Nymphaea and Begonia Info
Johannes Ulrich Urban (Wed, 14 Jan 2015 12:05:04 PST)

Hello Jude,

The Nymphaea tubers and Begonia bulbili you received were donated with
pleasure.

The Begonia tubers are naturally that small but will sprout, maybe not
all of them. They should NOT be kept totally dry as you would do with
seed. I "sow" mine after harvest in a pot with sowing compost and keep
them just barely moist, never wet. They can be sown on to the surface of
the compost and then slightly stirred into the ground by using a fine
tool. This way some will be on the surface and others will be at various
depths so that you will be sure at least some are in the best position.
They do sprout very late in spring, sometimes not before June and will
produce one coin-like leaf the first year. My plant is in the open
garden and in autumn when it gets cooler and moister it is very prone to
mildew and is sprayed. The bulbili I sent were sprayed, too. Make sure
that the very young plants do not succumb to mildew.
This plant has a pleasant way of "sowing" itself into other pots where
it finds the optimum condition. Some come up in between large cacti. I
leave them there if they do not damage the "intended" plant. It is never
weedy.

The Nymphaea is an experiment for me, too. I never had leaf bulbili in
autumn, I propagated it by cutting off a good leaf, weighing it down
with small stones in warm water under extra light and waited for a plant
to form. I was given 3 leaves to start with. This year it produced a lot
of bulbili when the leaves started to die down.
I have 2 or 3 of these bulbili in cold unheated water in my greenhouse.
They are those that had already produced small leaves and roots. They do
not grow but are alive.
I think it should be possible to start them now in warm water with extra
light. This plant needs very high light levels like most aquatics.
Depending where you live or how warm and bright your tropical house is,
this waterlily may not go dormant at all. I can only guess it goes
dormant because in my climate the autumn cools down and makes the plant
go dormant, although it still produces buds until I have to cut down
everything because of frost. I have not tried to grow it though winter
because I cannot provide enough light and heat.
According to the literature cool conditions in autumn stimulate the
formation of tubers. Apparently under permanently warm growing condition
this group of Nymphaea does not produce any tubers at all. With me it
always does.

Hoping that helps, happy to answer more questions

bye for today and my best wishes for 2015 for all of you!

Uli