Angel leaves Begonia

Question

There was one in the apt I moved into. Tall and thin and rather ‘bony’ and no flowers but standing tall and really had a lot of leaves – looking good.

After a while I felt badly that the dirt was sort of low, and added dirt and fertilizer. The leaves all swooned and now look limp and sad. I felt terrible, even mixed the dirt more and took some of it out. It’s been about 3 weeks and nothing has helped.

Do plants reach the end of life and just stop? Did I do something terrible and it can’t recover? Is there anything I can do to save it or what? The soil was organic and the fertilizer just reg house plant fertilizer.

Thanks,

Elizabeth

Answer 1

Do you mean you added the fresh soil on top of the old? That totally messes up the “breathing” of the roots, because a lot of air moves into the roots from the surface of the soil, so essentially you threw on a thick, thick blanket. You were on the right path, however. You need to repot the plant – take it out of the pot and put the new soil underneath, then replace the root ball. Unless the roots are totally pot bound, reuse the same pot. If you use a larger pot, increase size by only 1 or 2″. Here’s an article to help with that: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/hpgen/learn-more-about-repotting-houseplants.htm
Here are a couple of article about growing angel wings, including advice on pruning, which you should do shortly after you repot: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/begonia/angel-wing-begonia-care.htm
http://www.chicagobotanic.org/plantinfo/begonias_angel_wing