Got the Antonelli's order yesterday. They are in small cubes (2 x 3 inch roughly) and were loosely wrapped so some of the potting mix fell out when I took them the wrap off. These were ordered on Valentine's day so it was nearly two months but most of the plants looked in great shape.
I was able to put all 25 (got two Sylvan's Triumph plants instead of one that I ordered) into a 10 gallon tank until I have time to find them a new home.
Accents for Home was a very fast turnaround (less than a week) but the selection is limited. The price is very good and the plants are well grown. They come in 4 inch squares. Here are the canes/shrubs.
The other plants from Accents for Home are rhizomatous and smaller shrubs.
Susan,
The first bin from Accents are 'Sealover' (I've seen it spelled 'Selover' as well), 'Sabre Tooth Edge' (I've had this before which has some great color and serrated edges), and 'Snow Capped'.
The second bin has listada, 'Butterfly', 'Alto Scharff' on the top row. The bottom row has 'Emerald Lacewing', 'Boomer', and 'China Doll'. I wonder about listada and 'China Doll' but they look close enough to what I've seen in pictures.
Wonderful collection of begonias there, very healthy too.
You are so lucky in the south to have access to these pretties. I have googled myself insane, and cannot come up with a single Canadian supplier of these things.
Congrats on the new purchases!!!
It sounds like you need a supplier south of the border. Have you any friends on the US side that could send you an occasional birthday present?
Here is a peek inside the Antonelli tank. Some of the plants are: Los Angeles, luxurians, Paul Hernandez, Aripeka, gehrtii, bakarii, Kissimmee, Splotches, Holley's Lust, Holley's Storm, bufaderma, egeria, etc.
Someone posted a link to a seed source for begonias, gonna try some that way.
Can you grow them outside where you are year round?
Seed is one way to go but requires a lot of patience. I have a few growing from seed but are they ever slow to germinate and get to any size.
I cannot grow them outside year round here. We got down in the mid 20's this weekend which melted a lot of bushes, trees, and perennials that got to eager to put out new growth. One of our begonia club members said he has put most of his out a couple of weeks ago. I will find out how he came out after this weekend. I do move all of mine with the exception of any that are in terrariums out for summer (mid April to the end of October) where they usually flourish. This year I plan on planting a lot of them in the ground to see if I can get a lot more size on them than in a pot. That way I will just take cuttings to bring back indoors for winter.
Butch, Congrats, nice looking Begonia's.
Wish you had told me you liked Sylvan Triumph. I've got 3 or 4 new ones rooted
from pruning the larger ones back in Feb. I would have sent you one.
I repotted the largest one after I pruned her. She looks better already.
Jackie
Jackie,
Now you tell me. I hope the ones I got start growing - they sure are small. Maybe you could sell yours on eBay or give them to another begonia addict.
Butch
Hi hcmcdole, are those varities you don't have? I've seen some of your begonia photos in the past and you have such a wide variety.
FancyFlea,
These begonias are all new except for a couple that I lost over the years. One lesson I've learned is to try and propagate new ones ASAP to guard against loss. Even new ones may be too fragile to propagate. Case in point are two from Rob's Violets ('Baby Dress' and 'Fairyland') back in January may be goners (not enough material or not robust enough to propagate).
Speaking of propagating, I just got another 'Pink Diamonds' and decided this time to propagate it to the max.
I cut 8 leaves to begin with and put 4 in water and the other 4 in Perlite. The Perlite was thoroughly filled with water and allowed to drain and then placed in another cup to hold any other water. Both of these cups were closed with a plastic bag. I just potted up the 4 leaves in water yesterday because the roots were around an inch long. Two of the leaves in Perlite started to rot so I cut those pieces out and stuck them back in the cup. While the ones in Perlite have rooted they are just starting. These were started about a week ago.
Then I cut 8 more leaves off and stuck all of them in my largest tank in various locations. The edges of a tank always seem the wettest and the middle the driest. I stuck 4 leaves around the edges and 4 in the middle. The ones in the middle showed stress after a day or two so I watered around these ever so slightly.
Here is the mother plant after having 16 leaves removed.
The pictures of just the cut leaves are too boring to show here but here is a picture of small offsets from 'Lalomie' that I started on Feb 22nd by leaf cuttings. I broke these offsets off by prying the adult leaf out of the tin foil holding them in place over a cup of water. I potted up all 4 leaves but kept the tiny offsets for an experiment. I dropped all 4 offsets into another tank and they seem to be doing fine.
Here is a picture of those little offsets on April 1st. These leaves took forever to root but then none rotted either.
Hcmcdole, When you put the leaves in water do the leaves get roots or do the leaves produce babies? I've heard that you can place a leaf of a rex begonia on top of soil, achor it down and cut across the veins to make babies.
The leaves in water act just like they would in soil but with a lot more success. Have you rooted any African violet leaves? It's about the same. Anyway some leaves will develop babies on the stem, others will develop babies on the sinus but eventually anywhere they produce babies (or pups) they will need roots.
I've heard and seen the same thing about cutting across the veins but I haven't had much luck doing it that way. I do have two leaves of curly beefsteak that rotted at the sinus so I trimmed away the rot and placed the leaves back in the cup. Both have rooted at a vein or two but no plantlets yet.
Here is a good example of where some pups originate (at the end of the leaf stem along with the roots). These are two leaves of 'Martin's Mystery' which I had problems keeping and propagating. I finally tried water rooting these two leaves and got 100% success. I lost the two mother plants but these two leaves have gone on and filled a cookie jar. These pictures were from Feb 1, 2006.
Here are those same plants today.
I should add that cutting across veins has worked for heracleifolia type leaves for me. Sometimes the larger leaves rot despite what I do. So I tried just a finger of a couple of heracleifolia leaves in sand and both rooted. I'm trying that again with 'Black Falcon' in a large tank. I'm also trying to water root the whole leaf as well. Try different methods on difficult leaves to see what works and what doesn't.
Here is a 'Black Falcon' leaf from today.
That Black Falcon is REALLY beautiful. Thanks for the info. When some of my plants get bigger I'll try experimenting next spring.
I bought Black Falcon from a grower in S. AL. a couple of years ago with a search online. What a shame they quit doing internet business. I also picked up a few canes and another rhizo from them.
Here is heracleifolia last October. It is very similar to Black Falcon, just smaller leaves.
Here are the 'Pink Diamonds' I potted up this week after water rooting in about a week. Talk about fast growth.
Ran out of room at working level so I started using the top shelf yesterday.
Aerial roots are fascinating on this 'Curly Fireflush'. 'Midnight Sun' is behind CF and has filled half of the 10 gallon tank very nicely.
what a fabulous lesson on rex begonias....I just started buying them.....had no idea how to grow or propagate them...thanks.....is it because you live in a colder zone that you grow so many in bowls for high humidity...I just have mine growing inside the house and out on the front porch...
GessieGail,
It seems strange that I would need more humidity for the ones in the basement while the very few I have in the house require no extra humidity (except for Martin's Mystery in the cookie jar). The furnaces are in one room downstairs so I could see that room being sucked dry but the other rooms don't have the heat on and basements are usually notorious for humid conditions. Maybe it has something to do with all the lights.
Anyway here are the new begonias I got earlier today. These are grown by the famous Harmony growers in FL. These look like the same ones I have been picking up at Ace Hardware for the past 3 years and a certain eBay seller. I picked up 7 today since I had several of the other ones already.
#1 Emerald Star
#2 Carmel Browne
#3 Cupid's Curl
#4 Flippant
#5 Georgia Tasker
#6 Green Dreams
#7 Mumtaz
I love you for posting the pics with their names!!!! You are a better photographer than I am....greatly appreciated!!
gail
Kinda dead on this forum. Here is 'Curly Fireflush' and 'Midnight Sun' sharing a ten gallon aquarium. They have pushed to the top of the Saran wrap so I need a much higher tank in the future.
Here is sizemorea (U388, Vietnam species). I thought it was a goner until I covered it. It has come out fairly nice but I want to see the large leaves now.
'Purple Snow' has really responded to all the different covers I have put on - from small plastic cup to big plastic cup to large glass pot and now a large glass vase.
'Pink Diamonds' ten days later from the last post of it.
Rajah continues to bloom here and there.
Scapigera has red on the outer edges of its leaves that makes it intriguing. This looks like nelumbiifolia rubra.
