Rescuing Begonias

These are part of the Begonia rescue operation.

Our city had beautiful flower baskets hanging up

Winter is coming, they had to come down.

We've already had a snowstorm.

The baskets had been taken down and were laying on the ground,

waiting to get picked up and taken to a flower basket cemetery somewhere.

I broke off some of the stems, and took them to work on the bus.

Brought them home from work,

cut them again, greedy for more,

and put them in the vases to root.

The thing about rooting is that you look at the stems every day,

looking for something, any sign that they will root.

Usually just when you've given up, suddenly there are roots.

I have more rescued Begonias inside.

These came out of Hurricane Irene. 

I was walking through our city during the hurricane,

and saw the pore little things torn right out of the ground by the fierce wind.

It looked as though they had just been planted right before the storm hit,

their roots were still in 2" square clumps, getting pounded by the fierce rain.

So I picked them up and brought them home.

 They are now in new bigger pots, and after looking hopeless for a while,

they are thriving.

So next Spring I will have pink and white Begonias for the balcony.

That is, if the cat doesn't trample them too badly.

This cat has previously not been kind to Begonias.

Cat in the Begonia pot.