved, they get moved. If they do not get over it, oh well, life can be tough sometimes.