Rexes can be tricky. I f you are still heating your 'environment' whatever it may be, you might put the Rex in a plastic bag for a day or two to make sure the humidity is adequte while you find a good place for it. Whether or not it needs a terr. environment depends entirely on where you want to grow it. I currently grow all my Rexes in pots with constant bottom watering, but they wear little plastic covers to protect them from the heat in the kitchen where they grow on a table with strong, east light, and they have never been larger, healthier, and most 'colored up' with deep red leaves. See Gallery photo where one is growing its head off and in bloom.

You can put it in a suitcase or carry on. Reduce the root ball and clip the oldest leaves if they are oversized. Put the plant in a baggie with the rootball wrapped in damp newspaper or paper towels to keep dust to a minimum. You can also take the cut leaves in a plastic bag if you wish to start more. Convention attendees bring back dozens of begonias in suitcases both in carry on and in checked bags without too many problems (some spilled soil, some broken leaves, maybe a decapitated stem but these can always be used to start more).

Oyama pots wick - you might need to lighten up your soil with perlite, as you can't wick with standard nursery or av soil - it'll remain too damp due to too much peat. i put my begonias on wicks and they do fine. however, i use AV soil and add about 30% by volume of reg. perlite - this is pretty much standard practice for wicked AV's. the recommendation is at least 40% of perlite for aeration to prevent dampening. i do allow the soil to dry up on the surface a bit now and then - perhaps once a month. so, when the water reservoir runs dry, i don't water . and then do a light re-wet from the top and start the cycle again.

latest report :). my all newly bought plants did very well for about a month and then i started tenting several in tall sleeves as i noticed that new growth was drying up at the edges a bit. then around jan 25 i noticed dreaded mildew spots on 'Pandora' and then after 2 weeks on 1 leaf of 'Red Raspberry beret'...i had no fungicide :(...so i removed offending leaves and sprayed with a little soap and peroxide in the solution. and then after about a month i sort of dunked them upside down into very light soap/peroxide solution for the transfer home... the trasfer to cold north was kinda brutal on the largest ones - leaves got crushed here n there and they were dark and moist for a couple of days...then i sprayed them with fungicide finally at home and tented all. so the long story short 'Pandora' lost most leaves and is barely alive, but has 2 new leaves coming clean :). it was a good mid-sized plant, strong too. so should pull thru. 'Fire breathing dragon' was my fave, but it was the smallest plant and only 1 rhizome in a pot, it stopped producing those lovely curling leaves even in FL, all new resemble 'Ring of fire'. It lives, but with only 4 small leaves (lost 4) and new growth tip dried up. so waiting now for a new bud to show up, hopefully. "red raspberry beret' was a Big plant, but sev leaves got ripped up and bruised(as i expected!) and i removed them...but it has sev growing tips and is ok. 'Xmas eve' did the best - it was tented from the start - so no mildew! and no damage of any kind. But it had smallish dense leaves and produced a good amount of new growth. it's nice and bushy even now...it's not that impressive, not much pink in the leaves yet, it needs to mature some more for that i guess. so may be i'll manage to click a few pics soon. then and now for comparison.