My Begonia luxurians

metalhammer

Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by metalhammer »

We had -3 last night,forecast is for +2c tonite,yet it feels set for a frost when I went outside about 10mins ago.Then -4c Saturday nite/Sunday morning,great!!!!.

Begonia's are in the house at the mo,but will get re-potted into a bigger containers over the weekend & be moved into my grrenhouse,min.temp +6c.




metalhammer.
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Dave Brown
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Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by Dave Brown »

I've split this topic putting the propagation posts into the Topic in the propagation forum. out propagation over there, thanks:wink:
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Dave
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Chad
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Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by Chad »

I've just had a look at mine. Outside and only protected by mulch, the top growth is [as expected] dead, but there are firm buds swelling only 1cm into the mulch.

Looks like [for Cornwall at least] it will be fairly reliable as an herbaceous perennial.

This winter it only had to put up with -5C, but quite a lot of them; -9C [very briefly] last winter.

Chad.
weve

Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by weve »

Chad, that seems excellent news!!!!! :) Perhaps your deep planting is paying dividends.

Unwrapped (fleece) and checked my "stick" closely earlier today. Even the solid part of the stems looks dead. After scratching little patches of the epidermis, found no green, just brown beneath, and all the way down too. Not a good sign!.

fingers crossed for a reshoot, but i don't think I planted it as deeply as you.

And you say you are not our expert :) Well Chad, you get my vote anyway! :D

jolly well done!
weve
weve

Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by weve »

Just this minute returned home from Hill House nurseries after finally finding time to pick up my 'reserved' Begonia luxurians. (a really excellent specimen) True to their word they kept it for me despite my delay in collecting it and I was very kindly treated to a guided tour of the nursery by the owner Ray (including all the "private" areas!). Showed me all of their stock plants and the new luxurians cuttings (and many other types) rooting on heated benches in their propagation house, The luxurians are generally grown on for a year before being offered for sale. (Ray has an almost 100% success rate with luxurians!)

Can't speak highly enough of the service, knowledge and quality of this nursery. Landscove is only a little way off the A38 (near the Ashburton turn-off about halfway between Exeter and Plymouth) and, altho' not exclusively 'Exotic', well worth a visit if travelling to or from Cornwall, particularly if one is into some rare and unusual varieties of plant.

I also picked up a Hedychium greenii whilst i was there too.

As to my existing luxurians, my 'back up' plant seems to be struggling in the house, dropping new leaves shortly after they form and no sign of life either from my outside planted one, so glad i now have another! (and a very nice one it is too!)

cheers
Last edited by weve on Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Adam D
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Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by Adam D »

weve wrote:Just this minute returned home from Hill House nurseries after finally finding time to pick up my 'reserved' Begonia luxurians. (a really excellent specimen) True to their word they kept it for me despite my delay in collecting it and I was very kindly treated to a guided tour of the nursery by the owner Ray (including all the "private" areas!). Showed me all of their stock plants and the new luxurians cuttings (and many other types) rooting on heated benches in their propagation house, The luxurians are grown on for a year before being offered for sale. (Ray has an almost 100% success rate with luxurians!)

Can't speak highly enough of the service, knowledge and quality of this nursery. Lanscove is only a little way off the A38 (near the Ashburton turn-off about halfway between Exeter and Plymouth) and, altho' not exclusively 'Exotic', well worth a visit if travelling to or from Cornwall, particularly if one is into some rare and unusual varieties of plant.

I also picked up a Hedychium greenii whilst i was there too.

As to my existing luxurians, my 'back up' plant seems to be struggling in the house, dropping new leaves shortly after they form and no sign of life either from my outside planted one, so glad i now have another! (and a very nice one it is too!)

cheers
Sounds like you had a great time mate!

Another positive about Hill House nurseries is that they really do a wonderful cream tea :D

Have you taken photos of your new plants yet? I would love to see them.
Simba

Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by Simba »

My Luxurians from Hill House was delivered earlier today....

Image

Image

Its only small, but in excellent condition, and with loads of new growth emerging, so I imediately got the little fella potted up.... :D

Thumbs up to Hill House.
Good service, good product, reasonable prices, I will be using them again in the future..... icon_thumleft
metalhammer

Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by metalhammer »

I enquired if they had any of the Schefflera mentioned in another thread,but they only rarely propagate it.

Re-potted my luxurians at the weekend & have them in my greenhouse.Will stay there until late May when I can be reasonably sure we ain't going to get a frost.




metalhammer.
weve

Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by weve »

Pleased everybody is happy with their luxurians. I will post pics of my purchases when i take some later today.

Adam: Yet to sample the Hill House cream teas alas. Will do next visit for sure! Hell of a long way for you to travel just for a cream tea tho', Adam, or are they that good! :)

Simba, The smaller one of the two I purchased last year outpaced the larger one in growth and 'bushiness' within a month or so. Real tortoise and hare stuff!

MH re the Schefflera, Apologies. Its probably my mistake, you are thinking of MH. In a past post I was calling it The "Hill House" Schefflera when it should have been "Garden House". (Both are in Devon) My mix-up was spotted by Petefree who thankfully, put me right, icon_thumleft , but these 'mystery' scheffys are all from one growing in the gardens of Garden House. I purchased mine however from Desert to Jungle, Taunton, last year. Might be worth giving them a ring if you are after one..

pics to follow................

EDIT: Taken the pic.
Its my first Hedychium. Hill House had loads of different varieties. Strictly speaking the greenii wasn't ready for sale but got it because its apparently botanically weird in that it never sets seed, but produces "mini-plants" after flowering instead. (Besides which the foliage looked great with dark green leaves with maroon undersides and i'm looking more for interesting foliage rather than flowers at the moment).
Begonia luxurians & Hedychium greenii
B.lux & Hedy greenii 2.jpg
Last edited by weve on Thu Mar 18, 2010 3:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by Dave Brown »

I received my delivery from Hill House yesterday icon_thumright The road surfaces around here resembe a ploughed field, and the speed bumps are the flatest bits with all the pot holes around. The plants were in good condition but compost was completely shaken out of the pots even with the covers stapled on :ahhh!: I potted them back up and have given them a good watering back in. Hopefully they won't be too affected as the roots had not dried out.

I'll take a pic later :wink:
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SteveW

Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by SteveW »

They should be fine Dave,mine turned up a couple of weeks ago in the same condition
themes

Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by themes »

Dave Brown wrote:I received my delivery from Hill House yesterday icon_thumright The road surfaces around here resembe a ploughed field, and the speed bumps are the flatest bits with all the pot holes around. The plants were in good condition but compost was completely shaken out of the pots even with the covers stapled on :ahhh!: I potted them back up and have given them a good watering back in. Hopefully they won't be too affected as the roots had not dried out.

I'll take a pic later :wink:
begonias roots really easily and cuttings have a good success rate so i think they will be fine
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Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by Dave Brown »

Finally got around to adding the pic. I have this standing on the propagator base so on bottom heat :wink:
20100320 Bigonia luxurians.jpg
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Dave
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weve

Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by weve »

Nice One Dave icon_thumleft (been waiting for the pic :) ). Coincidentally, just (this second!) got my heated propagator down from the loft. Looks like its going to be back in business!

BTW have sent you a pm
cheers
weve

Re: My Begonia luxurians

Post by weve »

Have done some research on the web to glean as much info as can about these and have also dug my outside one up to see if there was any sign of life. Stem certainly is dead but some of the thin roots were white inside if broken, showing that some at least are alive, so hoping for a reshoot BUT:

Read on the net that:

"New basal growth only occurs if there is an existing node below ground level" If this is true it looks bad for mine as i didn't plant it that deeply. Chad's deep rooting and planting technique, by luck or design seems to have ensured his behaves more like a herbaceous perennial as there is quite a lot of buried stem.

"they are almost impossible to overwinter succesfully in a centrally-heated house". Not having a greenhouse (yet) I brought my potted one in just before winter It defoliated (but I put that down initially to its exposure to quite cold outside temperatures earlier). However all my sideshoots started to die-back shortly after new leaves formed and dropped. Then the main shoot started to die-back. cut it and it is now outside
My newly purchased one dropped a couple of leaves (also in the house) so i put a plastic bag -open at the bottom, over it for humidity. Seems better. Hopefully I'll be able to put it outside very soon!

"Begonia luxurians, needs to be kept moist even when overwintering"- If this is the case I may have kept mine a little too dry.

I can't say how accurate the above statements are, as I said found it all on the web, but thought I'd pass it on, nevertheless.
best
weve
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