Begonia Update

It's official.
Often I thought I won't make it proper with begonias
as they are so well known to succumb to sudden death in matter of days.

As most gardeners would had experienced their characteristics
- their elusive secrets buried together with them.

My Aha moments are the ones that
I consider lavishly where I can abuse them and yet they thrive.

Yeah.. stone me - I know what it feels like constantly buying a pot of begonia
only to see them with burnt leaf edges, fallen leaves - each on a singular day span
and finally bidding a farewell with a root-rot.
I know all the tell-tale signs and symptoms.

So what these?
A quick cheat-code of what many call it, you may presume BATA plants?

(Buy And Throw Away) plants?

I wish...
These do prove sold in limited quantity and fairly not a cheap plant to consider.

And surely,
I had finally can to a certain degree able to rejoice and more to my collection in figuring it out
- their sworn-hidden secrets..

Finally revealed to me after years and years of cultivating them
with trials and error (more dead plants in my hands)

And thus finally, when I almost gave up.
I found that they are somehow not so fussy a plant to care.

Once apply the reasonable requirement
- I had added more of their various Rex in my collection
and amazed that they survived
and now thriving more than few months with more vigorous growth.

Do bare with me with my detailed information
on my care and cultivation of all these begonias in my collection
and my experience in my hand.

Begonias - New Addition - Jan 2015

I manage to get them from the Sg.Buloh nursery last Sat.
(10th Jan 2015)

One of my joys was to find this rare piece
(They normally don't sell Cane Begonias)

These however was camouflage as a hanging plant.
The set-up was bad
(What do you expect something that grows tall)
The plant was overgrown and the hangers was not stable.
Watering would prove difficult as everything flushes down instead of dripping out from the drainage hole.

I observed this for 3 days and the flowers and leaves started to show signs of stress.
I immediately repot them - only to find the whole thing was planted using coco fiber.
The whole root had matured and fully enveloped everything.
I had to break and tear apart all the roots and replant them into a better medium

After two days - the plant still look good.
(The danger zone is over and I can now celebrate)
Now I'm hoping all the rest of the cuttings make it as it can be challenging
especially during these hot and dry spell going on these few days.

I also manage to unpot and separate the rhizome begonias into my existing collection
(last two pictures)
So far - they appear to be fine.
I can only be sure they all are out of the stress zone after a weeks time.
Until then - Its more of a trial and error.

Speaking of which - it would be definitely a waste of money
 if I just leave them be on the pots.
They would surely would have died given a few weeks time
and would had set rot at the root level and it would be too late to salvage anything.

My suggestion:
Always check the soil medium.
If you can - change it for better fast draining type for a longer life span of your begonias.
(of course - this applies to T&C - some begonias just die no matter what you do)

Wax Begonias

I can officially say that all my Wax Begonias had died.
Somehow in the past I managed to propagate them.
Out of 8 cuttings, 2 or 3 will manage to survive and I was able to keep the species going.
This time - its beyond my scope as all have died.

I had bought the brown one too to try my luck for the second time.
But it too proved unsuccessful.
Somehow I find that these ones are more challenging
compared to the Canes and Rhizome ones.

These fall under the their botanic name: Begonia semperflorens.
Tuberose Begonias seemed to have a rose like flower which also proves challenging.

Another thing is that they easily grow under shade where its moist (almost soggy)
between bricks and moist
See last 3 pictures
These actually grow well like that.
If you can replicate that - I'm pretty sure they can thrive well.

Begonia Collection - Jan 2015

As you can see some of them had grown bigger
And some - sadly had gone disappeared.
I guess these are the life and times of a begonia.
Sometimes you win - sometimes you loose.
Its just been contented with what you get at that current time in the garden.
Not everything will be at its optimum position all the time.
And this applies to Begonias.

I wonder if they have something called dormant period for begonias.
I still see some with stumps with all leaves gone.
I'm really hoping that it would come back.
Or else - that's is the end of that species.

Begonia Update - Jan 2015

These are the updates for this month.
They had survived the days and hours of the last rainy season.
(One good thing is that I have gone relax and lazy on the watering regime)

Just this week - few days ago.
Its getting hotter and warm and most of my plants are facing the dry spell.
I have been watering in the morning and find the them almost burned in the evening.
Looks like I have to do twice daily since its getting hotter.

As you can see - some of them had grown quite well.
And others are badly damaged by snails and slugs.
(I had recently applied the snail pesticide recently and there are no new attacks so far)

Also I have added some Episcia (Flame Violets)
They don't make much impact on the colour which I was seeking.
I normally add and change them time to time to give them the optimum volume of colour which I'm seeking.
So far - its still work in progress.

Begonias Species - Collection

One of the scariest things about begonias is
that you will never know when a species is gone.
It happens sometimes,
more of a case where more than once didn't really pay attention to them
and found them suddenly missing.

There were cases where an unknown rodent bit off all the leaves
and build a nest using my precious leaves.
Other pest like snails and slugs never seemed to leave them alone
(making holes on them)
Indeed everyone seemed to love my poor limited leaves of these begonias.

True enough - against the odds of the weather,
(too much rain at times and too much heat - blazing heat)
can be also stress for them.
Being vigilant at this season determines
whether they survive for the coming year
or just become a history material
: Once upon a time in the garden - this plant was.

I have yet to identified these species.
Its a bit hard when many of them are hybrids.
Regardless - I still love these begonias.
They are a wonderful thing when you get the right environment for them.