Begonia bipinnatifida pics

[joneill809]

My original two didn't make it, but a local plant guy was kind enough to give me two clippings. I've been more successful with these two. They hold up to misting, but you're right, they melt when they hit the glass...self pruning I guess The caveat is I actively vent my vivs so I have consistent air flow through them during the day (fan is on a timer) so that helps dry the leaves between mistings. The larger clipping I received has begun to sprout additional stalks (hard to see, but they are in the shadows in the rear of the photo):
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Smaller cutting in the upper ledge of the viv. This was a tiny stalk that has since sprouted a few more leaves. I've had both cuttings in the viv for about three months:
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Not much height yet in my viv, but I have seen beautiful stalks of this stuff in a few vivs that were quite impressive. Fingers crossed...I think I finally have it established

[JayMillz]

Those are looking good Jim. I bought one off Ebay and it came with 3 stalks about 8-10 inches tall and within 2-3 days nothing was left. I went a little lighter on the bleach than I normally do because I've killed many plants in bleach baths. Maybe my problem was the air circulation? I have 2 vents on top of the viv but maybe that wasn't enough. I guess it doesn't really matter because when that died, was when I decided I'm not buying anymore plants for more than a couple of dollars if I don't know what I'm doing haha. Hopefully I'll learn a little bit more about plants over the next semester at school, but I'm done just wasting money on them.

[joneill809]

Thanks Josh. I suspect these plants do poorly during transit. My two shipped halfway across the country and the snot was beat out of them. It did not help that they were relatively fresh cuttings that had not been established in their pots either. Anyhow, I was happy to source some locally which gave me a better shot at getting them started. I'll fire up the data logger and place it by my bigger bipinnatifida (this thing needs a shorter name) and see what the conditions are like.

I know what you mean about giving up - after this one and my Episcia "Silver Skies" experience I just about gave up on anything outside of peperomia...

[joneill809]

What a difference a few weeks can make. My bipinnatifida was doing great, then all of a sudden it started dropping leaves off the main stalks. I cannot see any significant changes in the viv as other plants appear to be thriving, and the temp / humidity is the same. The automatic mister has not been altered, nor have the light cycles. Here are a few shots. First up the sorry looking remaining large stems:
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There seems to be some new growth on the stems, though I'm not convinced these leaves are going to make it:
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There is new growth at the base. I'll keep an eye on this to see how it develops:
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The only thing I can think of is the three inhabitants (true sips) are getting larger by the week and it's possible they are somehow trampling the plant. They have periodically jumped on the leaves in the past, but perhaps as they are putting on the grams the bininnatafida is breaking. They do use the cork round immediately behind these two stems as their main access to the upper shelf.

Ah well, I hope this plant turns around ... any advice is appreciated.

[partsgal]

I know this is an older thread, but did you ever have any luck with the Begonia bipinnatifida? I'm looking for one, my mom just fell in love with the plant and in searching and searching for it this thread came up.

[joneill809]

I was just looking into combining these two threads. My original two specimens from a year or so ago died quickly. I had these two cuttings from a local vendor that did great until the snot got beat out of them as the three tincs in the viv packed on the grams. I caught them a day or two after my last post basking on the remaining leaves, one of which proceeded to fall off while I was watching :lol:. I removed the larger cutting, but it was too far gone to recover. The smaller one is hanging in there, and as it is re-covering as I stopped placing flies on the upper shelf for now to direct the tincs to an alternate hunting ground . I'm going to transfer some cuttings to other vivs with inhabitants that are less aggressive eaters.

You seem to have a pretty tall cutting from the other picture you posted. I wonder if yours will do better since it will be less likely to get trampled (depending on which inhabitant you eventually pick ). Anyhow, I'm think I'm back to grumpy plant guy and I'll be "keeping what lives" for a while.

Edit - I think Phil beat me to it and got the threads combined...thanks Phil!