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Old 06-06-2010, 08:53 PM
 
4,043 posts, read 7,414,803 times
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Today I could not help it and bought what I think is a really beautiful Begonia plant from a local nursery. It has tons of blooms and I absolutely love it.

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...a/IMG_7614.jpg

The trouble is I don't know anything about begonias or any other plant (except geraniums - for which I have some basics down).

This plant is so thick and bushy with so much bloom that I can hardly peek down at the base to see what's there. I tried and it seems that there are three begonia plants planted into this one pot - so it was clearly crowded to show a lot of bloom and sell. How they make them bloom so much under such "no, no" crowded conditions, I have no idea - but I guess anything is possible in professional greenhouses.

However, I am sure that once out of the greenhouse of professional growers, it will soon cease being as spectacular as it is right now.

My question is: what should I do now with this pot to be able to enjoy this beautiful plant as long as possible and have it continue to bloom as much as possible until fall? I am already thinking about taking cuttings and over-wintering it but I will worry about that later.
For now I just want to continue to have great blooms all summer long.

Should I separate the three plants and re-pot each in a separate container? Should I leave the three plants crowded in the pot I bought and just do the recommended basic care?

I have read some about basic begonia care (enough light but not direct sun, deadheading, moist but well drained soil, etc) but I am concerned with the crowding of this plant. I am afraid it will soon lose the blooms that it has right now - and new ones won't continue to appear at the same rate.
It happened to me with a geranium, similarly potted (3 plants per pot, gorgeous blooms when I bought it, less than two months after the purchase - just a few modest new blooms are coming out).

Thank you a million for any suggestions!

Last edited by syracusa; 06-06-2010 at 09:10 PM..
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Old 06-07-2010, 05:15 AM
 
Location: Way South of the Volvo Line
2,788 posts, read 7,990,047 times
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It's been my experience that potted begonias don't have the rapid growth of, say, a geranium. I would be more concerned with maintaining adequate, not too much, moisture. They can be prone to rot and fungus diseases. Deadheading will be important to maintain the full bloom display and to curb further rot from dead flowers. Usually there are clusters of blooms paired into male, smaller flowers, and female, large, full flowers. I was always told to snip off the male blooms and the female flowers will grow larger and stay longer. Good luck.
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