You Can't Have Too Many

We've all heard the saying, "If God gives you lemons, make lemonade". So, when my 'Cathedral Window' begonia fell off its shelf and broke in multiple pieces, I decided to "make some lemonade".
Instead of throwing the pieces in the trash, I decided to try my hand at propagating them. I have to admit, I'm not much of a "maker of new plants". I do start African violets from leaves, and I have stuck some cuttings in water, but not much more than that. I love begonias, so why not......

New leaves growing on the rhizomes.

'Cathedral Window' leaf.

A piece that had leaves on it when it fell off.

I put these rhizomes down on July 2 and by July 29th they were showing signs of growth.

Two pieces of rhizome without leaves

This isn't rocket science, but I just had never done it. It's exciting to take an ugly, broken stem and make new plants. All I did was lay the rhizomes on top of a pot of moist soil and pushed it down so about 1/2 of it was in the soil.






























This is a large piece that still had leaves  on it when it fell off. 























Make sure to put a tag in your plants with the name of the plant and the date you started them.

A leaf with the sun shining through.

This leaf with the sun shining through it makes it obvious why it is called cathedral window.

This is a leaf that fell off my Kalanchoe orygalis. I just threw it in the pot of my Medinilla and forgot about it. And its growing. How easy is that?




So, the next time you knock a plant down or the cat uses one as a cat toy, try making more. Share them with a friend or start some Christmas gifts.