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Fell in love with this plant at the store. The leaves feel velvety… | Anything about plants | Communauté Planta

Alli

Fell in love with this plant at the store. The leaves feel velvety and it shimmers and sheens in the light so I impulsively bought it home. But now I’m scared it’s not going to survive in my care. It’s a bit in a dire state. Some leaves are dried and damaged while the soil is very moist. I’m fairly new to plants so I did some research on it and plan to repot it soon but I got overwhelmed. I also never dealt with pest either so I would really appreciate any tips or advice on what I should do to save this pretty plant.

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5 J'aime 14 commentaires

14 commentaires

  1. Plantperson🌱🌵🌱

    That’s a begonia, I have one and I usually let the soil dry 1 to 2 inches on the top. Give it bright indirect light that won’t burn the leaves. You can also take cuttings of them by the leafs or stems. There’s many different varieties of begonias, maybe you could start a collection!

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    • Alli

      Thank you! I cut off a few of the damaged leaves to propagate it. I saw all the different varieties when I was trying to identify this one and they’re all so beautiful. If I can manage this one back to a good condition. I’m seriously going to consider starting a collection of them!

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    • Alli

      Have you ever repotted your begonia? If you have, do you have any tips on how to do it? I read their roots are really fragile and I want to minimize any damage possible

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    • Nikiller

      When I repotted my first begonia I damaged a few roots not know they were delicate, I just squeezed the pot and broke it all up, ended up with half the roots left and when I planted it nothing showed any stress as I kept it in a cloche with extremely high humidity and never let the soil fully dry but kept it from getting soggy. My other several repots all went much easier, I used the mist mode on my back patio hose and gently washed all the soil off, only a few hair roots tend to break off this way and it led to a much easier repot. The main thing with getting the begonia wet before a repot is that every leaf that had any soil stuck to it from the moisture ended up getting mild damages from the soil even though it was less than a few minutes of contact. As long as you are careful to avoid spilling soil on them while backfilling the pot it should be smooth for the plant, just ensure you keep the roots from ever drying too much as they’re always delicate and sensitive to dry conditions. Begonias live naturally on forest floors with low light and lots of moisture in the air and soil, but never sit in soggy soil.

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    • Alli

      Wow thank you!! I had wanted to replace all the soil it came it in but didn’t know how without disturbing the roots too much. I’ll try your misting method!

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  2. JR

    There’s many, many varieties of begonias. Most are fairly easy. And I’m liking them more and more all the time. Just be gentle while repotting and disturb the roots as little as possible. Use a pot with drainage holes and a regular potting mix or potting mix and add some perlite for drainage should be fine. I agree to let the soil dry out about 2” down before watering. I’ve heard they prefer bottom watering and that’s what I do. If you top water, try to avoid getting the leaves wet

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    • Alli

      Interesting. I’ve never bottom watered before. The pot that it came with has a little wick attached to it. Would that be similar?

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    • JR

      Yes, the wick would help bring water into the soil a little quicker.

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  3. JR

    You were right to cut off dead leaves and there may be a few more before the plant starts to bounce back

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  4. Phil

    Begonias, oh my I have stories! First pic. My poor escargot is growing so fast that the watering schedule is off. It looks bad but will be fine by this evening. Tomorrow would be too late and I’d lose the plant. Second pic, I trimmed six rhizomes off my tiger paw several weeks ago. Filled in within two weeks. Three of the six rooted well. And the beautiful red one next to it was just repotted a week ago. I’ve had a few months. Then the Rex geometry. Insane growth this spring. And last pic, another type of Rex that I bought about two weeks ago and immediately placed into leca. She’s had a little trouble transitioning but starting to look good. Usually I have great luck with begonias but I did lose one a couple months ago. The plant in first pic was a huge that I divided up several months ago into seven plants. They looked very bad for over a week and then started coming back. I gave all away and kept the original plant. And it’s doing well except me letting it get too dry. You absolutely need to provide high humidity and bright light. Mine are under Barrina grow lights that are on 16 hours a day. Their soil is my mix of regular potting soil, with same amount of high grit cactus soil, orchid bark, some charcoal. And worm castings when I repot. Hopefully I gave you a few tips to help. And I have never had a pest problem with any of them. If the current soil is very wet, I would take it out of the pot to dry it out some.

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    • JR

      Is there a red kiss begonia there? I have red kiss and Red Bull. The Red Bull seem a little hardier in my opinion

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    • Phil

      Don’t know. The small red and last one were listed as just Rex.

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    • Alli

      Those are gorgeous! Thank you for the tips! I have some left over orchid bark mix from my monstera thai so I’ll try and throw some of those into my soil along with some perlite

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    • JR

      It looks like it could be a red kiss. Red Bull doesn’t have quite the same intense red and the edges aren’t quite as dark.

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