Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
ryanmor

propagation

ryanmor
19 years ago

Hello,

i would like to know how to propagate begonias. The kind i have has round woody stems that tangle around eachother in the pot. The leaves have a red underside and dark green color on top with red stripes. Any help would be great!!!

Ryan

Comments (6)

  • mingtea
    19 years ago

    sounds like you have a rhizomatous begonia. it's easy to propagate this type from either leaf or rhizome cuttings.

    people use many methods, including propagation in a terrarium, a pot with a ziplock baggie over the top or in a plastic shoebox. it's important to use a mix isn't too wet and heavy (for fear of rot), and stick leaves into the soil african violet style. (leave an inch or maybe a bit less of stem.) if you want to propagate the rhizome, take a portion with at least a couple nodes on it and remove it with a razor blade. make sure you know which end is up, and push it into your substrate (don't bury it entirely).
    sphagnum moss works well, and many people use just chopped long fibered sphagnum as their sole media until plantlets form.
    lastly, check out the gallery for the begonia forum. there are some pictures of terrariums with prop's in process. brad thompson's page is a good source of info, as well as the houston branch of the american begonia society.

    good luck!

    -ming

  • Georgia_GA
    19 years ago

    ming, brad thompson's page has great info. Thanks for sharing.
    ~ georgia

  • Georgia_GA
    18 years ago

    I've tried all of Brad Thompson's advice on how to propagate R. Begonia's and by gosh they all worked. I have some growing in water, some leaf cuttings directly into the soil and also some chunks of the stems in the potting mix he suggested, this all from one stem taken off the cutting I was given. They all have new growth on them.
    Oh how I love it when things work out.
    Georgia

  • greenelbows1
    18 years ago

    Glad you were successful, and glad you posted the results. Seems like we get a lot of these questions--how to propagate--and seldom hear if it works. Maybe with your success a few more people won't need to ask!

  • grumpygardenguy
    18 years ago

    Well i guess i will have to try the suggestions here. I tried letting mine winter, but as fate would have it only one survived. not sure you can train a plant to winterize, when they aren't a winter variety. Lambs ear i don't think is supposed to winter, but it did with no ill effect at all, no dead leaves nothing more leaf death occurs during summer on this oddball.

    If your wondering, yes it freezes here, many weeks of below 20 weather, i can see why the bego's died, but not sure how the lambs ear lived. I expect it from pansies, viola's, and even my snapdragons, we rarely have snow cover.

  • greenelbows1
    18 years ago

    I'm curious--how did you try to 'winterize' your begonias? Years ago, in a very different climate, I didn't even know begonias could be grown outside and I grew all of mine as houseplants. Had semps, and canes, and rhizomatous, and they all did fine all year. Grew tuberous outside in the summer, and they went dormant in the winter and came back in the spring. Did you try to get non-tuberous types to go dormant? We've had several people post on here that they had tried that. They do go dormant, only permanently. If we knew more about what kinds you had and how you treated them, maybe we could help, and maybe someone else wouldn't try the same thing. Of course, there's always some plants that don't make it for reasons known only to the plants!