Of all the many kinds of plants that can be grown without ever seeing the light of day, rex begonias – at least in our experience – are one of the most satisfactory. Perhaps because they’re primarily foliage plants, and so don’t require great quantities of sunlight, something no electrical engineer has yet managed to reproduce. Or perhaps because artificial lights provide something, not yet discovered, which rexes need.

Whatever the reason, it is apparent that rexes like the lights. Semperfiorens begonias may turn pale, sickly green and refuse to bloom. Angel wings drop their leaves, and won’t even consider making a bud. But our rexes thrive. This makes us happy, because our house has no good growing facilities like picture windows, and our lot hasn’t space to spare even for a lean-to greenhouse.

Our house does have a cellar large enough to hold shelf upon fluorescent-lighted shelf which can be kept warm and humid. This is the rex begonias’ growing area. Their “showing” area is upstairs, where we display the most handsome specimens for a while, then return them to the cellar greenhouse and bring up others. And by the way, we find that some rexes can survive in a dark, darkish living room much longer than others. Soft, velvety varieties – like ‘Mikado’ or ‘Her Majesty,’ for example – show ill effects much more quickly than those with harder-textured leaves, Like ‘Can-Can’ or ‘Midnight.’

Except for the artificial light, we grow rex begonias much the same as more fortunate fanciers with suitable windows or honest-to-goodness greenhouses. Our potting mix is on the Ittnnusy side, enriched with bone meal and slow-acting fertilizers so it keeps on nourishing plants when we forget weekly soluble feedings. We suspect that clay pots have a slight edge on the new plastics, and allow the roots to breathe better – but we’re experimenting, to make sure.

We propagate successfully from leaves – with the propagation boxes also under lights. Our fluorescent-lighted shelves in the basement give us the privilege of collecting more different varieties than we could ever make room for without moving to another, larger home. Add this to your list of backyard landscaping ideas.

One point about lights is definitely in their favor. At first, like other beginners, we didn’t realize that rexes have a tendency to go dormant for a few months in winter; that many a plant which looks puny because it’s resting is thrown out because its owner thinks that it is dead. Strangely, we didn’t learn about dormancy for some time – because our rexes just didn’t die back.

In a New Jersey greenhouse, one February, we were amazed to see rhizome after rhizome with almost no foliage – but here and there a new shoot coming out as the plant returned to life. This doesn’t happen in our cellar. We wonder . . . our rexes have 16 hours of light a day, every day, with no days lighter or darker than others. Perhaps they don’t know it’s winter – or at least, don’t realize how dark and dreary winter can be. In earliest spring, when new growth arrives, it merely adds to the older foliage which has been quietly waiting out the temperate winter.

On the other hand, we must admit one factor that’s not in favor of artificial lights. Our rex leaves are not so brightly colored as those grown naturally. For example, compare our `Cardona Gardens’ with one on a light window sill, and the green is not quite so green, the red not quite so brilliant. An expert could explain whether this indicates insufficient wattage, or whether it’s just a lack in artificial light of any intensity.

Despite their tempered coloring, our rex begonias have brought us prizes from flower shows. And they have the widest, most exciting variety of the brightest colors and patterns of any group of plants we know – grown under lights or not.

For more details on the topic of backyard landscaping ideas. Visit us at http://www.plant-care.com/1523-backyard-landscaping.html. This article, Growing Rex Begonias Under Fluorescent Lights has free reprint rights.

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