I received these in the mail tonight and I'm very excited. The leaves are large and like velvet and oh what a color. One leaf was loose and a tiny bit limp. The other two cuttings are very top heavy. Should I bury the whole rizone or just part? Should I put the loose leaf in water and try to root it? At the moment I have them each wrapped in moist paper towels.......
Here's another photo
I second Susan's suggestion. You may also want to try a terrarium for this species. It loves humidity. NC may be humid enough for it, but if you move it inside for the winter you'll want to try to increase humidity levels. You can also root it in a mix of chopped sphagnum and perlite that is just lightly moistened and wring out any excess moisture. Lucky you, this is a fantastic species to grow. So beautiful.
I put the leaf in water and it stiffened up. Should I cut it to a certain length? Right now it is about 14" long.
Oh yeah, the large leaves on the two rhizones have kind of drooped over, but there are a couple small leaves that still are stiff and look OK. Do you think the large leaves will perk up?
you can try putting them in a bag to increase humidity. Either create a 'tent' like bagged situation or put in a large ziplock.
That should help.
I received some rhizome begonias and have been rooting just the leaves themselves........they seem to be rooting????
Well I planted them up and hopefully all will go well. Thanks for your help bcrazii. I hope to some day show a photo of a large healthy plant of this.....
Fancy, do you have an update on your begonias?
Well I potted them up. The leaves were very heavy and I had to make a crutch with some clothspins to keep the rhizone from popping out of the soil on one of the plants. I gave it a good watering and covered it with a plastic bag. I took off the bag for about 7 hours each day and hoped for the best. At first most of the leaves withered and fell off on both plants. About 5 days ago I notice 2 leaves forming on one plant and some stubs which I thind are more leaves to come. I've never grown or seen this particular begonia but it so beautiful.
Here is the second plant which has some stubs forming.
Another closer photo of the second plant with stubs forming. Not sure they are visible to you all.
I also took one of the leaves that fell off, cut the stem to about 4 inchs long a put it in water. I just started to form roots. My first try at this form of propagation.
Photo of the roots. Not sure what I do next though...
I am no begonia expertise at alll...................struggled with the few rexes I had until I finally put pebbles in the bottom of a container for each plant and then put the pot of rex begonia on top of the pebbles............keep the water in each container all the time............just to add humidity...................maybe someone like begoniacrazii will pop by................good luck.............
Congrats on rooting by water. My experience is if you keep it uncovered then you should check daily for "sour" water or change daily. If you keep it covered, then more than likely you will not have to change the water at all. I've had begonias in water for weeks (actually 2 months or longer that have babies at the root zone in water and at the junction where the leaf joins the petiole.
Nice work Fancyflea! Looks like it may be putting energy in to root formation at the moment but should start sprouting more growth above the soil soon.
I should have added to let the roots grow more (maybe to the point of new growth) while in water. Here is a picture of some of mine I am rooting in the kitchen windowsill at the moment. No rush here. I have 3 leaves (Snoopy and Shamus) and 2 canes (Pink Minx and Spectackle) in the blue and red vase and 3 leaves of Mike's Mauve going in the Solo cup.
I wish I had good luck rooting in water. don't know if it's the fact that we have well water or what but I get algae growth and the water gets funky.
I'll try again with bottled water and see what I get. I have some 'Stewart's Luxurians' rooting along with some 'Barbara Rogers' that i just accidentally broke while repotting. But they are already slimy. Also, they are in an east facing kitchen window that gets sun until about 10am and stays pretty light all day. Any thoughts Butch?
Are you covering the water? Not that you really have to but I found it really helps. I use plain tap water but left outdoors it can get slimy green in a couple of days.
The ones in the blue vase have been there for weeks. They continue to siphon water off an inch or so a day but then the roots are getting long.
no, not covering it. But I'm wondering if the minute amount of chlorine or chloranamine (or what ever municipal water adds ) makes a difference.
I should just add some charcoal or peroxide to the water and see if that makes a difference.
my friend in houston can root begonias better in water than anyone I know and she always puts a little peroxide in her water.............
I've heard lots have good luck that way Gail. Note to self, must try peroxide with cuttings. =º)
Laurie, you could try adding some but I wouldn't think it would matter. The one thing I have noted is if I just stick a leaf in open water (no cover over the cup or no plastic baggie over everything) then my success ratio goes way down.
Gessie, I've never used peroxide but if it works for her then that is great.
Maybe if I get real energized, I'll do an experiment and try leaves in one of each. LOL. not likely to happen, but ... ya never know.
I know what you mean. I potted up 29 begonias 2 days ago and picked another 60 or so after that to pot up the next day. Well they are still there but they may have to wait another day or so - yard needs mowing and I've got 3 shrubs to plant. Yuk, does it ever end?
My begonia leaf is just in plain tap water. I change the water about once a week. I've had great luck rooting canes this way but never tried to rool a rex leaf. Hcmcdole, I'll post another photo of the leaf down the line and probable ask your advise. I love this site!!!
fancyflea,
I learned about water rooting from a lady in our local begonia club. That is how she does most of hers with great success. I had problems with Martin's Mystery every time I bought one from Logee's. The last time I ordered two from them for a little bit of insurance and they looked pretty good (okay one was a runt) but both started going downhill after a few weeks. I had tried prop'ing these in the past with no luck (soil, perlite, not too wet, not too dry, cover, etc., etc. - no luck). This time I took a leaf off each one and stuck them in a votive glass full of water with aluminum foil over it. I put a baggie over that and set it under a halogen light on our kitchen counter. It took a long time to root and eventually form new babies (under water!). From those two leaves I now have a cookie jar full of Martin's Mystery.
I then asked our club member some more questions and saw what she was doing to her cuttings. The one thing I observed was she would pick a leaf that wasn't large or very small and then plunk it into a small vase (almost like a vial) of water that she had let sit for 24 hours before using and then place that in one of her many terrariums and that was all she did until it rooted. I then experimented with that this past fall and winter and could not believe how easy it was. I then got greedy and had literally hundreds of leaves in small cups of water but without any cover whatsoever. Most of these either dried up or turned to mush. But if I covered them, typically I could get most anything to root.
Ok then....I'm going to try that today and let you and begoniacrazii know how it turns out. Thanks so much for that info. You are always a wealth of information. Fancy
