I just bought some from Swallowtail Seeds

http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/annuals/begonia.html

I haven't ordered from them before and haven't sowed the seeds yet, so I can't give any feedback on the company.

Ruth

I got my swallowtail order a couple of weeks ago and the germination on the begonia seeds has been really great. I ordered the nonstop mocca mix and regular mix, apricot illumination, illumination mixed and would have got the crimson had I known that another item would be back-ordered and shipped to me later. The apricot and mocca ones popped up in a few days while the others are taking a little longer.

Mackenzie seed in Canada also has show angel mixed and their germination has been great too. If all goes well, I should have more begonias than room and will have to give them to friends!!

Hi Gladzoe,
Would you be interested in trading some illumination apricot and mocca seeds. If so, I could send you what I have for trade.

Thanks
Tina

Hi Tina, I didn't see your post until now. If I get seed from them I'll be happy to trade.. All the seeds I bought were sowed. The regular non-stops and illumination mixed only produced a few plants.

I am new to flower propagation of any sort--my habit has been vegetables, so this flower thing is new to me. As such, I decided to try my hand at begonias from seed (got some pelleted seeds from a fantastic seller on ebay--there, now I'm on topic!), but have read some pretty scary stories about how difficult they are to grow from seed--damping off, never germinating and/or rotting, or taking as much as 60 days(!!!) to germinate. As such, I didn't start them in peat pots due to some of the research I did, but I do have them just on top of some moist seed starting mix and a seedling mat, which keeps the temp right at 80 during the day and about 75 at night. I have read that 80 is the top of the temp range... I have tried venting the top of the mini greenhouse by turning it a bit sideways during the day, and the temp does seem to come down a bit, but I am concerned that it will dry out too fast. In wanting to avoid killing them with tap-water chlorine, I have "boiled & cooled" some tap water and am misting with that daily to keep the top of the soil moist. The pellets haven't even dissolved yet, though.

Any advice on what I can do differently, besides give it some more time? It's only been a couple of days, but patience is a virtue I am still learning. I only planted about half of the seeds, but I am starting to think that I should probably not expect any begonia blooms in my garden this year unless I locate some tubers somewhere...

mayberrygardener, I found that mine sprouted in about 10 days on the heat mat. And they can be planted close together as I've read they germinate better with company, and they develop so slowly, it will be several months before they need to be separated for space. You should spray them though until the pellet dissolves as they do require light to germinate. Hopefully you'll get some blooms this season, but you might want to plant them into something that can be brought inside before frost and allowed to grow on for several months to develop the tuber before you dig and store for a few months. Some of mine never did get dug up and are still growing in the window.

SUCCESS!! Even with the high temp of 80, I saw some mini (WOW, they're TINY) sprouts today--only 7 of the 30 or so seeds that I planted, and one of the three rows hasn't germinated yet (maybe they're a red variety? Didn't write it down, and I KNOW better than to rely on my rusty old brain), but I GOT BABIES!! After these are big enough to plant out, I am going to do the same treatment for the rest of the seeds, I am just so glad that they germinated for me!

Thanks, Zoe, for the suggestion to wait to develop a tuber. Being a flower nincompoop (I have only ever bought whatever's cheap and already in bloom at Walmart, as far as flowers go), I didn't want to sound like a total idiot by asking if my begonias would develop a tuber, or how long it would take, etc. All my gardens are planted in containers, but I was planning on digging the plants out (to avoid the creatures that might be sharing the container!) for the colder months and to let them thicken a little more. Do these transplant well, since that's essentially what I will be doing?

Thanks!!

p.s. you're not the zoe that is my ebay seller, are you? She's actually Cassandra...

So glad to hear you have sprouts mayberrygardner. Mine have finally started to take off at month 3 and daily are growing! In the past, they've transplanted fine for me. You could just take your containers in when it gets cold, hopefully you don't have too many critters.