Your Maine Garden

Horticulturally speaking, I find the month of November to be the hardest of the 12 to endure. There are only odious tasks to do in the garden: clean-up, mulching, pulling last year’s tomato stakes and the like. Except for the brussel sprouts and a few staunch pansies, the domestic landscape is a symphony of dismal grays and browns. The eye begins its winter-long yearning for color.

What better way to endure the coming winter than by starting a few seedlings right away, as an act of faith? Although it seems early, this is the perfect time to order seeds for and begin sprouting certain plants, notably geraniums and begonias. The satisfaction of growing these popular and useful garden beauties from seed is hard to put into words. Once you’ve done it though, you’ll find yourself looking forward to December every year, and the winter will never be quite as long.

There are a few tricks to growing begonias and geraniums from seed, but if you have a spare fluorescent light and an inexpensive timer to operate it, you can expect reasonable success even on the first try. Begonia seeds are uncommonly tiny, so that one must be quite careful to disperse them evenly over the soil surface. Once sown, the seeds should not be top watered except with a mister or spray bottle, lest they be washed out or buried. Some growers recommend sprinkling a layer of fine vermiculite over the soil surface first, then wetting the tray or pot thoroughly before dropping the seeds on. If more water is needed, the container can be stood in a basin of water and the soil will wick it up.

In order to germinate properly, begonia seeds need very high humidity, which can easily be provided with plastic wrap or a close fitting plastic bag. There should be at most 2 inches between the surface of the soil and the plastic. Thus wrapped, the sprouting trays or pots should be placed 8-12 inches beneath the tubes of a fluorescent light, set to operate for 16 hours each day. Begonias like temperatures between 65 and 75 degrees during germination, so place them where they will not be overly chilled at night.

Once up, begonia seedlings will amaze you with their tininess, having seed leaves no more than a millimeter across at first. Don’t uncover them until they have grown at least one set of true leaves a centimeter or more in diameter. Sudden drops in humidity can spell sudden death for very young begonias.

The time to transplant begonias is simply a matter of when you can handle them without breakage, usually about two months from the time of seeding. I find that once they reach this manageable size, almost nothing bothers begonia seedlings. They are very obliging growers.

First-time begonia growers would do well to start with wax begonias, as they are considerably easier to germinate and grow than tuberous or elatior begonias. Many, many varieties are on the market, with leaves of bronze, green or green edged with red. Flowers range from white to pink to red and combinations thereof. Stokes Seeds (PO Box 548, Buffalo, NY, 14240) lists an interesting assortment, and the packets come with very good cultural directions printed on them. Burpee Seeds (300 Park Ave., Warminster, Pa., 18974) has its own variety, `Wings,’ which carries flowers up to 2 inches across.

Pelletized begonia seeds which are often advertised in seed catalogs promise even easier handling. True enough, but I have found the clay coating used to pelletize these tiny propagules makes germination a good deal more difficult.

Michael Zuck of Bangor is a horticulturist and the NEWS’ garden columnist. Send inquiries to him at 2106 Essex St., Bangor, Maine, 04401.