Poinsettias & Begonias at Bunnings Cannington

During a trip to Perth, on 11 November to be exact.

Best buy from Bunnings: Turned out to be 2 sets of solar powered LED lights in peach and pink, with 7 flicker programmes. wish they could be enjoyed indoors along with the garden. A$17 each.
None of the plants left with me.

Bareroot from afar

Packed like "chai" for the flight

Everything was dry by the time they got to me.

Limp and lifeless

In pots filled with coconut chips, peat and compost.

Hope they live to tell their stories. For the record, they are B.river nile, B. wild pony and B. benitochiba

Only B.river nile offered 3 leaves suitable for leaf cutting. Hope it lives up to hardy reputation and roots soon. Another chance if the crowns don't make it. They originated from Josh's Frogs.

Latest update on 3 Dec 2014 - the sad news is that none of them made it. In retrospect, I shouldn't have expected delicate plants grown specifically for terrarium-hobbyists to be of sufficiently hardy constitution for the a long voyage.

The bromeliad that isn't home

Here's mum combing through rows and rows of bromeliads in the humid hot weather to select her one and only. 

Found it! She finally settled for this one (after usual endearing process of 'double-confirming' with everyone and any 'victim' who happened to be about).Awaiting to be reunited. We have to call AVA after the bromeliad got taken away from us at the checkpoint. Sigh....There's hope for my long suffering patient mumsie to finally bring her bromeliad home. 

Home safe and sound. All is now well. Hope it's happy and thrives in its new surroundings.

Cost S$23 for an inspection fee plus she signed an undertaking not to import plants & soil matter without proper certification in future

AVA's Plant Health Centre at Lorong Chencharu (what a funny name; must have an interesting history behind it)

Should I or should I not take a peek at what plants people try to bring in...(In the end I only looked in through the mesh from the road; too hot to get out of the car.)

Pak Chong Scout

These were seen and admired at one of the nurseries lining the road between Khao Yai National Park and Pak Chong town. Nothing left that nursery that visit. And really, I was happy to leave them behind. I did ask if leaf cuttings could be purchased. When that was turned down, it was easy enough to walk away. Another consideration was that for that size, I preferred a native Thai species as opposed to commercial hybrids. That's a priority and objective henceforth.

OJ already has this one and I've been trying to grow it from leaves and rhizomes she's provided. B Popenoei is what it's called.

Known as B Black Fancy and other names. I haven't got this one. Had one that looked similar but came with a whorl.

Looks easy to grow, like B. Martin's Mystery.

Have to add the name

Two strains. Top: looks like B River Nile; Bottom: TBA

A variant of B. Chloroneura

Foreground: B. Chloroneura

B. Manaus in foreground

Growing them well

Just look at how large the leaf is. 

Begonia collecting strategy: Practice self control & stop acquiring on sight; keep range narrow but grow them big. That idea has come to me after another visit to OJ's. She has 3 species only: U400 (I got starter leaf from her), one flat round (unknown to me) and this one prominently featured in this post (again the name is unknown to me). There's also B. Martin's mystery which I've excluded seeing it provides little challenge to grow. 

Can you spot U400 and other other flat one? That's because they're both sorry sights looking undecided whether they should live on or not. The third one on the other hand is a different story and takes up the place of pride, rightly so, in an otherwise unkempt garden plot. The size of some of the leaves is impressive. 

Here's the idea: focus on growing my begonia plants big and well; and not acquiring more diversity. Frankly, my present range is already wearing me out and at the brink of being unsustainable. I shall endeavour to simply admire the collections of other hobbyists and enthusiasts online (as well as offline) while nurturing and cultivating what I have in size and stature. 

Now what I need is a theme for my streamlined collection. Any ideas...?

Luxuriant and full of character. Discovered name would be B Popenoi.

Standing out with unusual leaf patten and stem growth - B. Popenoei. 

Generally fuss-free and undemanding of attention. No shortage of new leaves emerging.

My ongoing attempts to grow this one. Baby steps.

Confession: I've been at this same stage for ages. The pot hasn't changed. Are there ways to make it grow faster and bigger?

Latest attempt to grow from rhizomes. Notice the pink coloured knob? Looking promising.

Irresistible

Couldn't help myself. Made a beeline for the begonia plants as soon as I got to the plant bazaar last Saturday. Fortunately there were only two stalls with them.  A positive about the plants is that they are locally grown species acclimated to local conditions. A negative is that they don't look as vibrant as they could.

But hey...I'm not complaining cuz coming away with 5 little pots was more than I planned. Still I hope I do better with them and maybe I might even put them back on sale and get some money back and bring delight to another fellow hobbyist. However as one stall holder Mr Tan Eng Ong pronounced, being a plant hobbyist is a loss making venture. His long suffering wife was there to make sure he cleared the stock and not bring more back.

The sight of B Gryphon sent a thrill through me. I had to have it. The red one (tbd) was to replace the one that I got from Chatuchak market (at a fraction of what I paid for yesterday), but hadn't survive the trip home. These two came from seller Abby Lim from whom I bought B Mazae at previous bazaar. 'Super-easy' she says it is for her. She just puts in the pot and 'my gardener' just waters it. For background, she farms her plants at her workplace; I gather it must be a big complex with grounds and regular gardener. 

Three species here, two more common than the third speckled one. But all growing from the stems. What do you call such begonias that are not rhizomatous? These came from the kindly Mr Tan. It looks as if he grows them in the ground and then breaks some up into pots come the bazaar. He was selling B Martin Mystery for $3 per small pot compared to Abby who wanted $12 (!!!) per slightly bigger pot. His pots ran quickly; hers would probably sell over the course of the day and I believe she brings her prices down as crowd thins. Anyway, I am happy to support all gardening enthusiasts who continue to inspire and who make new begonia species available to me. (Update: the light green peltate shaped leaf is B. photoensis. Apparently it is native to Vietnam)

By the way, there were several more species which I resisted. And I don't even think about what I missed out on now. Perhaps I'm on the way to overcoming my mini-obsession.

Some tips from Mr Tan:
- he used ordinary 'black soil' (I'm really not sure black soil drains well enough)
- they prefer to be growing in pots placed in soil surface of garden (as in not on paved surfaces) as the garden environment provides conducive humid conditions
- stay away from chicken manure as it isn't suitable for any garden/house plants; use goat manure only
- snails - he just uses pink pellets that are purchased