How can I nurse my begonia back to life?

Question

I bought a begonia, not my favourite plant so I’ve never had one before however it was in the reduced section of the garden centre and I felt sorry for it, for only 10p I decided it was worth trying to save – worse comes to worse it’s another pot to plant something in.

Problem is that it is half dead, obviously. One of the branches had fallen off, it looked okay at first but now it is pretty much rotting away leaving the rest of the branch further up in trouble – is there anything I can do to help it survive?

Even if that half of the plant dies would the other half that is still looking healthy going to be okay?

Answer 1

Large flowered begonias grow from bulbs which have an indentation, top centre, from where the shoots emerge. If water is allowed to gather in this the shoots rot off. if your plant gets too bad, scrape away some earth to see if the bulb is firm. If it is cut off all dead dying growth and it should be OK. If the bulb is soft, sling it, its rotten. You can dig up the bulbs, dry them out, and store them indoors in a paper nag till next spring.  

Answer 2

Begonias don't like a lot of water.  Make sure the soil has a chance to dry out between watering.

Answer 3

Take plant out of pot - place on newspapers to absorb all the surplus water from root system & drain.

Leave several days to properly dry out (but not to bone dry),

Gently nip off unhealthy looking stems.

Commence watering, lightly as season coming to an end.

Finally, and this is important - apologise to it, tell it you love it & want it 2 get better. Seriously, there is more to nature than any of us will ever know.

Best wishes. h

Answer 4

You should cut all dying branches off at the stem.

Get a root treatment formula from the garden centre and water the plant with it.

All of the roots from the dying branches will die off, and the others will get stronger which will reinforce the living parts of the plants.

Answer 5

mouth to mouth respiration?