Just imagine if you can, early spring, you
go to the garden center, you go in for a cup of coffee and you're walking past
beautiful cascading begonias in hanging baskets, and you say I've got to have one of those, thirty-five quid at least it'll cost you but there's a better way of doing it and a
lot lot cheaper way doing it you can still have the coffee still enjoy the
spectacle of Begonias but I tell you what, combs, now let me just tell you a
little bit about combs, three to four centimetres bedding begonia combs. Now these are pendular, they'll actually grow over and they grow down the sides of a
basket, you can actually grow them in a pot like this as a nursery bed and then
actually transfer them into a basket so what you do is you keep them on a
windowsill, nice and warm in most compost, and those will grow on. They'll grow
quite happily and you're getting ahead of the game, you're getting ready for mid
May, these are going out frost surpassed and they could not look absolutely
magnificent. Now just on the combs themselves, three to four centimeters,
those will perform really well. You'll get quite a few in a pot, they'll
cascade over and the difference between pendular and cascading in the word
really the cascading wants a magnificent fully double, perform magnificently, great
big flowers, the pendular ones - semi-double. You know some flowers are double and some aren't. Theyl will perform well but not to the size of these big ones
these are exhibition qualities you go to a garden show these are the ones that
you'll see the flowers of. Now all cascading Begonias are beautiful. The normal
sized ones are absolutely wonderful colours, you really can't go wrong. Single
and semi double flowers, they really are lovely but if you want that little bit
of extra bling go for the giant cascaders. They really are wonderful .All fully
double flowers, wonderful colors will really brighten up a dual patio, I tell
you what, either one you're in for a treat but try those big ones, you
can't go wrong. Now planting them couldn't be easier, so in a small pan
like this, I grow on as in a nursery bed on the window ledge, few pebbles in the
bottom just to aid drainage, nothing likes to be sat in wet, a little bit of compost
in the pan just like that just firm it down slightly.
Now that's lovely moist compost, these will actually sit on the top there, now just a
just a point, if you don't know, they're cup shaped so the curve bit that sits in the
compost and the little eye is going to come out of there and grow away quite
happily. Now remember this is just a nursery bed so all I'm doing is putting
them on, growing them on in here, letting them swell up just so that they
can get ahead of the weather outside and then I'm going to transfer these, when
they're ready into a hanging basket. Now that's the old-fashioned way of doing it,
you just place them on there. What they're doing that in the modern ways is
to actually just put a layer of compost on the top and really and truly all it
does is get the moisture into it quicker. These combs are desiccated, they've been
dried out over the winter, now it's as simple as that.
Now those are great in that nursery bed but we don't want to leave it like that
we're going for exhibition quality we're going to knock the neighbor socks off
with what we're going to do next. Now an old pot or a bucket, just to take your
hanging basket. Now the hanging basket's lined with plastic, so that's okay.
Compost in the bottom, no need for crocks on this because it's going
to evaporate quickly and it's going to go away quite happily, there's going to
be plenty of moisture in there, firm it down,
that's lovely moist compost ready to go, because what we're planting now are
exhibition quality. Look at these beauties, 5 to 6 centimeters, the Belgium's
where most of these come from, for some unknown reason do it different to the
rest of the world they measure in diameter rather than circumference, but five to six centimeters. You buy these mail-order, you don't
normally get these in any garden centers you go in, they're absolutely beautiful. 15
to 20 centimeter tight blooms, beautiful things, cascading over there.
They really are magnificent usually self dropping so the flowers just drop off. I
tell you what these are wonderful wonderful things and rather than
spending 35 quid on a hanging basket, you can do it this way for, you know under a
pound, I mean it's absolutely magnificent. Now in in a basket this size, three of
these exhibition quality five to six centimeters, three would be plenty in a
basket that size, the bigger the basket, the more you can put in, but these are beautiful and cascading fully double you really can't go wrong. You've
had the pleasure of doing it yourself, you've knocked the neighbours socks off, you can still go to that expensive garden center and have a cup of coffee and
enjoy the surroundings, but you're saving yourself a few quid which in my
book, is always a good idea.