For our second installment of the Plant Circle at Home series, we’re visiting Pietro Zambello, friend of Plant Circle and collector of rare plants, Begonias in particular.
Ready to feel like maybe you don’t have that many plants after all? Then read on!

Hi Pietro and welcome to Plant Circle at Home! Tell us when you started collecting plants and why? 
I started collecting Begonia maybe two years ago, after a long time keeping and breeding frogs. I enjoy a good hunt, and I’m a collector at heart in the most victorian way imaginable, and somehow jungle plants and Begonia in particular caught my attention. I can’t quite explain why it had to be Begonias, I have struggled the same way to explain how I ever ended up with frogs! I did have phases in between, though, with corals, English roses, and South American miniature orchids, but Begonias just tick all the right boxes in my head! There’s something about the leaf colors and shape, and logic about these plants that’s just perfect.
I guess a massive plus was iridescence, which I have always been attracted to, so I decided to focus on South East Asian non-tuberous species.

How many plants approximately are there in your collection?
Gosh, if you count all the propagation trays and mother plants, possibly a couple thousands? 

What’s your favorite species and why?
I think Begonia Rockii. As I mentioned, iridescence is something I have been attracted to ever since stumbling across a 19th century text on bioluminescence in European forests. After many ridiculous thoughts regarding glowing plants and luciferase, I settled for the next best thing; iridescence!
Begonia Rockii came into my collection only recently, and it’s a large species with fleshy hand-sized leaves that are as close as it gets to a mirror. 

“I don’t believe in difficult plants, only in wrong environments”
-Pietro Zambello

What’s the easiest plant in your collection?
My garden Begonia! I’m actually obsessed with Begonia Grandis and hybrids, with my all time favorite being Begonia Torsa.

Massive leaves, slightly iridescent and indestructible. Spends winter as a tuber in my fridge. You can’t ask for more!

What’s your most difficult plant?
I don’t believe in difficult plants, only in wrong environments. If a plant is being is difficult, it’s because it’s a non established plant, like a recent import. 
My imported plants usually needs weeks to pick up as Begonias ship awfully, and you need to bring back the homeostatic level over a long period of time, crowned by leaf losses and stem rot, repotting and moving through boxes with decrescent humidity levels. In most cases you end up with only a 2 square cm leaf wedge rooting!

What’s the best piece of advice you ever got in regards to growing plants that you wish you had known sooner? 
Don’t bother them! Don’t overthink, over measure, try to figure out soils, and come up with new remedies. 
My grandma was growing incredible plants basically in the dark with zero knowledge, and they’d make some instagram scientist from today cringe. I’m learning this myself; that less is more. That maybe if instead of changing the growth medium every four days, I could just let the plant figure it out, and we’d both be happier. 

How long do you spend tending to your plants on a daily/weekly basis?
I think about plants, like, all the time! It’s my safe space.
I took my whole collection to work, so I can take a lot of little breaks during the day. Usually I’ll get to the plant room at the end of my day for a few hours, where I mostly repot or propagate.

What’s the most valuable plant in your collection for you? (Not based on the market value)
My blue Sonerilas. It was a gift I received from a friend after a night in Sumatra. I was there with my brother, and we had to take three flights from Borneo to reach central Sumatra, and ended up staying there only one night at my friends farm in the mountains, which we reached after dark, and after hours of travel by car. There I was shown these ridiculous plants, and many more, that are just blue and shine at the slightest shimmer. It was very overwhelming and surreal. None of these plants ever managed to leave Sumatra, as they ship terribly.
I took home a 2 cm sprout and it’s a crazy feeling to have a plant that, besides not being described, you can’t even find and online record of! It was a process to figure it out, and I’m so happy I have many of them.
I think I’m low key trying to recreate that night over and over. I was very happy.

What do you see in plants that you think other people don’t and wish they did?
Poetry

What do plants bring to your life?
Mostly a sense of control. I think about my plants every night before I go to sleep, and rearrange them in my head.
I guess that’s what they bring to anybody? You feel in charge, without the pressure of feelings, as a plant is not in pain, and even if it’s is undernourished, it won’t feel hunger like for example a dog would. And then of course the positive feedback you get from seeing them grow, and the tiny moment where you think you cracked the code of life because you see a new leaf! And the panic three days later when it starts melting!