Return to the Begonia Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
what are your favorite house plant begonias?
| | |
Posted by pizzapatti 5 (My Page) on Thu, Dec 31, 09 at 11:50
| I have 3 or 4 varieties i've had good luck with for a year or so. They are my newest obsession (not counting my 1st new grandson)! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: what are your favorite house plant begonias?
| | |
I brought in some of my semperflorens late this fall. I don't recall the specific name of either of them. Both with small half dollar sized reddish foilage. Very deep and glossy. One type had very pretty, almost shimmering white flowers, the other had red flowers that did not stand out against the dark foilage very well.
 I plucked them from an outside bed in Nov. They were looking very sad and leggy. I cut them back to almost nothing, repotted them in good soil, watered and fertilized, and they started bouncing back nicely. They set under a basement window as well as two 48" T8s. The foiliage color has perked back up and the plants are growing very compact and neat.
The red one.
 |
RE: what are your favorite house plant begonias?
| | |
| I love them all but I have Apple Pie, and Needle point and Gobe. Always looking and wanting more. Is it spring yet? God its cold and snowny in Canada(ontario) |
RE: what are your favorite house plant begonias?
| | |
| Are these kinds of Begonias? Do you have any pics of them? Cold here in Michigan, recently in the 40's though can't beat that and the days are slowly getting longer Yes!! |
RE: what are your favorite house plant begonias?
| | |
| This is how the addiction begins - get a few and add some more and then a lot more, etc, etc. I'd love to see Needlepoint. Apple Pie and Gobe can be seen at Rob's Violets (at least in the past they had both). Here are a few of my favorites from this summer. U501 is great in summer but looks kind of ugly in winter. 
Hugh McLaughlin looks like a rex but doesn't have the problems of rexes - mildew and defoliating in winter. 
Plum Gorgeous
 Red Fred
 Selph's Mahogany
 Art Hodes
 Island Magic
 Bashful Bandit
 A great cane (thinking Mary Ann Flunker)
 And Pagoda
 |
RE: what are your favorite house plant begonias?
| | |
| WOW!that's what i'm talking bout. How could you not be obsessed with these guys? I'll admit the winter has mine looking a little stragley. Do they like humidity & to be misted on their leaves? How about direct sun? I will go out of my way to make these guys happy & @ home. Thanks! |
RE: what are your favorite house plant begonias?
| | |
| Begonias appreciate humidity in my observation. All mine go in the basement during winter under fluorescent shop lights. I do not mist - just water well when they need it (some twice a week, some once a week, and some may go for weeks - check the moisture level with your finger if you aren't sure). I don't water until the pot dries out some. Some begonias need extra humidity due to the tropical jungles that they came from. For these I provide plastic covers, cookie jars, and aquariums from ten gallons up to 120 gallons. Direct sun in winter should be fine unless you see burning. While the sun coming through a window may feel hot on the back of my neck, the (few) begonias I have upstairs seem to love it. Here is my mother's Irene Nuss from this past summer. I gave her a couple of cuttings a couple of years ago and she can grow them into monsters. 
|
RE: what are your favorite house plant begonias?
| | |
| Way cool! Never seen any that big. What's her secret? I love them. What part of the country? |
RE: what are your favorite house plant begonias?
| | |
| New potting soil and water from a dehumidifier is all I know she uses. TN and GA. These are not begonias but like the same conditions as begonias.
 |
|
|
|
|
