Tracy, looks like you fell thru the crack on responses here, usually someone will answer. I suppose you've already done something with your cane begonias but I'll give you an opinion in case you haven't.

It's not a good time of year to be propagating, you might consider waiting until spring or early summer. But if you prefer to try now, I would take tip cuttings of this begonia to root and you could also try to force growth from below the soil by leaving several inches of stem at the pot. I would toss the left-over cane. There are a few exceptions, but most canes cannot produce a plant from a node if it flowered at that point. So if the plant flowered at every node there is no potential for new plants.

This answers your other question as to cutting 1 foot sections of cane to root. If your begonia hasn't been a profuse bloomer, you can look for the little spike at nodes which represents a potential new growth. If there are some you can try to root those sections. But I lose more of these cuttings than I successfully root, especially if they don't have leaves. But give it a try, if you get 1 out of 3 or 4 to root it might still be worth the effort.

This thread will be moved to the top of the stack, so maybe our resident expert Butch will chime in with some other comments.

Good luck, Russ

I think you covered the issues very well Russ. I did miss this post altogether. I would cut this back hard - either to the ground or above the first node. Start the tops over as Russ said and you can try some of the middle stems. As Russ said a node must have a growing tip to root and make a new shoot though. Keep the cuttings and the pot with the roots under lights or near a window and keep it warm. You can also lay the stems horizontally in a pan, barely covering the nodes with some potting mix or perlite - this will create new shoots at all nodes (growing tips intact). Brad Thompson's Begonia World has many good tips on propagation.

I did go on a hacking mission a week or two ago on my most common canes - cutting them back to the ground. Of course having new "visible" shoots helps in that decision. I still have many favorite canes that need cutting back but I just hate to do it so I've been waiting until one of our club's members can come to the house and take as many as she wants to use in a lot of her other garden clubs' meetings.

PS - I left out one large pot of canes and a golden Duranta last fall as I had many duplicates of the canes and took cuttings of the Duranta. The killing frosts took care of pruning and at the last moment (early December) I moved the pot inside to save the Duranta (it was about 7 feet tall and had taken the pot over - about two to three years old at the time). The Duranta was too far gone and the canes were all dead as well. I kept it inside though and trickled some water every week or two just in case there was some life in the roots. Then about March I noticed one shoot of a begonia emerging. As the weeks went by, more and more shoots came up. The only survivors of this mixed pot was 'Lana' and 'Irene Nuss' but the canes were thicker, the leaves were larger, and overall the plants were the most robust I've seen in a long time. That being said, perhaps a heavy pruning will encourage the new shoots to be larger and better?

Butch in chilly Atlanta

Here are two views of that pot with Lana first and Irene second.

Thanks for the response, Butch. I have for many years propagated philodendron and aglaonema stem pieces by laying on their sides half-covered with mix, but I wasn't aware you could do the same with sections of begonia cane. So this will be something I'll try in the future.

Good ol' Irene Nuss and Lana, two of my favorite vintage canes. Interesting story you related about the mixed begonia pot with the duranta, just shows how tough some canes can be in surviving freezing cold.

Still good weather down here for a while longer, but the few nights below freezing always loom large and force covering the shadehouse and a lot of moving of plants. Can't complain though compared to winter in the rest of the country, I remember 3 years in Oklahoma City.

Russ

Hey Russ,

I tried the laying sideways a few years ago but it took a long pan to do it. It worked pretty good but if you are limited for space I'd still go with the old conventional method. You could do a mallet cutting as well but I think you might want the tip growth already growing a small stem with a leaf or two to boot.

Yep, old Irene and Lana are quite a pair and then throw in Sophie and Esther - now you have a party or at least a bridge game (not that I've ever played)! HAHA!

We have come close to freezing a few times here and this coming weekend may be it. I will move my largest pots under the deck to give them a few more degrees protection. I hope to have all my small pots in by end of the week as I've got most everything indoors that I value the most. Still have a bunch of canes in small pots, Sansevierias, ferns, a few assorted tropicals such as Jatropha and Clerodendrum. The big pots include 3 of canes and two very large pots of elephant ears that I may let frost knock back and dig out the bulbs/roots this year instead of using a hand truck to bring in those extra large pots. Oh to live in a tropical place where you can grow outdoors all year long but I guess they have their issues as well.

I can imagine what Oklahoma City was like in winter. I guess it was better than Fargo though - JK!!