In regards to the Strawberry Begonia – I have a beautiful specimen and I have been led to believe that full sun is detrimental to its longevity/health, but when I was keeping it in rich lumens (very bright indirect sun light) I did not get any streamers and baby air plants (correct terminology missing) but as soon as I gave it direct light it has been growing tentacles (lol) all over my other plants. With many air baby"s developing and elevated - elevation on the leaf structure. The streamers are 18 inches long in 10 days, with little baby"s on the streamers all over, I wonder if the soil chemistry is being changed by the heightened soil temperature. The pots do get warm…

How important is soil chemistry and PH balance to house plants?

it depends on the plant. i'd love to see a picture of your plant if you can. if you use photobucket.com, they have great photo hosting for free.

i don't remember exactly about the strawberry begonias, it has been years since i've had one. i do know that some plants do better in more sun than they are advertised for. this is because most plants are sold for homes with minimum light, and so the plants will have the minimum light recommendation.

I am sorry I took so long to get the picture I have been working a lot. It was hard to get the tentacles in to the photo as they are now 20 inches plus.

I am going to put the photo on my web site and see if I can [img][/img] it from there if I can.

what a beautiful specimin! your peperomia looks good too!!

i'd say, it is one of those that do ok in low light, but really take off in bright light. and definitely a tropical, so the warmer soil is a plus.

i know that i have several plants that do much better in the summer when the soil gets in the upper 80's as opposed to the 40's of "winter" here.

What an awesome strawberry begonia-makes me miss having one around.I always used to have one and now that our new house has a southern exposure I will just have to get one.These flower sometimes too-am I right.I love it when they have little baby plants hanging from the shoots that you can pot up too.I am wondering tho if summer full sun will be a bit to hot-you and I both living in Canada maybe have this to consider.Good luck with it!

they do flower. i'd love to have one again. it's been years since i had one!