Please post pictures of your favorite cane/angle wing begonias. I want to collect a few. It would be helpful to know which ones grow the best, bloom well, and smell nice.
Johanna
Favorite angle wings?
I had amazing success with Torch. It takes very little care, doesn't get mildew and blooms for me ( a huge deal for a beginner!)
Tru, how did you get pink blooms on Torch?
Here is a bunch of Torch begonias at Discovery Cove. Midday is a terrible time in Orlando to shoot pictures but you gotta make do.
Johanna, if you want big canes try Irene Nuss, Silvermist, Encanto Bronze, Sophie Cecile (very shy bloomer), Di-Anna, coccinea, and Lana. Medium canes - Torch, My Special Angel, maculata, Flamingo Queen, Orange Rubra, Texas Lone Star, Ebony, Avalanche, Eastgate, and Down Home. Small canes - Cracked Ice, Tom Ment, Lois Burks, Medora (this can get tall but the leaves are small), Fabulous Tom, Snow Capped, Tangier.
Beware of Mallet types and large polka dot types - notorious for mildew once the weather gets cool in fall. The newest weapon against mildew is Milstop - wished I had this product a few years ago because I've treated a lot of canes as annuals due to mildew.
Here is Di-Anna.
A pot of assorted canes makes a nice statement.
Mrs. Hashimoto is the white bloomer with green leaves (lost it), Encanto Bronze has huge green leaves and pink blooms, and maculata is the big polka dot one and blooms white.
Flamingo Queen was hybridized in Australia and makes a statement without blooms. It is mildew prone but so far I've gotten it through two winters.
some spotted canes.
a few more
A red bloomer (no name).
My mother grew this Irene Nuss to over 5 feet tall last year from cuttings I gave her.
Lana is hard to beat. It gets great silver splashes in dimmer light as exhibited in the basement a month or two ago and still bloomed. The polka dotted one is Di-Anna.
Silvermist may be one of my favorites. It gets extra large silver leaves in shade but if you want it to bloom it has to have some sun. Here it was two years ago in fairly deep shade but no blooms.
and here it is in sun in 2005 with bright pink blooms.
My Special Angel is special.
Cracked Ice is small but packs a lot of punch. I don't remember seeing this one bloom. There are lots of shy bloomers such as Cracklin Rosie, Sophie Cecile, and Looking Glass (another mildew magnet).
One more for the road:
Sophie is the full one while Cracklin Rosie is the leaves on a stick. Hopefully Rosie will look a lot better this year.
Torch is a great plant. I have grown it in the past. But this is the only time that I have seen it in the ground. Beautiful!
Hcmcdole, Where do you buy your plants? I will have to order since our nurseries never carry them. Your plants are so well cared for. Di-Anna is a knockout! Of course the rest are too.
I found Torch, My Special Angle,and a red Dragonwing when we went out of town last month. I even went to a huge nusery in Metairie today and found none--but of course, did not leave empty handed. (clematis and bottle brush)
Johanna
'My Special Angel' is a great begonia.
You can buy plenty of begonias through mail order including eBay. Start with Kartuz, Logee's, and Taylor Greenhouses. Check with your big box stores (Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe's) every week or two since shipments are ongoing. Small nurseries often carry some begonias. Trades are another method although they are usually small scale.
A great way to start is with a convention. Not cheap by any stretch but a great way to start a collection. If you have a local chapter of the ABS in your area then that would be another way to get with like minded folks. They often bring lots of cuttings in and have annual sales.
Some begonias from last year include maculata, 'Encanto Bronze', 'Lotusland', 'Morocco', 'Mrs. Hashimoto', and 'Judy Cook'.
I will check for a chapter of the ABS closest to me. That would be fun.
Logee's so frequently sends tiny plants for too much money. The same for Glasshouse Works. Beautiful catalogues, however. The ebay vendors send 3" pots...so I assume small starts, still not cheap. I will check them out again. And I love small local nurseries. Katrina + big box stores have killed most of the best nurseries around here.
Thanks.
Gorgeous Angel wings Butch. My Cracklin Rosie is a stick too but she
roots very easily and I have 3 pots of her. So I think I will combine two of the plants for some extra fullness.
My new fibrous hanging basket, 5.00 at Lowes yesterday. It's healthy and huge, a great bargain.
Johanna,
That's the price you pay for buying plants mail order so get used to it. If you can find it locally it will be a lot bigger and a lot cheaper (most of the time) but if you can't find what you want then it is mail order unless you live near a grower who specializes in begonias. I won't order from GHW unless it is the only place that offers it and then it is usually wrong. Logee's has some good size plants but they are a bit high. They offer some things no one else has so you pay the price.
Hey Jackie,
I've had that Cracklin Rosie for years and it was great when I got it. I think I didn't know what I was doing back then so hopefully have it headed in the right direction.
I've got a few wax begonias but they have to be special - double blooms, variegation like Charm, or extra big blooms or very full of blooms. Have you seen the new wax begonia 'Big'? Very large single blooms.
I certainly agree about paying whatever to a seller if it is the only choice I have for a "gotta have it" plant. And I have done it more times than I can count. Passiflora, dyckias, sansevierias, ceropegias, daylillies, and-several years ago-cane begonias!
So I do indeed know all of these online nuseries. And ebay, too.
But I have never tried Taylor. Looks like it might be time for Taylor now.
:-)
Johanna
Patootie, I may hit HomeDepot tomorrow. It's been a while. Our Lowes had wax and dragonwings 2 days ago.
Butch, I haven't seen the new wax Begonia Big but I'll be on the look-out
for it. I prefer canes but this basket was so nice, blooming heavily I
couldnt resist. I just lost a dbl blooming wax, noticed it, too, had mildew.
I chunked it, just so tired of fighting mildew. I had just purchased it 3 weeks ago. Must have had the mildew
when I bought it.
Butch, My Cracklin Rosie came from cuttings from Greg Sytch. If
I had kept them potted up like they needed, they would have been good sized now.
Johanna, the red Dragonwing is one of the prettiest canes I think.
I bought 3 Charm this year, a double that looks similar to Dragon Wings, two Big (one bronze leaf and one green leaf), and another double bronze leaf. Semps would be great if it weren't for mildew in winter.
Here is a colorful semp.
Had this semp last year next to Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost'. It was a good contrast.
This semp actually survived outdoors the winter before last in a large pot (laid on its side so it wouldn't stay wet) under the deck with no other protection. We had two nights that got down to 10 in a row and a lot of nights in the low 20's.
I have seen other photos of Di Anna online. These all have pink flrs. HC, where did you get your red flowered one?
Johanna
Butch
A belated answer about my pink flowered Torch. It was so labeled at a local nursery. You know the story. The leaves look exactly like the ones you took pictures of at Discovery cove. It bloomed indoors for me. SO maybe the low light or wrong identity???
Very nice semperflorens Butch. I had a friend who grew a semp
very similiar to mine a few yrs ago. Hers also survived the winter
outside. It's possible though that hers came back from the dropped seeds
I got both pink and red flowering torch from NC Farms.
Johanna, I bought Di-Anna at a nursery on one of Keys coming back from Key West 8 years ago. No name. Based on the leaves I thought it was Mary Ann Flunker. I sent some pictures of it to a begonia expert (ex president of the ABS) and he said it was Di-Anna which was good enough for me.
Rosie, I know what you mean about mislabeling. I doubt the color would be pink due to lighting but who knows. My Torch has not done well over the years I've had it so I bought a new one a few weeks ago and planted it in a raised bed. The flowers are intense red.
Jackie, that semp truly came back from the roots so I was amazed. I had one other begonia that came back from the roots at my last house when I had planted Lucerna, Sophie, Irene, and an unkonwn (now ID'ed this past weekend by the same expert as coccinea var. hort.) in the ground. I took cuttings late fall but the only one that failed was coccinea. The following spring (late spring) coccinea was the only one that emerged from the ground and I was relieved to know that I had not lost it altogether.
Butch, I lost my Di-anna and coccinea yrs ago. Seems like my Dianna
had a tiny red edge to the margin. Wish I had
every angel wing I have lost over the yrs, I would have a huge collection.
One I miss the most is Stew Stewart's Crazy Horse and indeed it was crazy. Even with pinching trying to control the darn thing, it would send out a 5 or 6 foot branch whichever way it wanted to. Impossible to make
it have a nice shape, but wish I still had it.
Sinbad coming back from the mildew. Sinbad is also a Stewart hybrid
if memory serves me correctly.
I'd love to see a picture of that "crazy" begonia Jackie.
Are you sure that picture is Sinbad? It looks like 'Benigo' or something similar. I usually lose Sinbad, Maurice Amy, Don Miller, Benigo, Lynda Dawn, etc. to mildew. I kept one of them this year but kept it under lights, watered sparingly (not dry but not wet either), and sprayed with Milstop after I found out about it. It has sent up lots of new growth from the ground. I shall do this in the future to the Mallet group and large polka dot canes.
Lynda Dawn was the first one to show mildew so it went downhill FAST.
Here is Lynda (the dark leaf beauty) before the mildew started. I had the 18" pot full with Lynda, Dragon Wings, Ikon Blush (I am growing a bunch of it from seeds I harvested this winter), odorata, and Medora which can be a pain to keep too.
Beg Lynda is a beauty.
Butch, you are so right about my pic, Benigo, not Sinbad. Just another
Sr moment for me.
If I run across an old photo of Crazy Horse, will share
Found this at my local Farmers Market outlet. A Mallet of some type
I may have had this one before.
Looks like a beauty Jackie. Do you think it may be Burning Bush?
I wish Home Depot would get some canes in like they did 2 or 3 years ago. They had many different ones in 8 inch pots for $4 including Maurice Amey, Benigo, Don Miller, and Lynda Dawn to name a few.
Butch, possibly Burning Bush or one of the U #s. I picked up a Frosty which looks just like Don Miller to me. I don't see any difference between the two.
Also got a nice Maurice Amey. Sorry for the bad pic
OOOH, that is a very nice Maurice. I think Frosty is a bit more silver than Don Miller but like you said it is too close to call.
I was fortunate to buy another gallon sized B. 'Sinbad' a few weeks ago. Always a good annual if I can't overwinter it. I put this in an 18 inch pot along with caladiums 'Gingerland' and 'Little Miss Muffet'.
Anyone recognize this cane? Bought it from a small etailer years ago in Louisinana. I can't remember if it is Down Home or Eastgate. Both those names are what I remember.
The new Torch is blooming like crazy. It loves the sun and receives full sun from 11 until late afternoon. I have it planted in a raised bed along with two 'Big' begonias (one green leaf and one bronze leaf).
