This is encouraging me to try some of my begonias! I will have to cut a few leaves off this evening to get them in the works.

I currently have 7 variegated monsteras working on their roots. A few have bumbs where the new main stalk will form as of yesterday, so hopefully they are all on the same timeline. I have 4 in sphagnum moss, one in soil and a newer cutting in water. Im all across the board on those lol.

I also have a mix of other things going. A few misc philos, snake plants, monstera andasonii, some different varities of pothos, and a couple euphorbia. Everything but the euphorbia are stated in water then transfered to soil as soon as I see root growth. The euphorbia I root in pumice.

Hopefully your begonias go well and the african violets start pushing new leaves soon for you!

Ryan, wow, that’s a lot of monsteras! I wonder how the variegation happened – was it chemically induced, or the result of repeated selection? Regardless, I really like them a lot. I also have an unvariegated Monstera leaf in soil right now, but it’s outside and the odds of it rooting aren’t great. I’m interested though in your opinion of what substrate worked best for rooting yours.

Thanks, I’m curious to find out if and how quickly the begonias will root. Of all the propagations I’ve done this year, I found tradescantias and spider plants to be the fastest, while the ananas and african violets were the slowest.

What begonias will you be trying? I'd love to see some pics!

Adela

According to the "Gardening by the moon phase" calendar, today seems to be particularly auspicious for planting and sowing. I think I'll let my B. pavonina leaf cuttings be the judge of that. :)

I quit propagating begonias. Easy to do but difficult to find anyone who wants them. So I quit...

I'm honestly not sure how the variegated variety came to be. the seem to root so much faster in the moss than anything else I've tried. I definitely recommend that! I'm not sure what kind of begonias I have to be honest lol. Here is a picture of the leaves I just put in soil and one of a handful of the other propegations going on! Fingers crossed for the begonias to take!

Hello everyone, Adela L here… “green-vibing” (is that even a word?) with you. So, yes, green_vibes is my jam right now.

Hc_mcdole, I don”t get how some folks fail to see the beauty there is in begonias…. and you have some particularly gorgeous ones over there. Which ones do you find are most tolerant of semi-shade? My window-space is getting quite crowded and yet I still want more begonias…

Ryan, I see you have both variegated forms of Monstera, lucky you. :) The Thai Constellation (my favorite) leaf looks huge!

Sending over some green vibes to your begonias right away- they’ll root, you’ll see. :)

Adela

Hi Adela,

Most begonias will do just fine in semi-shade. A bit more sun would probably make them stronger, make them bloom more, etc. Deep shade is okay but I find them weak and often just holding on. Smaller ones that are shaded out by their bigger cousins often die.

I grow hundreds of begonias and it is a job moving them outside for summer and back indoors (basement with 85 shop lights) in fall.

These are from last September - Begonia 'Freddie' in bloom.

New Guinea Impatiens, datura ready to bloom, and Castor Bean plant in back. A few in the ground plants help provide some color and interest.

Begonia 'Judy Cook' in back of seedlings of Jatropha podagrica (Buddha's Belly)

some more begonias surrounding the Judy Cook begonia and Jatropha

some rexes

a few more begonias

more

some more

a few philodendrons too

I think I can only post 10 photos per post though....

hc mcdole, you're in begonia heaven. I immediately spotted a favorite of mine, sizemoreae. Freddie and Buddha’s Belly? I might have to get those… what cute names they have, too!

I also like the heart-shaped, deep-veined philo – I actually thought it was anthurium.

The B. x erythrophylla leaf cuttings arrived today and they seem to have suffered quite a bit during transport, so I’d say this variety doesn’t travel very well.

I have a total of eight leaves with stems attached, and one (mostly wilted) without. I stuck them in soil right away, but I wonder whether the 5 cm (2 in) pots I have them in are too small. I’ll leave them in there for now, but I might change them into slightly bigger pots along the way. I won’t cover them with anything, and I decided to also take the plastic covering off of the B. pavonina leaves during the day, and place it back on at night.

Everyone, behold my future beefsteaks. :)

That is Philodendron Gloriosum (I think that is what you are talking about).

I've never seen begonias started that way before. In water maybe with a long petiole or putting the entire petiole under the surface of the soil (horizontally).

You could cut the petiole off, cut your whole leaf into wedges (with the major vein in the middle of each wedge), and use Jiffy pellets with their mini-greenhouse for much better success.

Here are some Bashful Bandit leaves I cut off a mother plant (Feb 22, 2017). I already cut off the petioles after washing the leaves in a soapy bath.

cut off the outer edge like a circle and then cut it into wedges

Here they are stuck in a 36 count deep tray.

five weeks later there are roots and some small leaflets. Some rotted away (old leaves or too wet?)

May 9

July 24 after sitting outdoors in 3 inch pots for nearly two months, I moved one and 3 rexes (started the same way) to a 10x10 inch square pot.

Oct 9

a duplicate pot I did the next year with 3 rexes and U647 with Bashful Bandit in the center indoors Nov 13

The same pot above Mar 12, 2018

hc mcdole, what you’re describing really seems to be the way to propagate begonias. What I like most about it, is that you can grow multiple plants from a single leaf, and I’m all for employing the easiest and most successful method. So I might try it in the future, using a substrate other than Jiffy pellets (I used them for sprouting tomato seeds, and I wasn’t impressed at all).

I once (years ago) was able to easily and super quickly root up a beefstake begonia leaf by sticking the tip of its petiole in dirt, and I want to see if I can get the same result again.

It would’ve perhaps been safer to use the consecrated method with half of the leaves, but now I’m just going to wait and see… Here’s hoping they’ll root, because they weren’t exactly easy to obtain.

Gloriosum – a perfectly suited name for that beautiful plant. :)

hc mcdole, you did such a fine job at documenting the new growth. I'll take some pics along the way, too, regardless of the outcome. :)

Adela

Additional to what I'd recently shown elsewhere as recent water rooted cuttings, I've got this. Some kind of oversize Syngonium, wants to take over the world.

nice new growth

Pix posting is acting up, just failed 3 x in a row, (from Laptop using Chrome). Grrrrr!

Look at the aerial roots, this thing is programmed to grow, grow, grow...

I don't know how or what to pot it up in, it's going to outgrow anything I try so fast! Suggestions anybody?

Karen,

I did all my Syngoniums in perlite. They will take over the world if you let them. Well not as bad as Kudzu... Cut them back indoors and allow them to regrow in summer. These are in 16 oz drinking cups with holes punched in the bottom and filled with perlite and whatever litter falls in them over the years.

an aluminum pan with perlite and some potting soil (mixed in begonia canes too) are easy enough to cut back for winter care.

Here is a view of the drinking cups I used. The biggest problem is keeping them upright since they are lightweight and taller than their base.

I liked them enough to allow them to grow but after a few years you just can't keep them all in a 12 to 14 inch bowl like this one. I need winter space and syngoniums take a back seat.

A wall of them at the Atlanta Botanical Garden (that they change out every few months with a new display).

Here is a permanent resident there.

Here is one I wished I could find again. S. wendlandii.

I really like Syngonium, and have no idea why I haven't gotten one yet. Yes, this pup looks like it's going to grow very fast, Karen!

Adela

Forgot to add - you can throw the scraps on your compost heap and don't be surprised when you find one growing some new leaves.

Don't let them grow with other houseplants like this Begonia 'Bayberry Lane'. The Syngonium was winning in this situation.

I have a single leaf and node Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma a lot of Gollum jade leaves several strands of string of bananas and I just put my caperii woodii in a pot. I had success propagating for the first time this year and now I’m addicted. Oh, and a variegated spider plant pup.

Back for a weekly update on my B. erythrophylla in-soil propagation.

Out of eight stemmed-leaves, I’m now left with five (in soil). Yesterday, I performed a (not-so-gentle) tug test and two stems/petioles came right out; I put them in water, after cutting out the mushy ends, in an effort to save them.

I also removed a third leaf from soil - it did pass the tug test, but the stem was too long to be able to stand upright; fine hairs were already growing at its tip, so l decided to stick it in water, as well, rather than risk damaging the fine growth with a re-plantation into soil. Here it is:

The other five remaining seem to be pretty well anchored in:

How are everyone else’s propagations going?

Not sure if anyone is still interested, but here's another update on my B. erythrophylla in-soil propagations.

Out of the eight I started out with, I'm left with four rooted in soil; I somehow convinced myself that my begonia leaves needed bigger pots than the 2 in. ones I started them out in, and I was also really curious to see what was happening with the root development. Of course, I took a few pics.

Here they are, right before moving them into bigger pots:

And here's what the roots look like now, after three weeks of being in soil:

And freshly re-potted:

I assume it's going to take a few more weeks until they push out new growth.

Congrats Green_Vibes. I hope you post pictures in a few weeks of babies coming up.

Robert, good to hear about Sans propagation! I have rooted several over the years using leaf cuttings as well as divisions. Takes longer than begonias but still pretty easy. They grow so thick over a few years - often breaking pots.

Wow, how long has it been? This has got to be my slowest propagation ever - much, much slower than that of the Beefsteak begonia a few years ago. I'm not sure why it took so long, but I finally have new growth (some may only be visible with zoom in):

It turns out, I can only upload one photo at a time:

3 of 4:

Last one:

green_vibes,

Wow, that did take a long time to get a baby on those leaves. Hopefully they will come on faster now .

hc mcdole, you were right: they've since picked up the pace quite a bit.

YAY!! It looks like it is finally on its way.

I had a beefsteak leaf I put in a big potted plant one winter and it rooted. It was in dim light but it stayed alive and well for six months or so before it finally pushed up some new leaves. It was an experiment so I would not recommend it if you are serious about starting new plants. HAHA!

Yes, they're such survivors - yet another reason why I like them so much. :)

Green vibes, what is the propagating mix you're using? I noticed in many of your pics that it seems on the dry side, which might have more to do with the clay pots than the medium. I'm just wondering if growth would have been faster had cuttings been kept a bit more moist. Here in central Fla I like plastic pots in spite of frequent rains and high humidity altho I propagate in the shadehouse where I can control watering. But congrats on sticking with it!

HC, in your pic above of the in-ground group of sansevierias, I'm curious of the identity of the plain green one at extreme right center. I've enjoyed collecting sans for a couple of decades now.
Russ

Hey Russ, it definitely has to do with the clay pots, not the medium. I prefer clay because I tend to be a heavy waterer. You might be right though: looking back at the initial photos, it does look like I kept those cuttings more on the dry side.