hi

did you lose your pic posting ability???

lets start with thinking about that very old.. used up ... potting media.. you wintered over ... what makes you think it is good enough for another year of vigorous growth ...

i would break up one of the pots.. and see what is going on with the roots.. and i suspect.. they are not happy ...

i would not necessarily bare root/bulb them ... but i would replace at least 90% of the media ...

repot with fresh media.. and see if you cant get some vigorous root growth growing... the plant you see.. usually follows ...

i dont know about the cutting back.. because the description is a bit vague...

ken

Yes, I was assuming I would replace the potting mix too.

Here are the pictures: :)

Leggy cane dragonwing type begonia, currently about 2 1/2 feet wide!

{{gwi:11994}}

Leggy New Guinea impatiens

{{gwi:11995}}

Scruffy ivy geranium

{{gwi:11996}}

trace down any stem.. and look for micro buds ... where leaves used to be ...

if you find them.. cut as far back as the last one you can find

i call them dormant buds.. and they will trigger.. when you cut the further off ...

if you just cant suck it up and do the whole.. do 1/3 of them.. and when they start to thrive.. do the rest ...

i think i would change the soil ... and then prune heavily.. so it has some time.. to grow some roots.. before vigorous growth starts ...

do one this week.. if you see a favorable response.. go for it on the others..

if it dies.. then at least you havent killed the others.. lol ..

dad used to cut off the green in late fall.. before frost.. and store the bulbs dry like canna in fall.. in the house.. and then bring them out in spring ...

i dont know how yours will respond.. having never really gone dormant all winter long ... they may struggle mightily to put out any kind of vigor this year ... and that may be a reason.. why it isnt worth to winter them over up here in the great white north ...

there is often a fine line by what you can get away with.. as compared to what is worth getting away with ...

ken

A pic says 1000 words, so here are some operations recently performed on Begonias. Already they have gone from floppy, weak things to holding themselves up. Some of the bare stalks I planted have little pink nubs of growth forming.

1, 2, 3.

I've had the plant below since last spring. As the stalks get too long, I just snap them off and stick them in a pot. The stem that was snapped will grow a new top, but off to one side, so go kinda low.

{{gwi:11997}}

Here's one of its' babies which I planted sideways to drape along the wall.

{{gwi:11998}}

I think those Impatiens behave similarly but haven't tried them or the Geranium.

Thanks! I had not thought of snapping them off, purpleinopp. Does that work better than cutting the stems? I guess I have just never tried snapping a begonia stem. I did not know they would root so easily: then at least I could have a new plant if the parent did not make it.

Since I've got 3, Ken, I'll just start with the scruffiest, and chop it, then repot. Easier to handle when all those canes gone.

I just prefer to snap stems that will snap, Coleus, Tradescantias/Callisias, I think there's less crushing and damage at the break point.

The Begonia that I pictured above doesn't stop blooming when the stems are snapped and repotted. Wax Begonia is the same way. When it gets going again, start snapping as soon as a stem gets long enough so it's never a drastic thing with a bunch of naked stumps for a couple weeks.

Just went to check the latest pots of cuttings from about 2 weeks ago and they are firmly rooted.

Thanks! I am rotten at rooting, do you do anything special? or just stick them in moist potting mix? Any rooting hormone?

root in water. and AS SOON AS YOU SEE ROOTS.. put in very damp media ...

or straight into the media.. with a plastic bag for humidity..

try both.. experiment ...

ken

I haven't tried any in water. If it makes root within 2 weeks in fast-draining soil, I don't see any reason to bother with the water on this one. I don't own any hormones although that probably wouldn't hurt if you want to use it. Mine are in a lot of sun so the plastic bag would cook them. For most house plants, I make a mix of mostly mulch with composted leaves, a bit of bagged top soil or yard dirt if I don't have a bag.

I just went outside to pull one of the newest cuttings so we could all see what it's doing under the soil. When I said yesterday it was firmly rooted, I had no idea it had made this much (many?) roots. Here's a play-by-play of pulling it out. I'm going to pull the one on the left:

{{gwi:11999}}

A LOT of soil is coming up with it:

{{gwi:12000}}

This surprised me

{{gwi:12001}}

Roots are holding onto a lot of soil

{{gwi:12002}}

I shook off a lot of the soil. There's roots along the whole 3 inches that was buried.

{{gwi:12003}}

Back in the pot

{{gwi:12004}}

Hope your efforts are as successful!

Thanks for all your efforts! I'm going to try it. I do have bagged potting soil, I will try that. I used to root things all the time, but recently have not had much success. I have wondered if my city water has too much chlorine in it. I can often smell it.

I think it'll go well, sorry I don't know much about chlorine. Maybe catch of bucket of rain water? I don't think these plants are too fussy about soil except if it stays too wet. If it's getting some good light, that should help a lot.

I grow all of my cuttings in pearlite. or a mix of pearlite and vermiculite. I find they develop roots much faster than in water, and dont tend to rot like they do for me in soil. I bought 3 packs of Tidal wave seeds, with 10 seeds each. I got about 8 of each to germinate, so 24 plants. after a month of growing, I took about 50 cuttings, dipped them in rooting hormones, placed them in domed trays of pearlite in indirect light, and another month later I have 60 blooming tidal wave petunias. Works like a charm.

While not everything will grow from cuttings, geraniums and begonias (and petunias) are easy.

Linnea, curious how this went...?

So-so. Not much rooted.I had put the cuttings right into soil. However, the begonias in the original baskets did sprout from below where I cut them, some even from below the soil. A month later, they were starting to look decent. The impatiens still look like a bunch of sticks, but are not dead. Smaller shoots that could not be seen under the longer ones now can be seen, however. So at least I know that I can cut back the begonias hard, and they can handle it.

Interesting. I've ended up with several different cane type Begonias here and have had mixed results with propagation. I'm anxious to start again next spring because as the season draws to a close, the later attempts are having a harder time, a lot more failed pieces compared to earlier in the year. But, as you experienced, the cut canes almost always keep growing. Sounds like we'll both have "fresh" baskets to put outside in the spring though, can't beat that!