Is the Begonia doctor in?

Is it my imagination, but B.Tiger Kitten isn't looking feisty at all. Just comparing the pictures and the leaves seem to have gotten progressively smaller and smaller. Help...what should I do or not do...?

When it was first brought home.

After 2nd re-potting

After 1st re-potting. On the other hand, the B.Shamus (in front) acquired at about the same time from the same stall at BP is doing wonderful. 

The long and short of it is that the B. Tiger Kitten is no more. After attempting a soil medium change, the entire plant disintegrated. I had to pick out the wilted pieces for the next few days after. Didn't take very long in fact. Not much else I could do. It was such a helpless situation The pot is still there with the contents. Giving it some time to see if a " phoenix rises from the ashes" as the Chinese mythical saying goes.

Eating out at 'Tum Jia Kuay'

yee-mian sar por, my favourite. Includes a chicken egg cooked inside the soup.

Claypot store with multiple burners

A family enterprise. Heartwarming. Just don't scrutinise hygiene standards.

Claypot chicken, no lap-cheong

Begonia close-ups

Turns out I have taken individual shots of my begonia collection. Not all of them but I can add the others later. 

Again names are drawn from Alvin's Journal at greengates.wordpress.com. Thanks Alvin, hope you're still at your begonia craze especially since it's so much easier, with Malaysia being the natural terrain for begonias.

Update (6 Oct): Have added more names and notes as well as absent status of certain ones

B.'Tiger Kitten' - this is no more

B.Black Velvet - this is fast becoming another 'no more'

B. manaus hybrid - looking better. found out it needs terrarium like conditions

B.Rex - this is no more as well.

B. Ice Castle - can tell from this earlier picture that this one is still doing very well. hope it stays that way.

B.masoniana 'Iron Cross' - must be one of the oldest in a collection and in fact pre-dates the craze. Actually it must be the first begonia I purchased. Earlier ones were given to me via leaf cuttings.

B.U400, dubbed a Singapore begonia, started as a leaf from OJ's garden

B.U400 (top); B.Hugh McLauren - this in slow rehabilitation

B.Rex Hybrid - needs repotting

B.Floccifera - can you flower more often?

B.Chloroneura

B.Mazae f. Nigricans - slowly getting there

B.Shamus - so far so good, the best actually. Pl keep it that way.

B. Brevirosa

B. Acetosa - purchased from Tiong Bahru market, with great determination

B. Fireworks - found out that the hybridiser is a certain Mr Kartuz

B. Silver Jewel - a difficult grow

B. Maurice Amey

Scenes from New Zealand

No, I didn't get to go on the two-week holiday but they did think of me since I received pictures periodically. Not quite crumbs but it's nice seeing them happy and enjoying themselves.

In Rotorua

Hobbit Town where LOTR was filmed.

Holiday Park in North Island

Probably Nelson in S.Island

A selfie by G

Somewhere in S.Island

Great expanse. Somewhere in S.Island

Collecting

Names of Begonia Foliage are compiled with helpful reference from Alvin's Journal at greengates.wordpress.com. Wonder how his collection is coming along. His last entry was in 2011.

From top: B.Shamus,  B.U400, B.Black Velvet (?)

From Top: B.Black Velvet(?), B.Corallina deLucerna, B.Tiger Kitten, B.Rex

Add caption

From Top: B.U400, B.Fairy(?), B.Tiger Kitten, B.Masoniana 'Iron Cross'

Unfortunately I'm not as comprehensive as I'd like to be given the limitations of the group picture compositions and the fact that I haven't found out all the names yet. Looking at the snaps, it's obvious that the arrangement and display of the pots need improving. It's a motley mix right now of plants surrounded by pots with leaf cuttings (under propagation) all cluttered together. I need a larger sheltered area quickly if I want to propagate.

And you know what. Begonias are finicky, fragile and temperamental,  prone to quick, sudden deterioration and death. I don't feel safe when it's a case of one-pot per begonia species. Hence, ongoing propagation is necessary to ensure their continued place in my collection. But truth be told, it hasn't been easy. Propagation takes effort, attention and lots of waiting time and hasn't often led to satisfying outcomes.

Hanging pots: B.Silver Jewel (inside) & B.Fairy(?) 

Moth Inspired

For reasons probably similar to many others, I’m usually tickled by SM Ong’s column every Sunday in TNP. He calls it his Act Blur story. His peculiar way of connecting the most unlikely dots around local news and events into a jabbering story that’s very much about himself is a cracking piece of work. He’s got a finely honed formula to be deconstructed and learned. Perhaps one day I might also be able to craft stories in an easy whimsy readable entertaining style that's resoundingly mine. Meantime, I just study his column whenever a hard copy newspaper is available.

 

One ‘How I met your moth’ on his encounter with Lyssa zampa prompted this entry, mainly because I came upon my own magnificent tropical swallowtail moth in the garden. Quite naturally the meeting with this creature from the family Uraniidae warranted a selfie.  

One thing's for sure, I wasn't posing with an unmoving carcass that scavenging ants had yet to clean up (like he had to).

I'd wed a begonia

That's how fascinating I'm discovering the begonia family, Begoniaceae to be. And I'm referring only to the leaves; have not gone into more complex areas of flowers, cross-pollination.

It's caused my mum to exclaim in wonder, and for the very first time, how clever her 'old adult' child is. Just from seeing the plantlets grow out of a leaf petiole. Despite my best efforts explaining that's how some begonia plants propagate, she continues to insist. After all, I'm the only the person she knows who can simply stick a leaf into a pot and get new plants that way!

Way to go Begonia Rex! Really I couldn't ask for more.