One of the most important things is light. You need to have about 16 hours of light for begonias. I know it seems strange since they are a "shade" plant in the garden, but under indoor lights they need more light than many other seedlings. Also, I have found that they fertilizing them very early with diluted fish fertilizer will help too. I dilute the fertilizer in a misting spray bottle.

side note: when I used to work at the wholesale growers, they did run into issues for lack of light. It is really important that if you are starting them under lights that it is at least 16 hours per day.

My Dragon Wings seeds are planted. Always hold my breath a little until I see them growing.

Plants from last year

Springcolor, Wow, those pictured look great. For summer, do you plant them in ground or grow them in pots?

I just sowed some on Friday, day before yesterday. I'm trying Jonna's method of sowing them in pure vermiculite. Having never tried this before, let's say I'm cautiously optimistic. I only had 15 seeds, and after I dumped them all into that little container, I thought "Ugh, I should have done half in soil!" just in case... I'm trying begonias (small, easy sprouting seeds), and echinacea (bigger, more finicky seeds) that way. I'll let you know how it turns out. The process sure is easier, cleaner, and faster than using soil. And best of all, no soil to sterilize.

Karen

Karen,
Some go in the ground and others in my containers. Some I sell at my little Hobbie Gone Wild Sale in late May.
I will be interested in your results with the vermiculite. I use Redi Earth, a very fine seed starting mix. This year I bought my seeds from Harris rather then Horticultural Products, may have been a mistake. Time will tell.

I have 2 packs of Cheyenne spirit seeds. They came from Harris also and why I bought my Begonia seeds from them to save on shipping. I was going to winter sow one and grow one in the greehouse. Still thinking on that as this is my first year to winter sow.

I've always been happy with Harrris seed, though I don't buy much from them because quantities are often much more than I want.

The ech I sowed in vermiculite was Warm Summer from Burpee. (My husband bought them for me). I also have one pack of Cheyenne Spirit from Harris which I'll probably wintersow.

Karen