I met Kathy from here at out local farmers market and she directed me to the older lady who sells plants there..she showed me 2 begonias that are very very old..the mother plant was her moms and this lady is almost 80 herself..here are the pictures ..please somebody tell me the names of these..I am going to cherish these...Judy
Heres the other begonia..Judy
Hi Judy, the first one is probably b. bunchii aka Lettuce Leaf Begonia
I'm not sure about the second one.
Thank you for knowing what the one was..I told the lady I would let her know what it was since shes had the mother plants for years and really cherishes it..Judy
Cant say for sure that that's it's name as there's another that has those ruffles called b. crestabruchii so you may need to google them both to see which is the best fit. Or at the very least you can narrow it down to a few even if you cant get an exact ID.
Susan,
You are right - it is some sort of beefsteak ('Erythrophylla'). The thing is - there are a lot of similar hybrids and most had a name from the hybridizer in the beginning but over time the name gets lost in all the propagation, pass along plants, etc.
I think the first one is more than likely 'Bunchii'` like Laurie said (lettuce leaf - tastes great?).
Susan this begonia is a very old begonia..the woman who had them first died at 80 something and her daughter inherited these begonias..she is now almost 80 so you can figure these begonias come from mother plants over 100 years old...neat huh and I only paid a buck for each.....beefsteak sounds like thats what it is....thank you both for IDing them..Im going to tel the gal who owns the mother plant what I found out....Judy
