Nymphaea and Begonia Info

Jude Haverington tylus.seklos@gmail.com
Wed, 14 Jan 2015 12:08:54 PST
Dear Johannes - I couldn't ask for a more helpful response - thank you very
much! I appreciate your guidance and will work with them this week. Do you
mind if I email you privately with a couple other questions about these?

Best, Jude


On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 3:05 PM, Johannes Ulrich Urban <
johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de> wrote:

> Hello Jude,
>
>
> The Nymphaea tubers and Begonia bulbili you received were donated with
> pleasure.
>
> The Begonia tubers are naturally that small but will sprout,  maybe not
> all of them. They should NOT be kept totally dry as you would do with seed.
> I "sow" mine after harvest in a pot with sowing compost and keep them just
> barely moist, never wet. They can be sown on to the surface of the compost
> and then slightly stirred into the ground by using a fine tool. This way
> some will be on the surface and others will be at various depths so that
> you will be sure at least some are in the best position. They do sprout
> very late in spring, sometimes not before June and will produce one
> coin-like leaf the first year. My plant is in the open garden and in autumn
> when it gets cooler and moister it is very prone to mildew and is sprayed.
> The bulbili I sent were sprayed, too. Make sure that the very young plants
> do not succumb to mildew.
> This plant has a pleasant way of "sowing" itself into other pots where it
> finds the optimum condition. Some come up in between large cacti. I leave
> them there if they do not damage the "intended" plant. It is never weedy.
>
> The Nymphaea is an experiment for me, too. I never had leaf bulbili in
> autumn, I propagated it by cutting off a good leaf, weighing it down with
> small stones in warm water under extra light and waited for a plant to
> form. I was given 3 leaves to start with. This year it produced a lot of
> bulbili when the leaves started to die down.
> I have 2 or 3 of these bulbili in cold unheated water in my greenhouse.
> They are those that had already produced small leaves and roots. They do
> not grow but are alive.
> I think it should be possible to start them now in warm water with extra
> light. This plant needs very high light levels like most aquatics.
> Depending where you live or how warm and bright your tropical house is,
> this waterlily may not go dormant at all. I can only guess it goes dormant
> because in my climate the autumn cools down and makes the plant go dormant,
> although it still produces buds until I have to cut down everything because
> of frost. I have not tried to grow it though winter because I cannot
> provide enough light and heat.
> According to the literature cool conditions in autumn stimulate the
> formation of tubers. Apparently under permanently warm growing condition
> this group of Nymphaea does not produce any tubers at all. With me it
> always does.
>
> Hoping that helps, happy to answer more questions
>
> bye for today and my best wishes for 2015 for all of you!
>
> Uli
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