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
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