begonia plugs or seeds ?

supers

I would very much like to do 5 hanging baskets and put non-stop begonias in them, i saw some in a garden centre last year they looked lovely and he told me to put 30 plugs in a 14" basket and they will look great so i need 150 plugs and iam finding they are expensive so is it easy to grow from seed ive seen them in thompsonmorgan online £4.79p pkt or could i buy plugs and take cutting from them when they get bigger. Sorry if im asking to many things at once.
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peter_the_piper

Seeds 96000 to a gram, one sneeze and they're all gone. Plugs are the way to go. Pot them into 3" pots first and then later into containers. Bear in mind that non stops are upright, if you want trailing then Illumination is the sort for you with non stops in the top.

Vibrant

Hi,
You don't need 30 plugs in a 14 inch basket, they will have no room to grow. 6 per basket should be plenty.
I agree with Peter, seeds are not easy, plugs are far more straightforward. Having said that, I grew them from seed last year, which was fiddly, but successful.

peter_the_piper

I remember, before plugs, going to sow a tray of beg seeds, sneezed and lost about £50.00 worth. Never again. If you do go down the seed route then they must be sown on the surface, covered with a thin layer of vermiculite(lets in light and keeps moisture in) water tray/pot from below and keep at about 20-25c. Use a very fine compost and prickout into a tray or pot when large enough to handle easily. When ready to put in basket, do not put basket out until they have settled in (not before April anyway) and then keep out of cold wind.

Jake'sGran

Last year I grew the small flowered type Begonia from seed. I think they are called B.sepervirens. A neighbour had a small double wall between the two houses filled with these plants the year before and they looked lovely. I still have one of them in the bathroom flowering away. In the Times on Sunday they said now is the time to put the corms of the bigger begonias in damp soil just below the surface in a 3.5" pot and then move to a bigger pot as they grow. It's not clear from the posts which type people are talking about. What is in a plug when you buy those? Are they corms? Incidentally I won 1st prize in that section with a trailing tuberous begonia last year. It was shades of pink and about 10" tall. Reading over this it looks confusing - I hope you understand it.

exlibris

I have managed to keep B.sepervirens for a few years on and off. My latest are ones I bought as plants last year for the hanging baskets. I re potted them with one of those conical fertilizers and brought them indoors. They are flowering madly but drop petals and leaves all over so they are not tidy!

They will go back out in spring and hopefully survive for another few years. I have never used seeds though!

supers

Thanks very much for your replies i think ill buy a pkt of seeds and have a go and if it dont work then plugs later.