This is one of my rooted Arabian Sunsets. One of the cuttings I got
from Greg Sytch.
The underside is red and the top surface of the leaf has hair.
It's very pretty but my pic is washed out some. I've got 3 more of these rooted
and coming along. This was hybridized by the other Greg whats his name. LOL
Jackie
Looks very nice, Jackie. I think that is a Brad Thompson hybrid.
Butch, yes you're right. Just too many Sr moments for me lately.
This one is Sinbad also washed out. will try to get better photos soon.
You will love/hate Sinbad. Love it when it is in its glory and hate it when the mildew and leaf drop occurs. I just wish it always looked good (usually in August is best for me). This may be true of all mallets.
This is a rooted cutting of my Dancing Girl. She's not very pretty with every leaf
being different. But I'm kinda fond of her.
Reminds me of Lucerna. This should be a good grower.
So many look alike, especially canes.
Butch, If Sinbad doesn't attract the mildew any worse than my Don Miller,
I will be ok. Don Miller just gets a spot or two and I'm on it pretty quick.
That's why I keep him under the eave of the house, helps keep most
of the rain off.
My worst begonia for mildew was Lois Burks. Every rain drop brought a
mildew spot. I learned to keep her under cover but I still ended up losing mine.
Don't know what was up with Lois getting mildew and her not even a mallet.
It looked like rust more than mildew.
Jackie
Butch, I ordered Dancing Girl from Logees over 10 or 12 yrs ago. I will try
and get a bigger picture of mama plants lvs. Each leaf is different in shape, striping
and dots. Even the color can be different. The small pic I sent looks superficially
like Lucerna but I promise you it's not. Off to take more pics.
Jackie
Sinbad is the worst for mildew for me but it's beauty in summer is what makes me keep it around.
Yeah, I want to see that mama!!
Butch, Here's part of the moma plant. I don't have a 3 or 4 footer like I had yrs ago.
I sold my larger ones and then left the baby plant in the same pot too long. I'm hoping
if I take better care of the new cutting, I can one day have a nice tall Dancing girl again.
Check out these lvs. This is the plant my cutting is off of.
The front and center lf has lots of silver.
Jackie
Oops, this is the pic with the almost totally silver leaf in front.
Cracklin Rosie, one of the cuttings from Greg.. The new leaf turning red.
Panasofkee or some such spelling. Almost left it in the water too long while
rooting. I like the leathery, dark leaves. It's just setting there rooted, not growing yet.
Hope it takes off soon.
Nice plants ! Love your Dancing Girl.
Thanks Violet. We don't see her much any more. She's not pretty but she is
different and that's what I like about her.
Jackie
Jackie,
Give it the right growing conditions and you will soon have a big healty plant. I neglected mine for most of the summer other than water which some did great, others kicked the bucket, and others just sat there. I've separated most of mine now to types, given them more space (not sure if this is good or bad), and started heavy feeding (yeah, it's kinda stupid this late), but most have responded fairly well.
Now I'm in the process of cleaning lots and lots of pots, repotting cuttings and some pots that either stay too wet, or are just plain ugly. Lots more to do in the remaining 3 weeks before the big move indoors but at least I'm better prepared this year (lots of benches already set up and ready to go). The bad news is I keep ordering more plants (yeah, that's stupid too).
Here is a baby leaf of B. acetosa today. It's nearly 90 degrees today and will be tomorrow too. It's lulling us into a false sense of security. Great for begonia growing.
Butch, I don't think it hurt's to feed them when it's still over 90 even 75-80. They're
still growing and will use the food. As long as we stop before the temps take
a nose dive.
I'm behind too. Somuch to do and so little time. We line the green house
inside and out with see thru plastic which creates a dead air space and helps
to insulate. I have at least 100 plants still waiting to be repotted.
The worst thing for me is all the cuttings still waiting to be potted up.
Apparantly I don't learn cause by this winter, I will have 10 new cups of
rooting begonias lined up on the bar. LOL
Jackie
Jackie,
Good to know I'm not alone in such fool-hardiness. I don't think I will throw in the towel anytime soon though. Too much enjoyment from watching them grow.
Here is U434, now named barsalouxiae (glad I don't have to pronounce that). Anyway it has finally started to grow (shorter days or the heavy feeding?).
Butch, the coloration is striking. The green splitting out from the veins and
the big green splash at the sinus curl. Never seen anything like it.
Jackie
The older leaves are pretty ragged from debris falling on them (mostly pine needles). Here is a gorgeous one from last year at the begonia "dig". Now this is beautiful and it is growing in the ground at this point. They had 3 growing under lights last weekend.
Butch, It is beautiful. The first thing I thought of was Silver Jewell before I enlarged
the pics. I don't suppose this begonia is from that group?
Jackie
Silver Jewel is from imperialis and pustulata whereas U434 is a species also known as the Guatemalan begonia. U434 has a smooth feeling leaf whereas imperialis (et al) has a rough feeling.
Here is a picture of imperialis and peltata plus a barely noticeable U434 in a community pot from last summer. Imperialis did not make it through the winter but peltata came out fine and really put on growth this year. If you look closely you will see a leaf of U434 in the upper right corner (this is a case against community pots because this particular begonia just didn't have a chance with imperialis). Imperialis LOVES humidity and grows like a weed if given the right conditions. It will start crisping around the edges if the air gets too dry (and eventually die like it did in the basement).
Butch, I had forgotten that it had a U #. Silly me.
I can see the difference in U 434 and imperialis now.
I've never grown a community pot but sounds like a good short term
solution to all the rooted cuttings I have. One large bowl type planter might hold 5 or 6
small begonias until I have more time to deal with them.
Thanx for that great tip. I just won't plant any giant begonias with the smaller growers.
Jackie
I'll try to get the small imperialis and U434 together this weekend for a mug shot. The picture I provided doesn't do U434 justice.
Community pots are great until you have a thug or everything starts to grow together. Cacti and agaves are really sticklers for separating. Plastic bowls are cheap and can be a lot of fun putting like things together. I've put tropicals together which is pretty cool such as crotons, ivy, ti plants, and small leaf philodendrons; several different aralias together; cacti and succulents; begonias naturally; and your imagination is the limit.
I have been repotting like crazy the last few days. I did put all my philodendrons into 4 community pots so far. I will take cuttings next year if I want to separate them. But then I divided my stromanthe tri-star into five pots yesterday evening. The center died out like a lot of perennials do if you don't divide. I guess I could have divided that thing many more times but didn't have the time (patience) nor the pots (more like the space in the basement) so 5 will do nicely.
I just potted up a lot of begonia cuttings (canes, leaves, and some small rhizomes). I forgot how tedious that can become.
Butch, My $ store did carry the 10 inch bowls with a drain so I'll be checking there
I need to repot my triostar too but want to see how big it gets first before dividing.
I lost a lovely tri-color stromanthe by not potting it up fast enough.
It was even showier than triostar.
How nice to have a basement. I would love to have an attached greenhouse
or sunroom instead of my free standing g house. Maybe one day.
I do think U 434 is lovely and imperialis too
Jackie
I meant triostar (google shows the same thing tri-star, triostar).
Ten inch bowls sounds good. I think the majority of mine are 12 or 14 inch (my eyes are bigger than my belly at times). I'm now potting down (first time that I remember). I did cut my variegated mini-schefflera (arboricola) tonight, threw those in a pot of water along with a weeping ficus (to drown any bugs since I didn't wash soil from that one, washed all the soil off the arboricola, and am attempting to get it to grow over a rock (this ought to be fun). A few begonias were potted down and strobilanthes (Persian Shield) was cut in about 5 or 6 pieces to start some new ones. Now if I could get that root bound dyckia out of its pot!!!!
Yeah, a basement is nice. Lots of room to store stuff (junk). A greenhouse would suit me about now. One day we will sell, move to either the mountains or the coast or if we stay in the area - maybe an active adult community (old folks) with a single dwelling home but on a postage size lot with a backyard big enough to shoehorn a big greenhouse on it. I think I could give up outdoor gardening (maybe).
Butch, I've been booted off-line 5 times or more since I sat down at 930 pm.
trying to type a reply. I've typed it 3 or 4 times only to lose it before hitting send.
Time to try DSL.
Let us know how downsizing your begonias works for you. I think
it's just being smart. Every rex or rhizomatous I lost occured during
winter.To make matters worse, Fertilome now adds a wetting agent
to the mix. Works against why I switched to a
soiless mix in the 1st place.
My outside gardening consists of moving my 300 plus containers out of the g house
in late spring and placing them under the shade trees. Gets over 120 degrees
in the g house.
If you build your g house, don't build in full sun like we did. It was a horrible
mistake.
Jackie
Yep, winter is the worst time for me, too. You sound like me with the 300+ pots. It's pretty bad, huh?
I had a GH at our old house and in the spring it would get over 130 degrees but the C&S loved it. Then the trees would leaf out and that helped a lot in the rear and on one side especially. I always moved all the leafy plants outdoors, but kept the majority of C&S inside so I could control the water. Do you put any kind of cover on yours for summer? A shade cloth would help tremendously.
Butch, We put up a shade cloth the 1st yr we built it. It was Oct and I started putting
all my begonias inside. They were scorched in 3 or 4 hours. Ordered my shade cloth.
It was 12 x 16 and just right to cover a good portion of my 12 x 24
g house. I need some sun in the winter for my stictocardia, tree mg and thevetia among
others. This cover blocks 60 % of the suns rays and stays on yr around.
My back yard was heavily wooded at our former home and I only got sun in the winter after leaves fell. So when we built this new one, we over compensated.
My DH says I have too many plants. He's right but I will never admit it. LOL
.
never admit to anything, the non plant collecting spouses just don't get it! LOL
You're so right Sue.
