Most begonias grow like weeds in the ground (at least in their native habitats). I've seen some growing on limestone rocks in Belize and Guatemala. They are a lot tougher than what we typically think.
I planted a six pack of DW a couple of years ago in a bed that received full sun and it was a drought that summer (so I watered sparingly). They thrive in sunny conditions.
QUESTION.......Are these lovely flowers on the deer or groundhog menu of main dishes. Deer and groundhogs are getting to be our worst enemy. We are consistantly looking for another plant they will generally not molest.
I have seen an occasional catalog making usually safe with deer. The key word being "usually" if the catalog is generally honest with such indications.
3jsmom, I was talking about bloom color. I don't know if Dragon Wing foliage comes in any color but green. They also come with orange & white blooms.
Maybe we'll see them this year or next :). Things are sometimes slow here, lol. I'd sure love to expand, as the plant structure is great!
I have not had deer damage to begonias and we don't have groundhogs where we live (crossing fingers we don't get any either). I've got more problems with two big dogs fighting and tipping pots over or an overzealous tail wagging that depcapitates plants. Rabbits always seem to eat my sunflower blooms before they get any size on them but so far (knock on wood) they have let the begonias alone. I've had a couple of passionate box turtles nestling among pots but surprisingly no damage.
I didn't know DW had white and orange blooms. There are some "baby" DW that have white blooms but the leaves look more round than the typical DW. I bet the major growers are busy working on introducing new colors since DW is such a popular bedding plant.
Baby DW White and Pink
Wonder what they are crossing it with to get rounder leaves? Maybe semperflorens? Have you guys ever created a begonia cross? I have an old, old semperflorens? plant that seeds all over. I am glad that it does, though, I have it growing here and there and am always happy to see that it's still here :). The only time I object is if it chokes out someone smaller in their own pot, than my sense of justice takes over.
Here is a pic of a small one I gave the kids to grow in their room... What would you call it? It gets strong red in the stems and the flowers tend to be light pink.
Doc, I've always thought DG should have a forum just on Deer Proofing and showing lists of deer proof plants. It's such a big problem for so many people.
The value of it would be questionable because deer will eat nearly anything in two instances...over population and dry period starvation from both food and water. There are a few plants that they tend to pass up noted in some catalogs. Those lists are sometimes questionable. It is not an easy subject to entertain.
For instance Hosta is generally thought to be deer food. Hosta has been left alone by the deer in my backyard. Groundhogs? Oh boy they can take out a bed of hosta in just a few days in my back yard. Many gardeners have never seen a ground hog in surburban gardening. I dealt with eleven the year of 2008 and four in 2009. I have had an occasional year with no ground hogs showing. Ask my two closest gardening neighbors and they will say they have no groundhog problems. Neither of them would know how to deal with them because they have a good neighbor that does know how to remove them when they show up.
Gita That is really pretty. Not sure what color my Dragon wings will be they are part of my HGHA order. I also ordered some 6" begonias not sure what color they will be either. I was thinking they would look nice mixed into the beds in place of impatiens. I was thinking the DW's could go in the window boxes with the Caladiums. I saw a beautiful pic of Pink Wave Begonias planted in a hanging basket with Caladiums. Here is the picture.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=7466803
3jsmom, Not sure what type of EE you are looking at. Last year I got a couple of huge Port Odora Elephant Ear bulbs from the Caladium Co-op they did very well. The bulbs are huge. If you are interested Caladiums for less has an add in the Classified. That is where mine came from, I have been getting my Caladiums from him through the Co-ops for a couple of years now.
Holly, One of those New Jersey shows that Allison posted was having a class just on window boxes. I bet Begonias and Caladiums would look great together in window boxes especially Dragon Wings.
Two years ago, I had ONE groundhog that decided to dig under my front concrete steps. It was like--one morning, I came out to do something, and there was a pile of dirt by my steps. My first though was that I had rats!!! AAAGGHHH! but the hole was too big.
I filled it back up but later that same day, there was dirt all over again.
Now I turned to DG and in the M.A.F. where we had all kinds of discussions about how to get rid of them.
Finally--what worked was putting Ammonia-soaked rags down the hole--along with some Moth balls scattered just under the soil. I did that a few times--and never saw any activity again. Someone suggested that it was probably a female desperately looking for a place to "nest"...
Doc--you could soak some old rags in Ammonia and scatter them around where the Groundhogs show any activity.
"Refresh" every few days. See if that works.
I live in a development--so I do not have any problems with dear, but i sure have friends that do.
You could Google it--and get plenty of leads....
From personal reports of people that live in the "Boondocks"--some use very simple, but effective methods.
For you guys--urinate all along the perimeter of your garden. That seems to repel them. If you keep it up--your bathroom will never need much use and the deer will run....;o) They sell Coyote urine products--don't they?
God luck! You couls also contact "stormy" who has fought with all kinds of critters in her garden...
Gita
LOL Doc, I'm with you. I prefer a more permanent solution to the GH's. I'm also not very well equipped for the peeing methodology!
Gita I remember that discussion. We had one about the same time living in the barn. We ended up using a humane trap with cantaloupe and moved ours to a better location. Although there have been a couple that got a more permanent fix.
Stormy, I still didn't get to really look at that thread. It's posted on the new chat thread isn't it?
No, Holly. It's on the Event thread.
Oh thanks Stormy, I want to get over to the chat thread, too. I had started and then got pulled away.
