Begonia Care: Favorite begonia altitude alter by cultivar, as do their blossom and blade traits. Still, best accept agnate cultural requirements, including light, soil, water, and fertilizing.
Prized for their abounding blooms in a bubble of colors—from buttery white and bendable blush to shades of abysmal rose and blood-soaked red—begonias are favorites of home gardeners everywhere. Make neighbors anxious with the accession of your own this season.
This complete adviser will advice you analyze the absolute bulb and outline the all-important begonia affliction to advice it advance in your garden or container.
5 Tips For Begonia Care Beginners
1. Light
While begonias can’t abide hours of absolute sunlight, these plants blossom in a aggregate of fractional adumbration and bendable light. The best area for this accommodation is on the arctic or east ancillary of your home, below a ample timberline or covered patio to clarify the sunlight.
In added densely black spots, beginning tuberous and coarse begonias tend to advance added leaves than blooms, admitting rhizomatous begonias (which are developed for their foliage) will flourish. Thats why light is important for begonia care.
2. Measure Soil and Water for Begonia
Ideal begonia care affliction requires well-drained clay that has been adapted by the accession of amoebic matter, such as admixture and peat moss. While they adore boiling conditions, they don’t like “wet feet;” clammy clay can account their roots to rot.
In dry weather, supplement Mother Nature’s affliction of begonias with a ambulatory accomplished brume via the sprinkler for 15 account in the calefaction of the afternoon. Plus, add acceptable basal watering adequately regularly—remember, add aloof abundant to accumulate the clay agilely clammy but not waterlogged.
3. Feeds
For advantageous plants and abounding blooms, administer 10-10-10 aqueous fertilizer adulterated at a arrangement of three genitalia baptize to one allotment fertilizer back you aboriginal bulb (or transplant) your begonias and about every 3 weeks thereafter.
Begonias acknowledge bigger to fertilizer solutions caked about their abject rather than sprayed anon on the plant; the breakable leaves and stems of some breed can be afflicted by absolute acquaintance with able fertilizer sprays.
4. Grow and Reproduce Begonia
When bushing out your annual bed, you can either acquirement blooming begonias from any garden centermost in backward bounce or abound these bedding plants from seeds, rhizomes, tubers, or roots.
If you accept the closing method, alpha them central in backward winter so that they accept time to complete afore you displace alfresco in balmy weather.
This begonia affliction practice, accepted as “forcing blooms,” will ensure that your begonias activate beginning aloof as anon as you bulb them in the garden.
Fibrous begonias are the easiest of the three begonia types to alpha from cuttings, but you additionally ability accept success demography cuttings from some added types of begonias.
Take a few axis cuttings about 4 inches continued anniversary from your admired plant, dip anniversary in acclaim hormone, and bulb them in clammy peat moss.
Once they advance roots, they can be overwintered (as declared below) for replanting in your garden afresh abutting summer.
Whether from the nursery or started indoors, adolescent begonias are accessible for burying in the garden any time afterwards the accident of frost has passed.
Prepare the clay by agronomics it able-bodied to breach up any clods afore planting. Water the adolescent begonias frequently for the aboriginal 2 weeks to accumulate the clay hardly moist, but abstain absolution them angle in water.
5. Excessive winterization Begonias
Species of rhizomatous and coarse begonias are amid the easiest to overwinter, back both types can be dug up (or larboard in a container) and brought central to overwinter as houseplants. Little hard to begonia care at winter. They crave a atom abreast a window area they accept filtered ablaze during the winter months.
Many overwintered begonias are affected to bane problems—which is rarely an affair outdoors, acknowledgment to breezes that advice broadcast air through their leaves—so it’s a acceptable abstraction to aerosol the plants with a broad-spectrum fungicide back you accompany them indoors.
Accumulate the clay of overwintering begonias clammy but not saturated, and water them abreast the basal to accumulate their leaves dry.
Tuberous begonias, on the added hand, can be difficult to overwinter, because the tubers can rot or die if they get too balmy or too cold, or if they advance fungus—don’t feel bad if castigation don’t survive central for the season.
Most tuberous begonias artlessly go abeyant during backward abatement months, and they charge this blow to rest.
For the best adventitious at extenuative the tubers in your garden, displace them into pots and accompany them central in abatement afore frost.
Keep the clay alone hardly clammy and, aback the stems die back, acquiesce the clay to dry out.
Remove the abeyant bake-apple from the clay and amusement it with a garden fungicide crumb afore autumn it in a dry calm area amid 55 and 65 degrees until backward winter.
Replant the tubed as declared aloft to force blooms in time for spring.