Tropicals & Tender Perennials: show your bigt leaf begonias, 1 by hcmcdole

hcmcdole wrote:
Thanks for sharing those pictures Candela. The last one (nelumbiifolia) can get HUGE! At Fairchild Gardens I saw one in the conservatory that had to be two feet across!

I got Lotusland at the 2007 L.A. Convention at Mike Flaherty's store - The Gazebo and split the cost with another woman from Florida. I gave her the biggest piece and I took a rhizome with one leaf. Lost mine in the winter. Two years later at the West Palm Beach convention the woman propagated me a new one so I successfully got this one through the winter this past year. It is a bit hard to propagate for me but I finally got a couple to root and grow.

Mary, you can buy the large leaf begonias from mail order places such as eBay, Taylor Greenhouses, Palm Hammock Orchid Estates, Kartuz, and maybe a couple of others. The best way to obtain them is to visit nurseries in person and attend conventions. B. parvifolia was purchased on eBay a few years ago for example and is either a thick stem or a shrub/cane. Here is a picture of one in its entirety and this is not my largest one (it seems like the newer shoots from the ground become larger than the older canes). B. 'Art Hodes' is the one sprawling around the base of this begonia.