topic Re: Good place to buy begonia bulbs? in Garden

Good place to buy begonia bulbs?

depglass — Fri, 12 May 2017 14:57:46 GMT

My nursery where I always buy my begonia plants has been sold. A friend has offered to start bulbs for me next winter, but I need a good place to buy a few. Total brown thumb here.

Re: Good place to buy begonia bulbs?

Fressa — Fri, 12 May 2017 15:13:24 GMT

I used to order from Breck's before I started with Cottage Farms and Robertas'. QVC had Brecks on the air in the winter months of gardening season. I would check the on line inventory or the Breck's website.

Re: Good place to buy begonia bulbs?

mousiegirl — Fri, 12 May 2017 16:47:56 GMT

@depglass wrote:
My nursery where I always buy my begonia plants has been sold. A friend has offered to start bulbs for me next winter, but I need a good place to buy a few. Total brown thumb here.

@depglass I have ordered two years in a row from zulily. The set of five from last year came back this year, and I ordered another set this year to go on the other side of my deck.

Eden Brothers, online, have beautiful huge bulbs, sale going on now, I believe. I ordered lily bulbs a month ago and couldn't believe how enormous and plump they were, and after a week in a pot, have grown eight inches.

Re: Good place to buy begonia bulbs?

gardenman — Sun, 14 May 2017 23:32:08 GMT

If your friend is an experienced gardener you should be able to get multiple plants from each tuber. To get big flower you want to thin the stems when they're about three inches tall. If it's a small tuber you'll want to thin it to 2-3 stems and for big tubers you can thin to 3-6 stems. Those extra 3" tall stems you thin out can then be rooted and in about two to four weeks they'll root and you'll have an extra plant from each stem you rooted. By the fall those rooted cuttings will have formed new tubers you can harvest and start again over the winter. If you repeat this technique a few years you'll have more tuberous begonias than you'll know what to do with.

Jim Crockett, the original PBS "Victory Garden" gardener, used to do this every year. He'd buy one tuber and end up with multiple plants from that one tuber. The University of Minnesota Extension service website has detailed directions on how to do this.