My Begonia

I wintered my Mother's Day begonia in the house last year and though it did OK during the winter, in the spring, all its leaves got very thin and papery and it crumpled as though it had some terminal illness.  I came this close to tossing it out onto the compost heap.  (Holding thumb and index finger about a quarter of an inch apart.)

Instead, I decided to cut it all back to just little stems above the soil.  I put it out on the porch railing and watered it regularly.  At first it just stayed the same but at least the small stems didn't turn papery and crumple.  So I continued to water it.

Then leaves began sprouting and I knew I'd done the right thing.  Funny thing, though. These leaves are ever so much bigger than the leaves it had before.  They grew big and strong and healthy, so much nicer than the plant had been last year.  The leaves are glossy and waxy. And now, it's blooming!  It has big, pink blooms, --to go with the nice big leaves, I guess.

I'm wondering why it got to be so much bigger than it was last year when all I did was cut it back.  I didn't change the soil.  I wonder if putting it outdoors helped it that much.  At any rate, I'm very pleased with my wax begonia now and I'm glad I didn't toss it on the compost heap.

Posted by: NJ on 8/23/2005 8:41:10 PM , 7 comments