Dec 26, The begonia plant can be a beautiful part of any garden or houseplant

The Begonia plant is a member of the class of plants known as angiosperms. In basic terms, angiosperms are flowering plants.

There are many other important features of angiosperms, however, that anyone who is thinking of growing a Begonia plant should know about ahead of time.

Angiosperms have six basic characteristics: flowers, stamens with two pollen sacs, reduced male parts, closed carpel around the ovules, reduced female gaetophyte, and endosperm.

Flowers of angiosperms are the organs that are responsible for reproduction. Many other types of plants that are not angiosperms reproduce through seeds.

But flowering plants have actual reproductive organs that allow them a much greater degree of hybrids and other evolutionary advantages over seeding plants.

Angiosperms also have stamens with two pollen sacs and closed carpel around the ovules. The pollen sacs of the angiosperms and thee closed carpel around the ovules have developed over the years to prevent self-fertilization.

This is an important trait because it makes angiosperms have a greater diversity than those plants that engage in self-fertilization.

The reduction of the male parts, or the gametophyte, as well as the reduced female parts, are also advantages in the angiosperm reproduction. The smaller parts mean less time between pollination and fertilization.

The less time between these two stages means that the plants will seed much more quickly, thereby ensuring a continual development that the later seedings of other plants do not have.

The final important trait of an angiosperm plant is the development of the nourishing endosperm. Endosperm is a tissue which provides needed nutrition for the embryo and the seedlings of the angiosperm plants. This tissue typically develops just after fertilization takes place in angiosperm plants.

The begonia plant is one of the most well known and well loved of all angiosperm plants. As a result, the begonia enjoys a rich and diverse evolutionary heritage.

Trying to classify the begonia plant can be difficult. It is estimated that there are over one thousand of the species of the plant available. Still, for category purposes, there are primarily nine different styles of begonias plant available.

These styles are tuberous begonias, semperflorens begonias, cane-like, rex begonias, hiemalis begonias, trailing-scandents, shrub-like begonias, elatior begonias, and thick-stemmed begonias.

The first of these, tuberous begonias, are known for their large blooms and grow well in shade, though they need to be protected from high winds.

Originating in Bolivia and Peru, the tuberous begonias perfer warm weather and are intolerant of frost. Likewise, however, they do not tolerate extremely hot weather.

The second grouping, semperflorens begonias, are also called wax or bedding begonias.

These types of begonias are often grown in large groups in home gardens, which works well to showcase their brilliance of colors. Semperflorens begonias come in a variety of colors, along with their bright green or bronze leaves.

The appearance of cane-like begonias isn't hard to determine. As their name suggests, these types of begonias are known for their long, stiff stem that gives the appearance of a cane.

They are plants that can be either potted or outside plants, though wherever you grow them, you should be aware that they can reach up to ten feet high. These begonias are also called "Angel Wing" or tree begonias.

Rex begonias are among the hardest plants to grow, because they require very specific growing environment. When it comes to humidity, rex begonias require a 69% humidity in order to grow, which is difficult for most casual gardeners to maintain.

Still, these plants produce a gorgeous foliage in the hands of the right gardener, and it is for this reason alone that many grow this fussier breed of begonias.

Hiemalis begonias, also called rieger or blush begonias, originate in New Zealand, where they make wonderful winter plants.

They are known for their soft colors of pinks and pastels. The biggest problem a gardener will have with hiemalis begonias is overwatering as this plant can be very susceptible to root rot.

Trailing-scandents are a fairly hardy style of begonia that can be grown either in hanging potted plants or outdoors. If grown outside, they make beautiful growing plants for your landscape.

Shrub-like begonias are well named, as they are small, bushy plants. They require a decent fertilizer to flower well, and despite their name, make excellent potted plants.

If you are looking for a begonia to flower throughout the year, the elatior begonia is your best bet. They will flourish particularly well if you make them a houseplant.

Thick-stem begonias are a small group that most do not know about, though they do make excellent houseplants. You'll need to allow them room to grow, however, as they can reach heights of six feet.

The begonia plant can be a well-loved and beautiful part of any garden or houseplant collection. Picking the right one to suit your growing environment, however, is the key to a successful begonia experience.

Similar Posts

Boston Ferns

Croton Plants

Houseplant care

________________________________________________________________

Top of Begonia Plant page

Listed under Indoor Plants

View the original article here

Jan 1, Plant cutting is alive but not growing.

by Myrleen
(Carmel Valley, CA)

Question: I took a cutting from a Lipstick plant one year ago, kept it in water until roots appeared, then planted it in seeding soil in the house, near a window, under other plants. It has never grown, but remains alive, looks good. I keep the soil moist and occasionally use diluted plant food to water it. How can I help it to grow?
Thank you.

Answer: Why your plant cutting is not growing. It seems very odd after a year the cutting is alive yet not growing. Something you might try is placing it under a grow light for up to 16 hours. By doing so you may trigger the plant to go into growth stage which occurs during long summer days. If you used good seeding soil to begin with, you should back off the fertilizer since the plant is not growing.

Good Luck

Click here to post comments.

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How?
Simply click here to return to Submit Questions.

View the original article here

Nov 30, Plant Insects

Plant Insects

It is always an accepted fact of life that plants attract insects. In the gardens, a load of different insects co-exists with plants.

Some of them are beneficial like the assassin bug that preys on flies and caterpillars, and lady beetle that feeds on the aphids.

However, in most cases, the insects are a pest; they feed on the plants, sucking them of their nutrients essential for survival and growth, and leaving them seriously damaged, sometimes, half-dead.

Common plant insects that are detrimental to plants include white and red spider mites, mealy bugs, scale, whitefly, thrips, cabbage worms, wire worms, and hornworms.

Spider mites.

Spider mites are very small, thus, they are almost impossible to spot with naked eye. To see them, one needs to use a magnifying lens. Once they are in the garden, they attack new leaves and buds. An indication that a plant has been invaded by spider mites is the paleness of the green color in a plant, leaving it washed out or bronzed.

Mealybugs.

Mealybugs are often mistaken for a disease because of their appearance?white tufts of cotton. Normally found on the undersides of the leaves or on the stems, the white, waxy coating of mealybugs protects them from pesticide sprays, making them difficult to control. An effective way of ridding them is by applying alcohol on it using a small brush dipped in alcohol.

Scale.

Mostly, the scale plant insects go undetected, hence, by the time they are visible, a large number of them has been produced. Scale insects are oval with a length of 3mm. They are protected from pesticide sprays through their shell, and found on the undersides of and on top of the leaves. They can be removed by applying alcohol.

Whiteflies.

The best way to kill whiteflies is to attack them when they are still on the pre-mature stage. They are similar to scale; they do not move. By then time, they mature, they can leave the premises when pesticide is sprayed onto them. Applying alcohol or malathion and diazinon sprays over them is effective too.

Thrips>.

Thrips, too, are hard to see due to their very small size. Their color is brown, and their body is slender. During their maturity, they develop wings enabling them to fly when disturbed. When the damage, they suck the sap of the plants, leaving the leaves distorted and dry.

Cabbage worms.

Cabbage worms feed on the leaves of the cabbage vegetables, leaving holes. The best way to remove them is by picking them using one?s hands. Also, look for eggs on the underside of the leaves.

Wire worms.

Wire worms are reddish ?brown worms of about a half of inch and are the larvae of click beetle. They spend the winter hibernating beneath the soil. Around May or June, the adults emerge and live for many months throughout summer.

Hornworms.

The hornworms are the larvae of five-spotted hawk moth. They feed on tomato and pepper plant leaves. They are not easily detected because they can camouflage into the foliage of the plant.

Similar Posts

Aphids

Garden Slug Control

Spider Mites

_________________________________________________________________

Return to the top of plant insects

Page listed under Garden Pests

View the original article here

Nov 26, Spider Plant

Spider plants are a very common houseplant with long, green- and white-striped leaves. They are easy to grow and care for. If they are well maintained, they reproduce very quickly.

The secret is in knowing how to separate the ?baby? plants from the ?mother? plant. You will then have many individual plants from the same one.

These plants need lots of natural light, but not direct sunlight. Place the plant near a window, but not in the window.

The leaves will begin to turn brown if the plant is getting too much sunlight. The temperature of the room can be cool as long as the plant is getting enough light.

The plant should watered once a week, but not until they are soaked through. The water should be able to drain out any excess.

If the tips of the leaves starting turning brown, it could be from the chemicals in the water you are using. Try using distilled water instead.

Once in awhile it helps to use a little houseplant fertilizer. Use half of the recommended amount because the plants are sensitive.

Over-fertilizing can also result in brown leaves. If you do find your plant with brown-tipped leaves, simply snip them off. New leaves will quickly grow in their place.

As your plant grows, you will notice little ?babies? hanging down from the plant. These look like little miniature spider plants on a long stem.

You can leave them on and hang the plant up for a beautiful cascading affect or you can create more plants from the ?mother? plant. For transplanting the ?babies?, place a pot of soil near the ?mother? plant and place the ?baby? resting in the soil.

It will still be attached to the ?mother? plant. To make sure that the ?baby? plant stays put, you can even attach it to a small stake. Soon roots will begin to take hold. Then you can clip the stem that is attached to the ?mother.?

Another way to separate the two is to disconnect the ?baby? plant and place them in water until roots begin to form. Then plant them in separate pots. You can give them as gifts or fill your own house with beautiful plants.

These houseplants are tough and are perfect for people who don?t know much about plants. They can endure almost anything and will continue to flourish. However, for best results, follow the directions above, and you will enjoy your spider plants forever.

To receive automatic updates whenever changes are made to our site visit our BLOG PAGE today. This page listed under Indoor Plants

_________________________________________________________________

Top of Spider Plant Page:

View the original article here

Nov 26, The Umbrella Plant Is Also Known As The Arboricola Trinette

The umbrella plant is also known as the arboricola trinette, parasol plant, the octopus tree and the dwarf umbrella tree, and this native of Taiwan has become a gorgeous plant to use when you are looking to add some very handsome foliage to your gardening or landscaping.

When looking to recognize the Arboricola Trinette and to see what it can add to your home, you'll find that it comes in a green variety and in a variegated variety.

The former is a lovely uniform dark and shiny green, while the later has streaks of creamy white or lighter yellow. The leaves themselves are long and rather oval shaped, and the tops of the plant spread out in a circle of five to nine leaves, which give the plant its unique umbrella-like appearance. During the summer, you may see red spiky flowers that will eventually turn into orange berries.

What do you need to make sure that your Arboricola Trinette is going to thrive. Keep it away from hot direct sunlight, but you'll find that this is a highly adaptable plant. As long as there is a good light source, it can learn to tolerate many situations.

If you notice your plant developing yellowing leaves, you need to give it more light. Keep in mind that the variegated varieties need more light than other varieties. Also make sure that you take care to fertilize the plant properly. A small amount of liquid fertilizer is appropriate, but try to keep it very light or to stop at all during the winter months. A period of ?hibernation? can be very good for your plant.

The Umbrella Plant is a good choice if you live in a dryer area, or even if you are not all that diligent about watering your plants in general.

Make sure that the soil does not get too wet, and if you keep the plant indoors, make sure that the pot has good drainage. You should only water it when you that the soil is nearly dry or that the leaves are starting to wilt.

Leaves that fall off or turn black mean that the plant is getting too much water. When growing your Arboricola Trinette indoors, make sure that you mix coarse sand or perlite with the soil to keep air flowing through it.

If you are growing your plants outside, there are a few pests and diseases that the Arboricola Trinette is particularly vulnerable to.

Be are of mealy bug, caterpillars, fungus gnats, and spider mites, which love to nestle under the leaves. Also keep an eye out for scales and aphids, which can also trouble this short plant.

Take some time and really consider how lovely an umbrella plant can look in your home and garden. They look quite handsome next to showier specimens and the red flowers that you will get in season can compliment any garden.

To receive automatic updates whenever changes are made to our site visit our BLOG PAGE today. This page listed under Landscape Plants

Share it with friend, family and other gardeners around the world.

What Other Visitors Have Said

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

Umbrella Plant Question  Not rated yet
Hello There,
I have a mature, indoor, umbrella plant (non-variegated)that is producing excessive sap, which drips all over my kitchen floor. Needless ...

Several Umbrella Plant GrownTogether  Not rated yet
Here is a group of umbrella plants growing together. It is a beautiful plant that comes in shades of light and dark greens. They can be found growing alone ...

Top of umbrella plant page

View the original article here

My Favorite Tree Died, A Lesson in Plant Biology

September 2nd, 2010

My favorite tree has died. I have blogged about it a lot, and the posts will be mentioned below in the related posts section.

It was a Forest Pansy Redbud. I’ve had bad luck with the spot that I planted it. It is very full sun, from dawn to dusk, I had two weeping cherries die, but I think they were infected with bacteria at the nursery, then I ordered a redbud mailorder, and grew it for a year, and spring came and the blossoms were the wrong color, so I gave it to a neighbor, and finally bought my Forest Pansy.
In Memoriam

This tree was really great, it has a fairly unique purple foliage color, not red, or burgundy, but purple. In addition to the typical redbud pink flowers in spring. I like trees and plants with more than one feature. So both leaves and flowers.

I was so excited at how well it was doing last year, very full with leaves, nice color, growing great. Then a wind storm came and it had grown too great because branches were too heavy and the trunk split. I blogged about this and tried to fix it. I was able to maintain the current foliage last year after the damage, but the leaves on the weaker half never grew this spring. So I cut that half off.

Then we had a hail storm that damaged all my plants with large leaves, like redbuds. So the tree was looking really straggly.

Then we’ve had a drought for 2 months that just ended today, just one barely rainy day that whole period.

This is where the plant biology comes in. Redbuds like shade, they are an understory tree that likes to be sheltered by big oaks and whatnot. My spot, as I said, is full sun, and Redbuds can grow there, mine did very well in 2009 and before, but they need moisture.

Plants leaves lose moisture based on sun exposure and heat, the more direct sun, and the hotter it is, the more moisture they lose. If you’ve ever seen a squash plant on a hot summer day, with the wilting leaves, that illustrates the point. With squash the leaves will recover during the night or after a watering, some others, like a redbud, will get crispy and scorched.

So, in general, plants that prefer shade do so because they have a hard time providing enough water from their roots to their leaves when in full sun. Think of it like the water is actually flowing, if the flow rate out of the leaves is greater than the flow rate up from the roots, the leaves wilt and could scorch or die.

So, my redbud was able to thrive, despite being in sun, because I kept it watered.

This year, during the drought, I kept it watered as well, but it wasn’t helping. After I cut it down I discovered why. At one cross section, because of the split trunk damage and a previous scar from before I bought the tree, 80% of the tree’s cambium layer was dead. This is the layer of green flesh directly below the bark where trees do all of their “living.” So the roots had access to water, but there was a bottleneck getting it up to the leaves. I knew the cambium layer had been damaged when the trunk split, so I did a lot of pruning of the leaves to try to keep things in balance.

Unfortunately, even with the pruning, the tree could not stand up to the two months of heat, constant sun, and less water. There was to much cambium layer damage, for a tree that really needs to be at it’s best to handle full sun.

So I cut it down. I’ll plant one again some day when I have a different house with a spot for one in shade.

To replace it I waffled a lot, I kept going back and forth between different ideas. First I wanted a pine, but something tall and narrow. Then I decided I wanted a columnar maple, and really got interested in a “Newton Sentry” maple which is this really neat tree that grows 60 feet tall but only 6 feet wide. However, the only source I could find had short ones, and if I know we’ll probably be moving in 5 years I would never see it get to it’s potential.

Then I thought about doing a chinese red birch, because the bark is amazing, but I couldn’t find any source for those except seeds, which of course would take a really long time.

I finally decided on a “Royal Frost” Birch. This tree has burgundy foliage and interesting white peeling bark, bit of a standard birch, but at least two points of interest on it. I was able to get a 14 foot tall one for only about $60, which was by far the cheapest option in a price to foot comparison from among the ones I had shopped around for. It doesn’t have much trunk caliper, but it is tall. My forest pansy had a beefier trunk, but wasn’t more than 7 feet tall. So this fills the space well.

Birches are often sold in single trunk or multiple trunk forms. Some people like multiple trunk forms, or “bushier” forms, I’m not sure why, but multitrunk birches don’t grow as tall. Considering I was going for something tall and narrow, I went with a single trunk birch, so that it’ll grow narrower and taller. But if you ever buy a birch mail order or something, make sure you know what kind of trunk form it has, because many are trained to be multitrunk.

Posted in: Gardening, Troubleshooting » 

Top of page...

View the original article here

Plant of the Week: Alliums

One of my followers on Twitter stated exactly what happens to me every single year: "Every fall, I swear I'm going to plant more alliums. And every spring, I swear because I didn't plant enough!"

Absolutely. Every May, I fall in love with the beautiful violet orbs that adorn my garden, attracting bees and butterflies. I love the way the blooms almost seem to float in the garden atop their stems. They add height, interest, and a little whimsy to my garden. I love them in combination with the scarlet poppies and light purple irises that bloom at the same time.

If you live in the north, you still have time to plant your alliums (Allium giganteum). Most garden centers carry them, and as long as the ground isn't frozen yet, you can plant them. Plant alliums six to eight inches deep, and about a foot apart, in loose, well-draining soil, in a spot that gets full sun. They are hardy in zones 5 to 10.

What I like about alliums, and why I keep adding more to my garden, is that they really have a long season of interest. The purple or white blossoms are beautiful, and last longer than many other spring bulbs. But, in addition, you get to enjoy their spectacular seedheads after they've finished blooming. Once everything starts turning brown and dry, I cut them back and eagerly anticipate seeing them again next spring. For something that requires very little in the way of maintenance, alliums provide plenty of beauty -- definitely worthwhile plants for your garden.

View the original article here

Plant of the Week: Rosemary

I don't think I could be happy without rosemary growing somewhere nearby. In the spring, summer, and fall, I grow it in containers near my herb garden, and then bring it indoors to over-winter before we get our first frost. It's not easy -- rosemary is finicky to say the least -- but it is more than worth it for the flavor it adds to food and the wonderful aroma the plant gives off. Sometimes, when I am missing summer, I crush a bit of rosemary between my fingers, and am reminded of working in my garden, and how I used to brush past the rosemary while watering, and that gorgeous aroma would fill the air.

Can you tell that I'm missing the gardening season already?

Rosemary is definitely a plant worth growing. Learn more about growing rosemary from About.com Herb Gardens Guide Amy Jeanroy. And if you're already growing it, why not use it in one of these tasty recipes?

Rosemary photo by dichohecho, Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License

View the original article here