Perfect for the Bathroom (Begonia)

Member Name: meah

Product:	Begonia
Date:	27/09/01 (525 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to care for

Disadvantages: None I know of

The Begonia is a fairly common houseplant and some are cultivated for their foliage and others for flowering. Flowering Begonias vary in size and shape depending on the hybrid from single, button like blooms to double, rose like blooms, and trailing Begonias. They have fairly large leaves and you can get a variety of colours including silver, pink, red and deep green. They also vary in size from fairly large to low growing plants and if you place a few together in a group they give a stunning display.

I enjoy seeing plants around the house, I think they add colour, texture, character, a little bit of life and help make a house a home unfortunately not all rooms in the house are suited to just any plant and sometimes it takes a little bit of planning and thought to get the right plant for the right room, having said this the Begonia seems to flourish in most rooms but they are especially suitable for the hallway, stairs and bathroom.

I don’t think many people would argue with me if I said conditions in most people’s bathrooms are different to that of conditions in the rest of the house. The majority of bathrooms will experience periods of steam and excess heat and periods ranging from cool to warm, because of this you have to be careful when choosing a houseplant to live in the bathroom.

The plants happiest in this type of condition are those plants whose natural habitat are shady, damp, steamy conditions. The Begonia is ideally suited to these types of conditions; in its wild state the Begonia is a forest plant found in sub-tropical regions of the world, places like the Himalayan foothills.

An ideal Begonia for the bathroom is the Begonia Rex, which is a foliage Begonia, fairly low growing, ranging in colour from purple, dark brown, green, pink and silver. This plant thrives in a shady, damp position. To care for it you need to water generously with tepid water during the growing season and spray occasionally, use sha
llow wide pots with a peat-based compost.

To propagate take leaf cuttings in the summer by cutting a full-grown leaf off with a pair of sharp scissors or a knife. Make little incisions on the most prominent veins on the underside of the leaf, put the leaf shiny side up onto damp compost and hold in place with a hairpin, pin, small pebbles, or anything else that will do the job; after you have done this cover the plant pot with glass or polythene.

The new roots will form where the incisions were made in the vein of the leaf and new plants will start growing. When the new plants are large enough for you to handle them without doing any damage replant them in individual pots. These will make ideal gifts for family and friends.

Summary: