My Begonia luxurians

[weve]

Dave: Very sorry to hear yours isn't too happy. I personally would still keep it outside in sheltered, dappled shade for a while and see how it fares. (not that I know much!) I know yours was in a polytunnel (or conservatory). so perhaps, with the advantage of hindsight, it didn't get the best of starts.

The one I overwintered in the house is now deceased (except for the roots....so there's a slight bit of hope) It started to die back and despite cutting the stem to a node well below the die-back, i couldn't stop it. They seem very temperamental when not outdoors. Last year's potted one did well for me, until of course, I brought it inside. (Outside it was in full sun until 4pm and, once it got going, the wind didn't seem to bother it)

Fingers crossed for you. I think you should stick with them. (After all you have the acknowledged best Chammy, and IMO the best looking Butia too, so why not a luxurians! )

Simba: Cheers for posting the pics and for keeping us updated. Looks really good! I hadn't thought about misting mine. I might give it a try in this drought I'm having here at the moment (obviously I water it!).

When waiting to plant out my 'new' one and it started to drop leaves in the house, and put a supermarket plastic bag over it (Somerfield, to be exact ) and it seemed to improve. So they obviously like humidity. In fact I thnk now I'll give mine a mist today (as soon as its in full shade).

My new one: As I posted earlier, planted mine out as soon as I felt I could risk it. Removed the bubble wrap 'house' when the night temps regularly reached 8c or over. Growth has been fairly slow, but it seems to be developing lots of sideshoots rather than making height and bigger leaves. Beginning to speed up a bit now tho'. I'm keeping the soil fairly moist (dunno if this is correct or not, mind! )

Really tempted to try to overwinter it in situ outdoors again , even if my greenhouse is ready by them. My 'little house' for it seemed to work well, and I thought about putting a reptile heat mat inside on a timer (and an RCD!) with perhaps a water container (or two) placed on it. If it fails, Hill House is just up the road! Anyway thats a long time away. Let's enjoy the summer!

My 'new' luxurians last week (BTW the bubble wrap stuffed at the back does nothing, its just a bit left over from earlier. I really must get round to removing it!)

[Simba]

Photo taken this morning

[Dave Brown]

that is looking good Simba, What kind of compost do you have it in Mine in now in dappled shade under a Dicksonia antarctica so will be fairly humid. It has stopped the toasted leaf look, but still not getting much growth.

[Simba]

What kind of compost do you have it in

Nothing fancy Dave, just some standard hanging basket stuff with JI. It was all that I had available at the time..

[Simba]

Took a photo yesterday, as my Luxurians is now starting to add some height it seems...

[Dave Brown]

Green with envy, Simba, unlike my feeble excuse for a luurians

I got fed up of the spindley look and took the top 20cm off for a cutting back on 23rd July. Looking at Chad's experience of getting these to root I only made one cutting with 7 nodes in a deep palm pot. Don't take this as an experienced cutting taking, I'm learning on the hoof here, If it works, all well and good, if not, I got it wrong

Spindley, yellowy B. luxirians

7 node cutting

Rooting powder

potted up in a deep palm pot

The remaining leaf it had promptly dropped off the next day. Now waiting with fingers crossed.

[Simba]

An update on my Luxurians....




The Luxurians along with my Revolutas has to be my most pleasing growers this year,
but the Luxurians seems so fragile, lord only knows how I can get it through a winter like the past two.....

[kata]

Looks good Simba,

Do they flower?

[DiCasS]

Yes Kata they do, but not much to look at. Lots of tiny white balls clustered together on a stem, opening up to reveal the yellow centres. I've tried looking for seed on these, but nothing obvious from what I can see.

Di

[Dave Brown]

Forgot to put that my cutting rotted within a couple of weeks However, when I brought the main plant indoors, as it was not happy anywhere else, one of the cats knocked it off the windowsill and broke a stem off at the end of October. I just plonked this in a glass of water and waited for it to rot.... to my surprise it decided to root instead.

Simba, Perhaps you should have taken a couple of cuttings off your plant. Mine rooted just sat on the kitchen windowsill in water. Temps between about 12C ans 20C

[Simba]

Well done Dave, at least you have proved that it is possible...

Sadly I got caught on the 'op and my Luxurians wasn't adequately protected. Looks like mush now down to soil level...

Chad did say that they could bounce back but I think I have to take the blame for killing mine stone dead.....

I have a new one coming in Spring though...

[Dave Brown]

The Begonia luxurians is now looking better than it has done since I got it. It has been overwintered in the lounge, which most say you can't successfully do, but it is positioned near a window and is cooler than the ambient 18/19C. Temps are nearer to 14/16C unless sunny, and the desktop weatherstation near the window shows 60 to 70% humidity. I think the humidity is the determining factor.

I have had some problems with watering and on reading generally across the web, they cannot tolerate soggy conditions. It is still in the pot it was supplied in and I think the problem is where it was grown in very warm conditions it got away with a moisture retentive compost, but in the much cooler conditions I am keeping it overwinter, it is too wet. Others say it must be kept watered regularly over winter, but mine only needs watering every few weeks, and then goes into a mega wilt after. I have countered this now by watering with very dilute Hydrogen Peroxide to fizz oxygen around the roots.

Yesterday, I decided to repot and take a couple of cuttings. I've not had success with cuttings so far, but that is only 2 cuttings. Again, trawling the web to get a consensus, it seems they will take but need a well drained compost, bottom heat, and highish humidity.

Here is the plant before repotting

Following a consensus on thew web I have used a loam rich , well drained compost
with 30% loam, 30% mp compost and 40% perlite. The bottom of the pot was covered with coarse gravel to avoid water sitting at the base of the pot, they seem to hate this. I placed the root ball on the gravel ( as deep as I could plant and top filled around the stems. This gives a better rooted plant, and allows more canes from below compost level. We'll see how this goes.

I removed the tallest cane, about 2 feet, and divided into 3 multinode cuttings. These are currently in Maxicrop glass of water in the prop at 28 to 31C until the wekend then will be transferred to deep palm pots with 50/50 loam perlite.

At this point I'm not sure if to put back in the prop, or just to place on the reptile mat which is giving 17 to 24C bottom heat but with free airflow. The problem with the prop is fungal attack due to high heat and humidity with lack of air circulation. I might experiment with a 12V PC fan to move air around within the prop
Pic after repot and cane cutting

[Libby]

How is everyones Luxurians getting on? I bought one this year and kept it in the greenhouse till the warmer weather then planted it out. Since its been out it looks very sad and I'm wondering if its been to wet for it?
I am now off to read up in the other section what to do?

[Delboy]

My ebay plug is now about 14" tall and looking ok. I took 2 cuttings ( a month apart) as an experiment and put them in homebase compost, both rooted really quickly.

I have planted the oldest cutting into my raised bed, its going ok so far but only about 8" tall.
The smallest cutting will stay indoors overwinter in a pot, but is looking mighty healthy.

I took another cutting recently for a relative, and that seems to of rooted too.

[Dave Brown]

A bit late on this. They like moist humid conditions but cannot tolerate water staying around the roots, so a well drained, orgainc compost that does not completely dry out will be best