Dear Johannes - I couldn't ask for a more helpful response - thank you very much! I appreciate your guidance and will work with them this week. Do you mind if I email you privately with a couple other questions about these? Best, Jude On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 3:05 PM, Johannes Ulrich Urban < johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de> wrote: > 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 > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >