The general rule of everything is that the plant knows what it's doing and replant at the same depth. I'm sure there are exceptions.

Ah, well, that's just it: I have 2 pots that I accidentally dropped and the plants fell out and I can't tell how deep they were before; and 4 plants that arrived via USPS were so banged around Lord only knows at what depth they started out!

the parts of plants that were under the media ... out of the light .... are usually pale ... think leek ... it should be all that hard to figure it out.. though it might be subtle ....

man thats a streak of bad luck ... dont be surprised if they all make it ...

id call the vendor and complain .. maybe they will send replacements ...and then you will have 2 of each.. lol ...

ken

ps: not sure it would work .... but if anything broke off .. try rooting it.. maybe you can get 3 ... lol ...

The vendor offered to re-send if the begonias don't recover. Problem is it took 8 days to arrive via Priority Mail the first time and it'll only take longer if I ask them to re-send now, given the holidays. They did a decent job wrapping them but they were sopping wet when they arrived since they didn't get any air for all that time. And exactly for that reason the caudices seem uniform in color from tip to tip. Gah! Yes, fingers crossed hoping to end my losing streak!

Can you post photos? They must be quite young to have uniform color. I agree with dbarron and ken_adrian. If you bury your rhizomes or caudex too deep it could kill the plant. Look at images on line to get an idea on how deep to plant.

Sure! The skinny Minnie up-top is the dregei (b. partita) that I accidentally dropped and repotted recently. I have another one just like him and they both lean hard starboard (as do most of my leggy ladies) no matter what level I bury the stem. The middle photo is of the plants that I most recently received (b. tweedledee & b. glasgow) in the mail. One of them had the biggest mealy bug I'd ever seen so everyone got sprayed down in Neem oil or Spinosad. That's why these 2 don't have any leaves left. The bottom photo is of the b. Cathedrals that suffered similar but I'm hoping will survive if I didn't under/over bury the rhizomes.

Images online? Ay! Yay! Yay! It's all closeups of leaves and flowers. No love for stems or substrates! ;-)

They look fine to me but a bit on the dry side. Do you have them under lights or near a sunny window? Light and an appropriate amount of water will make a huge impact. I take it easy on watering in winter until they start showing a lot of new growth (I don't do deep watering to begin with when they are back indoors).

You are correct about the caudex as most pictures don't concentrate on that part of the plant. Cool in a way but then also not that exciting either. I had dregei here and there but always lost them eventually - may try them again one year - so small to begin with that they get lost among the giants.

The one I have with a caudex today is aconitifolia which is a giant (almost six feet tall). Here it is next to a six foot steel shelf.

What the caudex looks like on some younger plants.

I think this is the mother plant that I chop down from time to time - good for bonsai?

In the big pot here is a new caudex (2018).

But I prefer to see it in leaf and bloom.

"They look fine to me but a bit on the dry side." Thank you for the neutral POV. I'm new to houseplants and my default is to underwater--I need to be careful not to overdo it. All my plants live in 2 west/southwest-facing windows with indirect or filtered light.

"Here it is next to a six foot steel shelf." Wow! Your plants ARE giants! Thank you so much for the multiple photos of that magnificent acontifolia!

I don't blame you on the watering. My newest rule is to water sparingly as it is much easier to add water if they are wilted (you don't have any leaves for that yet) than removing water if you used too much. I check mine most every day to see if there is any wilt or dry soil and also clean up the basement. In summer I plop them on the ground under some trees and if it is hot and dry then I will drag the hose to them but most times with adequate rain I don't have to do much worrying about them.

Here is popenoei in a lasagna pan. Not that the cheap throwaway pans are pretty or respectable but they are cheap and it is harder to over water because the soil is so shallow.

some more begonias in a pan including an aconitifolia (most of these were begonias I gifted a lady in our begonia club but then she returned them to me as she was moving). I took all her little cups and put them all in this pan and that is where they've been for at least 4 years.

another big begonia from S. America - this is platanifolia and looks great in summer. In winter the big leaves start looking ratty but new ones start coming out and it has been in bloom for a few weeks now. I just removed the last of the old leaves yesterday.

Finally I remembered this aconitifolia and took a couple pix of it on the floor yesterday. I sent a woman in Sweden some cuttings of aconitifolia and Sierra Gentle Rain (a hybrid of aconitifolia and I read somewhere dregei) a few years ago. She lost her aconitifolia but the SGR made it. She asked me if I would send her some more cuttings and she would pay for those as well. She lost her aconitifolia because her friend said she needed to cut the canes again (wrong - they should've been nice and callused by the time they got to her home). I tried sending her some more with a tad of root attached this time but the post office said it was illegal to do so. I tossed the padded envelope behind my recliner and after 2 to 3 weeks I opened them and stuck them in a pot of soil. I think I lost one stem. This is them today.

the new caudex is above the ground - maybe the soil was too wet for it to develop?

and the birds eye view of it.

This is Sierra Gentle Rain from years ago living in a square aluminum pan and put inside a big pot for protection.

So MUCH golden information here. Excellent documentary photos as well! What a great cutting's story, too (of the SGR). "Here is popenoei in a lasagna pan." HA! Love that quote! BTW, I visited Forth Worth Botanic Garden's begonia greenhouse today. I'll post a couple of photos germane to my OP very soon...

I loved my visit to FWBG Begonia house a few years ago (May, 2016). Due to COVID, the SWR get together was cancelled earlier this year. I was lucky that I was able to cancel the hotel reservations and the convention's cost but the airline would not refund my money - just gave me credit for future flights. GRRR! They are going to try it again this year but I have a feeling it will be cancelled too.

I have a couple hundred photos (266) of my visit there and will share those to anyone interested.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mistpc3w0ltdaoj/AABGSwQ_NrU3_-s5Y70rKlGMa?dl=0

Here are a few photos of that visit back in May, 2016

Looking forward to going through your photos! Glad you got your hotel refunded. I'm sure many of us have stories about travel cancelled and funds lost. I lost almost $1500 of travel reservations I had reserved doing college visits with my son in March of this year. UGH! But, our guide sounded VERY confident that this year's Texas convention would be going forward in Fort Worth in April.

Here's a couple of dregei photos as recently taken at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. For what it's worth, I'm still not sure what the answer is to my OP questions. o_0 :

Excellent summary of answers. Thank you, hc mcdole, dbaron and Ken! BTW, just in case you missed it, Mark Tibbit will be giving a presentation titled "Conservation of Begonia" this Saturday for ABS members. I'm looking forward to it!