Begonias

Responsibilities of Growing Species

Many begonia growers grow numerous species of begonias and treat them like all their other begonias. They just enjoy them. Although enjoying them is part of the reason for growing them you should take a more responsible approach. The following is a list of suggestions for growing species responsibly if your aim is to help keep them in cultivation and save them from extinction.

1. Names. You should make every effort to make sure your species are properly identified and named. Improperly or misnamed species being circulated doesn’t help in their preservation. It only adds an element of confusion. If you have a species that can’t be identified don’t circulate it to others until you can identify it at some later date. Make sure you stay as current as possible as to name changes for species you may have. Many species have been given several names by mistake and it’s an ongoing project to determine their proper names. Make sure the spelling of your species name is correct and make sure that when shared with others, those are properly labeled also.

2. Sharing and conserving your species. If you have species begonias in your collection, make a concerted effort to share them with others. Keeping rare plants to yourself will only come back to haunt you in the end. If you lose your one of a kind or rare species, you’ll have no one to get it back from if you didn’t share. So, if for no other than selfish reasons, you should always share. Make especially sure to share them first with people who are good growers, people that will keep them labeled correctly, and people that will continue the sharing. Make a concerted effort to propagate new plants of all your species so you have duplicates. This will give you a backup for when you lose one and you’ll also have the extras around to share with friends. When you start plants for club sales, don’t forget to start plants of your species for those also.

3. Grow some of the plainer species. Make room in your collection for some of the less exciting species. You don’t have to give them your prime areas. Everyone has a corner or out of the way spot. Tall rangy growing species can be used as background plants even. Besides, even some of the plain ones may surprise you with awesome flowers you weren’t expecting. You might even find they work in an area where you’ve had trouble growing other begonias. If you do hybridizing, you may also find that some of the plainer species have desirable traits you can use.

4. Watch for new species. Try to add new species to your collection as you find them at various sales and other people’s homes. You can also acquire new species by finding and growing seed. This is an inexpensive way to add to your collection and also have extra plants to share. Try to make finding species and preserving as many as you have room for a personal goal.

5. Get others involved. Make an attempt to get other begonia growers interested in growing species. Getting others interested will help keep you interested. This can be as involved as you want, any involvement is better than none. It can be as simple as just suggesting to friends that they grow species to as involved as joining a species preservation group or starting your own.

6. Keep a list. Make a concerted effort to always keep an updated list of the species in your collection. This will help you keep track of what you have. It will also help in being able to let others know which species you’re growing and preserving. By sharing and comparing your list with other grower’s lists it will help provide a basis for knowing what species are in cultivation. You may find that some species you’ve been growing for years and thought common is the only one. There have been many efforts in the past to build a database of species, growers and locations. These efforts have largely failed because growers don’t keep a list that can be shared with anyone trying to compile the information. Only list plants that are correctly identified positively and that you’ve been growing long enough to know you can keep them in cultivation, at least for sharing with others.

7. Set Seed. Setting seed on your species begonias is one of the most important things you can do to help preserve them. This seed can later but used for various seed banks and seed funds to help preserve and circulate species. It doesn’t take a large amount of effort to self-pollinate a few flower clusters on your species when they’re in bloom. They do need to be hand pollinated however to assure that any seed created is pure. Flowers pollinated on species by insects or wind may not be pure. Although all begonia growers should belong to The American Begonia Society, if you don’t, you can still donate your seed to their seed fund. The address and info for sending and setting seed will follow later in this chapter.

8. Show your species begonias. If you live in an area where there are begonias clubs that have local shows, enter some of your species. This is a good way to get other begonia growers interested in growing the species. It also lets people see the charm and diversity of species begonias. Species commonly win best in show at begonia shows because many can be a challenge to grow as a “show” plant. There are just as many that aren’t a challenge though and besides showing is the important part, not whether you win anything.

9. For the dedicated. If you want an extra challenge that takes a little more dedication, keep a notebook on your species. Many species have very little written down about them and any information you keep track of on your species could be helpful to other growers. You can also include in this notebook information you gather from other sources as a reference for yourself.

(www.bradsbegoniaworld.com/species.htm)