In the greenhouse again, somehow!

Hi Mark enjoyed your blog, glad you told us how warm or cold you need the greehouse in winter for them, as i've got a couple i wont to overwinter.

Hello Mark....
I enjoyed the photos you uploaded to GoY today, and well done on planning ahead for how you are going to arrange your greenhouse for winter....

Looking forward to more pics. :o)

Just saying thank you for the lovely photo's you obviously had a great time.Can't possibly comment on all of them so thanks again :)

I enjoy the show photos aswell.

I think the Rex are supposed to be kept warmer - or so it says in a book i've read. But i found the couple of years i have grown the Rex that if i keep them at 52F with the cuttings, until the cuttings start to go down - usually just before Christmas, depends on the weather. Once the cuttings leaves start to turn yellow i turn that greenhouse down to 40F as well and the Rex just have to get on with it. The electricity is too expensive to keep them at 52 all winter. So far i've found most seem to look a bit sorry for themselves, but once the temperature is turned back up when the other Begonias are started off again, they seem to liven up again - any dead looking leaves i cut off, but after a while they seem fine. Not all seem to cope, but most do, so i will keep the ones that can, and remember which haven't to avoid in the future.
I'm glad others like to see the photos - i had wondered if i had taken too many, but now i've loaded all the Shrewsbury ones. I forgot my camera at the Pontesbury show, so they are all taken with my mobile phone camera (and the pictures taken at Bodnant Gardens are on my camera phone) They don't seem bad for a camera phone, but not as good as with a proper camera.

I can keep begonias in my garage usually - B. semperflorens and another one called Dragon's wing and a tuberous one with small orange flowers I don't know it's name. But last year it was so cold I lost them all. I may try one of the leafy ones and keep it in the house. Are they all called Rex or is that only a particular variety ?

I never have much success with the large flowered ones :o(

Most seem to be labeled as Rex, some Rex hybrid - some with their own name, but i think i am right in saying that not all are Rex. I think it's like the double tuberous flowering Begonia has many different named (and un-named) varieties, but not all flowering Begonias are the double tuberous ones.

It's the tuberous ones I get nowhere with.

I seem to have had more problems with the Rex. But i guess i started growing the tuberous ones first - and a friend grows them, and has for years, so i worked with him and his show plants before i started myself. He never grew the Rex, so it's been a bit more trial and error with them.