In order to investigate a better soilless culture medium and the possibility of grass clippings as alternative substrate for peat moss to grow Begonia cucullata Willd. in pots, the seedlings of widely cultivated B. cucullata were grown in pots with eight types of soilless substrates： T1（peat： perlite=1：1）, T2（peat： perlite： pine bark=1：1：1）, T3（corn stover： perlite： pine bark=1：1：1）, T4（corn stover： perlite： pine bark=2：1：1）, T5（grass clipping： perlite： pine bark=1：1：1）, T6（grass clipping： perlite：pine bark=2：1：1）, T7（vermiculite： perlite： pine bark=1：1：1） and T8（vermiculite： perlite： pine bark=2：1：1）, respectively, in a shade house of Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden to evaluate plant growth performance. The results showed that the stem diameter of B. cucullata increased significantly from day 30 to day 60 after potting,and the plant height, leaf number and leaf area increased largest from day 60 to day 90 after potting in all treatments. The growth of plants performed best in T6,with the highest branch number, leaf thickness, flower number, aboveground fresh and dry weights and relative chlorophyll content. Therefore, the substrate with grass clipping： perlite： pine bark=2：1：1 was the best culture medium for growing B. cucullata in this study, and the grass clippings could replace peat moss as alternative substrate for growing B. cucullata in containers.
