Growing Your Best Begonias with Syngenta’s Brian Krug & Jamie Gibson

Syngenta Flowers’ Dr. Brian Krug and Dr. Jamie Gibson join Tech On Demand host Bill Calkins to discuss the exciting world of begonias, focusing on both vegetative and seed varieties. They explore the latest introductions, production best practices and the importance of lighting and PGRs in growing high-quality begonias. The discussion highlights the growing popularity of begonias in gardening and their versatility in various applications.

One of the top new introductions at California Spring Trials in 2025 was iCandy, a vegetative series of hybrid begonias for quarts and up—with double flowers and dark foliage—and Brian spends time detailing production best practices before moving on to other vegetative series including Adora (perfect for baskets), Birthday Bash (more traditional, waxy foliage and double flowers) and Florencio (a boliviensis hybrid).

Then Jamie goes through tips and tricks for producing a few newer seed-raised series from Syngenta including Bossa Nova (boliviensis types), Bionic (large, interspecific landscape type) Tophat (early-to-flower interspecifics with huge flowers) and Limitless (tuberous).

For each series, Brian and Jamie discuss production recommendations from propagation through finish—including lighting protocols, PGR regimes, temperature requirements and much more. Strategies to reduce the risk of blind cuttings are also shared.

Resources:
Syngenta Flowers Website: https://www.syngentaflowers-us.com/
Syngenta Flowers Technical Library (Search “Begonias” for culture on all varieties!): https://www.syngentaflowers.com/ams/t...
Vegetative Begonia Photoperiod Effects: https://www.syngentaflowers.com/ams/s...