Begonias

There are many varieties of begonias apparantley there are approximately 800 species native to the the tropical regions in Asia Africa and parts of America. I am just giving my opinion on the two or three varieties I grow as house plants. My favourite is probably the most common one youre likely to see with the decorative "lop sided" leaves, with tiny white dots on them. This is a beautiful plant mainly because of all the varying shades of the leaves. The underside of the leaves span through a whole lot of colours, pinks, red, mauves and are nearly as attractive as the topside. The plant grows ... more

It`s Mothers Day once again here in the U.K. I know that it occurs a lot later in N.America so please forgive me if you are reading it over there. It`s rare for me to write an opinion completely off the top of my head , I usually plan quite carefully before submitting hence my very low number of submissions, but here goes anyway. Birthdays,anniversaries and Mothers Day are great events in the florists trade.They account for a sizeable quantity of plants and flowers sold throughout the year. On this Mothers Day,as I usually do,I wanted to give my wife a card and some flowers as I normally do ... more

Yet another plant that I rescued from my dear departed Dad's house is a begonia. The begonia that I rescued and care for is Begonia rex and is grown as a houseplant, it can be planted outside in the summer but is not winter hardy. This plant has very attractive dark green leaves with red swirls too; in fact some of my plants leaves are redder than green. The Begonia that I have is grown more for its foliage than for the insignificant white flowers. There are many other begonias usually bright red, pink, yellow or white colored flowers. These can be grown in flower borders or planters in the ... more

Do you hate gardening? Don´t have time? Can´t be bothered? Buy a begonia. I forgot I had some. But, despite this never ending winter, CHRIST will it ever end?, some green buds have popped up out of my dried up, scabby, festering window box. It has fairly made my sap rise too! Bringing begonias to Europe from Latin America was perhaps one of the only decent things the Conquistadors did for humanity, although I like potatoes. Wait while I stub out my fag!! I bought some bulbs on a whim last spring, popped them in some earth, and forgot about them. I was faascinated watching them grow. They were ... more