Has anyone grown the Beaucoup White Begonia yet? I just picked up two plants and the flowers are a pretty white w/pale peach pastel color. Tag says Begonia boliviensis hybrid, 12-18"H x 12-18"W. Just wondering how they performed for you.
Here's a link with a pic.
http://www.romencegardens.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=plants.plantDetail&plant_id=3530&typeID=8
Beaucoup White Begonia
That's a new one to me. I like it but have never seen it before. I really like boliviensis. There are some nice hybrids now. I can't find one around here this year. One of our local nurseries told me that one of their big growers had a complete crop failure; some kind of fungus in his greenhouse. Last year everyone had flats of them. I love orange flowers but some of the new hybrids have dark foliage which is nice too.
Let us know how it works out for you. Do you overwinter them? I keep some in the basement in their original pots just cut back the foliage and water lightly maybe once a month (if I remember). I had three survive but once they started to sprout a chipmunk bit them off. They are re sprouting and are protected now. Last year I had a couple that I kept get to be good sized plants.
Shifty, I planted the 2 Beaucoup plants in a large planter in part shade and will see how they do this summer. The flowers sure are pretty, like little open tulips.
Progress report and pics please? Thanks.
Hi killdawabbit, so far, Beaucoup begonia is not performing for me as well as I had thought it would. I had to remove both plants from a larger container that was in direct sunlight and ended up putting one in a pot on the picnic table (which is under an umbrella) and the other in a combo pot that is still unfortunately in more sun than is needed. I lost alot of shade when we had a pine tree removed last year.
Anyway, the shaded plant is doing better with dark green leaves. The one in the sun is struggling, mostly my fault, b/c of poor choice in combo planting (coleus) and location. I just had nowhere else to put it.
Here's a pic of the one kept on the table. It's doing okay but I was hoping it would be bigger (like a dragonwing/angelwing type begonia).
Here's the one in the combo planting in full sun. It's getting swallowed up by the coleus.
It's beautiful. Thanks for the pic. I had never heard of the Beaucoups. I ordered Beaucoup Rose this morning. I wonder if they will be tuberous like boliviensis? I hope so. So far I have successfully overwintered boliviensis indoors for about 3 years now and the tubers are huge.
How do you go about overwintering? Can I just bring it in the house and give southern exposure like any houseplant?
I've been keeping them in an unheated room near a window facing south. Sometimes they go dormant and sometimes they keep growing. I think it depends on how much water you give them.
I was very late repotting mine this year. Usually at this time I have branches hanging down about 2 feet.
Very nice kill. I have overwintered mine for 3 years now too. I trim them back before a hard frost and then put them (in their pots or baskets) in an unheated room in my cellar,with only a small basement window for light. The rest of the stems will drop off and I water maybe 3 or 4 times during the winter. At some point in the spring I notice sprouts and bring them out and repot them. Even if I don't see sprouts, I pot them up. I have only lost one and it was to over watering while they were dormant. I don't have the room to keep them growing all winter but I did try once and they ended up going dormant anyway. This is truly the "no care" method for these guys.
I also bought the Bonfires this spring. Choc Red and Scarlet. I hope they are as easy to overwinter as the species.
I bought the same ones. I wanted Choc pink but the place I ordered it from said they had a crop failure. Next year.
Cool. I potted mine in Miracle Gro 2x. We can compare notes in the future.