She got lucky. Growing begonia from seed is a challenge for any gardener. There are many pitfalls and I tried unsuccessfully for more than 10 years until I found a method that works. Hybrid begonias will not come true ie. may be different to their parent. 1. Pre-preparation: take a sheet of kitchen paper and dampen it. Lay on a flat surface. 2. Collect the seed. Wait until the flowers are completely over and have formed pendent papery husks. Scrunch the husks with your right hand with your left hand underneath. You will notice some tiny reddish seed falling onto your palm. ItâÂÂs best to collect as much as possible as not all the seed will be fertile. 3. Sprinkle the seed onto the damp paper then spread over a saucer. Try to keep the paper above the surface of the saucer. Never allow the paper to dry out. 4. Cover the saucer with a transparent cover that does not contact with it. I use a plastic cake cover. 5. Put the saucer + paper+ seeds inside a tray and fill the tray with just enough water to cover its surface. Keep in a brightly lit, warm place. Avoid direct sun. The idea is to give the seedlings in 100% humidity. You can see if this is effective by water droplets forming inside the cover. Temperature 70-80F ( 20-27C). If you think there is any danger of your seedlings drying out, re-dampen with a mist sprayer. If your âÂÂsealâ is good, however, this should not be necessary. It is better to add water to the tray. 6. Leave completely alone for 2 weeks. Avoid the temptation to âÂÂhave a peekâ as this will allow fungal spores to enter. 7. After about 15 days some of the seeds will be beginning to germinate. Remove the paper from the saucer and cut into pieces. I find a knife is easier than scissors. The number of pieces will depend on the amount of germinated seed and how many plants you want. 4 is a good average but if you are skillful you can get more. 8. Place the pieces of cut paper with the germinated seed on the surface of some good quality, rich organic compost. 9. Mist-spray with clean water to ensure good contact. Keep in a warm, well-ventilated location, with semi-shade. After about 6 months, divide and repot as necessary . After about a year repot to their final pot or into the garden. First flowers after about 2 years. Good luck. Ian

Ideally I would have started mine at beginning of January. I shall be starting them next week. I start them under lights which are on a timer so 12 hours on and 12 hours off. More light makes them start to form tubers and then they die. They also need warm temperatures for germination. Last year I tried germinating tuberous begonia seeds on moist paper towels. That did not work as the seeds went moldy. This year if I use the moist paper towels, I will treat the towels with 3% hydrogen peroxide first. And perhaps spritz the seeds with it as the mold was on the seeds and not on the towels. Other years I have started seeds on trays of soil.

Most growers that I've seen write about growing from seed do recommend moving them up. I agree that there is no fertilizer in most seed starting soil but I've sprayed water soluble fertilizer on my seedlings and saw no great growth either (other algae/moss seemed to like it though). Do try moving them up to a bigger pot. Here is what I had from seed last year after six weeks in a tiny container (late April in this photo). These seeds were started mid-March last year. four more weeks and the tiniest have been crowded out If you ignore them a few may survive as they are competing for resources. Out of this batch I may have 3 or 4 left that I finally potted up to a four inch pot a few weeks ago and they've really grown. I will include a photo of those when I download the photos from the camera one of these days. http://www.bradsbegoniaworld.com/seed.htm http://www.scottishbegoniasociety.co.uk/31.html

I've had good and bad luck with pelleted seeds. If you buy a packet with only 3 pellets, I suspect someone has thinned them out to create two or more pkts for sale. However my first suspicion was not correct as I got about seven seedlings from this packet. but the second pkt with only 3 pellets failed to germinate. I found another pkt of pelleted seeds, probably semps, and probably several years old, stored away in my seed locker, and it looked like most germinated and quickly too (within a week). So go figure. This is a little off the subject, maybe I am too suspicious, but I've been wondering about these pelleted seeds and this is the first chance I've had to mention them. I much prefer natural begonia seeds, tiny as they are, a magnifying glass will show them clearly whether crushed or good.