Downsize your photos for a quicker upload. Pick a pixel size around 800 to 1200 for the width. This makes it go a lot faster.

TY, but I've never had trouble on here (or other sites) before. Others are complaining about recent trouble too.

A newish cutting of 'Sinbad'

More 'Castaway' with 'Medora' and Coleus 'Florida Sun Jade.'

It may not be the site's fault. It might be your ISP that has an issue?

Sinbad and Medora are great oldies but can be a little fussy indoors.

Here is my Sinbad from yesterday. There is a Medora in the same pot but you can't see it from this angle.

And a pan of Medora cuttings from last year under lights in the basement.

TY & those are gorgeous! I've had the 'Medora' for a few yrs. Hopefully the 'Sinbad' will do as good of a job at staying alive inside over winter! How long have you had that one?

Unfortunately, others are having upload woes too:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/3250803/pic-upload-woes?n=12

This particular Sinbad is on its 3rd year. I will buy them in the spring if I find them ($5 a gallon usually) if I lost my previous one.

Most Mallets are notorious for mildew as soon as it gets cool and mildew often spells death. Mallets are Sinbad, Benigo, Maurice Amey, Don Miller, Pink Minx, Lynda Dawn, and several others with a common parent from the Philippines. While absolutely beautiful they are hard to keep in winter if you don't have the right conditions (good air flow, warm, lots of light) or you aren't proactive on taking care of mildew when you see it (picking off infected leaves, spraying for outbreaks, etc.) I've gotten better at keeping them through winter in a basement (perfect environment for mildew) knowing to keep them on the drier side, more light, spraying with a mildew preventative/killer). Mallets are not the only begonia affected by mildew but often is the most susceptible. Some other canes can get mildew but seem to resist it better than a Mallet.

I see there is a problem uploading.

TY so much for the info, very helpful! And oooh, my knees hurt from falling in love with your pic! Is that 'Withlacoochee' to the R?

I thought Sinbad looked like another cane type, shoot! Mallet type, huh. That would explain why the stems seem more juicy? Starting to lose hope that it'll join my lineup as a stick-around. It's not outgrowing some kind of funk that keeps making brown spots on its' oldest leaves, then leaves turn yellow with brown edge & fall off. Does that sound like a mildew? One of the cuttings looks unaffected. Will be sure to put it by a good window in a heated room (not all of our rooms are heated.)

..."as annual" might turn out to be more true than I'd hoped. LOL! Live'n'learn... enjoy while it lasts... and look for more canes!

Richmondensis on the left (great bloomer), Torch in the middle, and Chocolate (probably Withlacoochee that was changed to an easier name) on the right.

Mildew is a white powder like fungus. You won't notice it in summer as it usually is too hot to act up but the spores are there just waiting for cool damp weather to rear its ugly head. I would just search for some images of mildew affected begonias to see what it really looks like.

Don't give up on Sinbad even if it turns out to be an annual this year. It does best in summer (for me) and can usually be picked up for a few bucks in spring. Pick off any leaves that you don't like - it actually will help the plant produce more. Mallets are considered "shrub" as they branch very freely compared to "canes". To me they are all canes with different characteristics such as branching and susceptibility to mildew attack.

Here is a photo of my Sinbad last year (this is its 3rd year which is good news). I think I had two Sinbad plants, a purple dahlia, the giant Persian Shield and Medora in this 18 inch pot.

In 2013, it looked like this: the Persian Shield was new (it is dead this year but I took a cutting of it and have it in a different pot), and Red Dragon Persicaria (I removed it and have it elsewhere - it is hardy in the Atlanta area).

Off topic but... that Persian Shield though! Beautiful!

Thanks Kelli, it loves the sun and heat apparently. The only problem I've see is scale. Even if treated as an annual, it is mainstream now - makes it so easy to pick up for $5. I picked one up this spring but it is still in its original 4 inch pot. Here is the cutting of last year's plant in full sun. Unfortunately it has fallen over so the bare stem is exposed.

"To me they are all canes with different characteristics such as branching and susceptibility to mildew attack." Very helpful, TY! Your pic of the giant Sinbad is totally wow!!

I'm familiar with powdery mildew, but not other types. IDK what is going on here.

I'll definitely be attempting a save. Vising a store that sells plants (that's not a WM) is something I don't do at all some years, none nearby. With a budget of about $20-40/year, I really prefer for it to go to something new. Any Begonia that's not a wax is a rare find!! (Though, of course, I love those too!)

Is that Persicaria sterile? I like that, a lot, but have/want very few seed-droppers. That pot is simply stunning! TY for sharing it. :+)

I'm a huge fan of PS too!

Hi Tiffany,

The leaf with the damage in your photo is probably due to some mechanical injury (I often have pine needles that pierce leaves of all types). Once you have an injury then the tissue is subject to germ attack. Sometimes it heals (not the holes but the edges around the injury) enough to keep the leaf on but other times it continues to get worse. Just remove the ugly damaged leaves (I do it all the time) whenever you feel like it.

I usually find Sinbad at our local nursery chain (Pike's or at the Barn Nursery in Chattanooga). Usually in a gallon for five bucks - a very good deal. If you keep the mildew at bay and perhaps start new plants and keep them in fairly sterile conditions for winter, you should be able to keep these going for years.

I don't think Persicaria 'Red Dragon' is completely sterile but it is not weedy like most Persicaria(s). It is easily started by stem cuttings and hardy in the Atlanta area so I have a big pot of it outdoors. I also have P. 'Painter's Palette' and it is weedy but so colorful I keep them if they are in a good spot, else they get sprayed or pulled up. I had the very weedy Persicaria a few years ago and let it grow for a full summer. It got about five to six feet tall and was a thicket. The following year I went on a mission to dig, spray every one that popped up. Now a few years out from that fiasco I still get a few seedlings that come up so pull those up as soon as I see them.

Here is a patch of Painter's Palette. It stays a manageable 12 to 18 inches tall but note all the seeds.

P.P. is weedy but easily controlled.

And then a weed you would not wish on your enemy. I think this is Pennsylvania Smartweed but really hard to ID. This was August four years ago and I'm still fighting the seedlings this year but each year gets less and less.

Definitely a difference between the weedy ones! TYVM!

Sinbad continues to look bad, worse even, no longer blooming either. :(

How much sun is it getting? When was the last time you fertilized? I would pinch off the worst leaves (tattered, holes, and yellow leaves). Maybe pinch the terminal bud as well to get more branching but typically you don't have to do this on Sinbad (a shrub).

Here is mine this morning in the same 18 inch container it has been in for the 3rd year. It has some ragged torn leaves as well but I am not pinching those (yet).

A closer view

Finally a front view with Selph's Mahogany in front.

LOVE, love, love those pots! TY for the reply & for sharing them.

That plant is in the shade of a tree, dappled most of the day, a little direct sun late in the afternoon. I've been picking off ill leaves often, since I got it 3-4 months ago, but left it alone for the past few weeks to get a pic of it with them on. Aside from occasional compost tea, I don't fertilize anything. Everything else is looking great, except this Begonia. The pieces I took off when I first got it & stuck in other places look so much better.

Starting to suspect a severe case of different types of soils causing problems for roots, though I tried to take most of it off. If that's what it is, then I can say I had terrible luck this year with every store-bought plants' existing roots, not just most. There weren't that many, but all is still all. Almost 100% for hundreds of various cuttings though, so that's still very worthwhile. I just won't bother to put those root balls in the ground anymore, most of which had bits of styrofoam (not perlite) anyway.

Yeah, I hate the Styrofoam bits and/or peanuts too. PHOE uses Styrofoam in their mix. I'd rather use gravel or bark in that case.

A lot of plants bought at the store or nursery are pushed to make a big beautiful plant but that is what we see at the store. What we don't see is the root development until we usually get it home and repot it later on.

A few updates after a couple of years.

Begonias enjoying summer vacation in this raised brick planter. 'Beefsteak,' 'Corallina de Lucerne,' and 'Fairy.'

I think this is the plain species, B. coccinea. The stem to the left is the original cutting placed about 4 months ago, the big one to the right is new growth since then.

Another cutting of the same type.

For constant, long-term blooms, none I've had can compare to good ol' wax B.'s.

A spot with both of the last 2 kinds pictured.

A baby 'Beefsteak' from cutting off a leafless piece of rhizome and laying it here about 3 months ago.

Canes go so well with these trees, Dracaena marginata.

'Sinbad' has not been as easy to get along with.

The one in this pot is the only one.

Looking good Tiffany. Those Dracaena plants are getting pretty tall. Bet they are hard to take out and in? I was carrying 7 foot tall cacti and found them too dangerous and awkward so I cut them back to around 3 feet or less.

These two cacti have been cut many times over the last 10 years or so and easy to root new plants.

But the once every 3 to 4 years when it blooms is kind of neat