Begonias in the garden – 4

My Begonia collection continues to grow, to the point where my list making instincts are about to kick in. This year has seen the addition of a number of species and varieties and I’ve just placed an order for another five so I’m not easing up on them just yet.

My focus continues to be on varieties that can be grown out in the garden at least for the summer, either planted in the ground or stood out in pots. As I have said before, even the varieties that are reckoned to be hardy (and what an elusive term that is!) seem to fare much better if lifted and brought in for the winter. There are only a few that I leave permanently in the ground and even then I propagate young plants which are wintered under cover and which when planted out, will often rapidly overtake their parents in growth.

Tregrehan rare plant fair, reliably one of the highlights of my gardening year, once again yielded a couple of new forms this year. Crûg Farm Nurseries were there and I immediately spotted Begonia baviensis BWJ15651on their stand. Their label says it should prove relatively hardy but best approached with caution. I have planted it in the ground under my bamboo and it has made slow but steady progress. Caution will take the shape of lifting it in autumn to overwinter under glass. Dan Hinkley, in an article in The Plant Review, describes it as ‘worth growing, if only in a container’. It is a rhizomatous type, seemingly slow spreading, covered with red bristles on stems, leaves and flower buds. I have a plant of a variety called ‘Curly Fireflush’ which has similar bristles but is described as a Rex type. It is hard to believe they are not related in some way.

Also picked up at Tregrehan but I don’t remember from which nursery stall and there is nothing on the label, was a plant labelled Begonia aff. panchtharensis. I should have asked questions but it was busy and I was in a rush. Is it known to be close to B. panchtharensis, perhaps a seedling that looked a bit different, or did the seller not know and B. panchtharensis was what it looked like to them? If I buy something that is claimed to be “real” B. panchtharensis is it going to be any different? It certainly looks like pictures of B. panchtharensis online. It is a very ornamental plant and has made good growth in the time it has been in the ground. It is thirsty and wilts if too dry, has even suffered scorching to the leaves, but now that I am wise to that I am keeping it moist. In late June it produced large white flowers on short stems that kept them below the foliage, in contrast to online pictures of the species which show them coming above the foliage. Until I have a backup plant I shall lift it for winter.

Begonia tengchiana is a Taiwanese species that was a mail order purchase from Farmyard Nurseries in Camarthenshire. When it arrived in April it was a good sized and robust plant which when the risk of very cold weather passed I planted in the garden under the bamboo near where B. baviensis was to go later. It has continued to thrive and is now in flower, perhaps not as showy as some but in combination with good foliage, a plant I am very happy to have. They say it is supposedly hardy to -8°C so I may see if I can detach a piece to keep indoors for winter, then leave the main plant out. Surviving through winter is one thing, I have a few that have done that, but if they are then in such poor condition that they struggle to get going in the new season, it is not a good strategy to leave them out. The Hosta incidentally, is ‘Devon Green’.

There were two other Begonias on the same Farmyard order, both forms of B. grandis, which does seem to be reliably hardy in the other forms that I have. One I have planted out, that is B. grandis ‘Sapporo’, another Michael Wickenden introduction, from Sapporo in Japan. It has red undersides to the leaves and infusing the rest of the plant to a degree. I have yet to see it flower but it is a good looking variety and will produce bulbils in autumn that I will collect and keep under protection in the hope they will give me many more young plants next spring.
The other variety is B. grandis ssp. sinensis BWJ8011A ‘Red Undies’, which was dormant when it arrived in April and didn’t start into growth until the end of May. It is still in its pot, still in the glasshouse and looking so similar to ‘Sapporo’ that I probably didn’t need both, although without growing both how am I to know which is the better form?

There was another B. grandis, ‘Heron’s Pirouette’, that I obtained from Growild as bulbils. Yet to flower, still in a pot, much the same as the rest so far. B. grandis ‘Nanjiang Silver’, from Growild a couple of years earlier, came through the winter outdoors, though it started into growth late and a few plants I’d raised from bulbils I’d collected in the autumn were further on when I planted them this spring to enlarge the clump. None of the grandis varieties like it as dry as it is; they don’t show signs of distress until they’ve been too dry for a while but they stop growing well before that.

Begonia ‘Garden Angel Blush’ would take the prize for most improved plant this year. It has been planted out for summer, lifted for winter, for a couple of years, and having come through last winter well, really hit the ground running this spring. It is one of a series that includes ‘Garden Angel Silver’ and ‘Garden Angel Plum’, neither of which I have but if I saw them offered would grab.

Not far behind, in terms of growth, is B. ‘Mishmi Silver’. It has very dark green foliage, discreetly marked silver and red underneath. Looking at earlier pictures, the silver was more prominent last year. Fallen fuchsia flowers have created mouldy spots on the leaves but it is still a great foliage plant. Unfortunately it doesn’t flower until deep into winter, by which time I will have lifted it and brought it under cover.

Begonia U614 doesn’t seem to have been given a name yet but has continued to do well in spite of it. I split my large overwintered plant in two when it came to planting time, both are doing well. A piece of the original plant which I left in the ground in its first winter, then lifted in the second, was evidently not all removed as it has reappeared and is doing moderately well in its original location, having been in the ground through three or four winters now. I still have a few seedlings of it that I have been struggling to keep going. A couple seem to be making headway now, less deeply lobed and lacking any silvering, so not in any way an improvement. I will keep them until they flower at least.

B. ‘Wavy Green’ is another that I have two plants of, one of which stays out and the other comes in. It survives winter outside, but only just. It may be that because it emerges so late, it does so when the soil has become rather too dry for it to make good growth. The indoor plant is also struggling with the dry conditions but was much further on when it was planted out this spring.

In my last piece on Begonias I said that B. ‘Connie Boswell’ had proved rather slug prone in the ground and that I intended keeping it in a pot this year. It was the right decision; it was inside for the winter, pruned to tidy it up in spring then stood out in my shady area for summer. Slug damage has been minimal and once it had leafed out after pruning, it really showed its quality. That’s ‘Gryphon’ at bottom right of the picture.

I will mention two more new additions. B. ‘Sophie Cecile’ was purchased from Dibleys last year as a plug plant. It stayed in the house over winter and has been in the conservatory since spring, having been potted into a 3L pot. It is a cane type with very large leaves and it looks like it will make a fabulous plant. B. carolineifolia was a Dibleys plant too, but I found it in a local garden centre. It has grown prodigiously since and has also been potted into a 3L pot. It looks plenty robust enough to live outside in summer, provided it gets through winter in the glasshouse. I have an order in with them again, I must need more pots to water in a drought.

There are more, several more, but I will save them until a later article.