Friday, February 17, 2012

Beguiling Begonia—A Few February Flowers

Lots of light and humidity are key to wintering over begonias.

Not a lot of blooms in the house right now, but this Dragon Wing Begonia is doing well this winter. This is my "annual" begonia, which is almost ten years old now. I bring it in each fall and put it out again in the spring. Mary gave this to me in 2002, and it was so beautiful that first fall I just couldn't leave it outside to die. Every spring I cut it back when I put it outside, and then again in the fall when I bring it in, and it just keeps flowering. The blooms are this pretty salmon pink in winter, and darken slightly in summer.

Sittin' pretty last summer. I've made two other plants from clippings of this begonia.

Click on each image to enlarge.

Bonus Video
This video has absolutely nothing to do with my begonia, lol, but when I typed  "Beguiling Begonia" for the headline, I was reminded of that Swing-era song by Cole Porter, Begin the Beguine. So for no other reason, enjoy Artie Shaw's band performing this classic dance tune! ("Beguine" is a type of West Indian dance similar to a Foxtrot)

10 comments:

  1. Beautiful Casey..my grandma would bring in her geraniums but don't think she brought in the begonia..think she seeded them..would that be right? Are they the ones that get pods and you can pop them open?? knowing me and my VAST (NOT) knowledge of plants, could have been something else..
    I'm always afraid I'll bring in little "creature friends" with the plant so I have too big of a chicken to try to bring them in!
    Yours are just lovely..
    Mare

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  2. I think that must be another plant, Mare. Begonias are usually started by propagating, or cutting a stem and rooting it. I actually found out reading about this Dragon Wing that it's what they call a sterile plant. It never seeds, so it can't start new plants that way. It remains in bloom constantly TRYING to seed, but because of the way it was developed as a hybrid, it can never actually make seeds. Plus it was only available to the general public in 2001, so Mary was right on the ball and got me this one in the first series of them. I'm so glad I've saved it all these years!

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  3. Fellow Caseyheads,lol, Casey's internet may be down, please be patient for his response. He notified me last night of this issue. Thanks!

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  4. I like that, Caseyheads! Well, my service came back on last night, and stayed on all night and it's still on right now, so I hope this means everything is fine again. Thanks Woody!

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  5. You got my feet to dancing, thanks, Casey. Hmmm.... maybe you could post music to use as a daily exercise tape. Heck, repeat 5X and you have a great 20 min. workout.

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  6. WILL YOU SAVE MY LAST DANCE WITH YOU? GRAMP[S DOESN'T DANCE.SO I THINK I CAN GET HIS OK.LOL I NEVER COULD GET FLOWERS TO LIVE ALL WINTER BUT THEN THAT WAS UP NORTH YEARS AGO. IN FLORISA THEY LIVE OUTDOORS EXCEPT WHEN WE HAVE ABOUT TWO WEEKS OF COLD IN FEB.THEN I JUST HAVE GRAMPS PUT THEM IN THE GARAGE. I JUST WISH I COULD DO FLOWER GARDEN LIKE I USED TO DO.NOW WEEDS DO WELL IN THE BACKYARD. FRONT YARD LOOKS NICE BUT WAY TO MANY ANT HILLS.

    THANKS FOR SHARING. YOU MAKE MY DAY. GRANNIES ARE JUST THAT WAY. SIMPLE THINGS IN LIFE MAKE THEM HAPPY.
    JUST LOVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE OUTDOORS AND NATURE.

    GRANNY

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  7. Casey, long time, no see... Great site here, wonderful stuff, found your car pics :)... I wondered how you were doing, and went to AJ's site but it was un-active for quite a while, so I Googled Casey Art and Colour and POW! This popped up.

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  8. Hey Beav! Great to see you here! It's been quite a few years. I don't think we've "spoken" since that horrible tornado experience of yours. I hope you stick around and comment once in a while. You'll like my car site too. I have cars on both sites—I started the cars-only site after this one, and haven't gotten around to putting all of them on one site. You'll find a lot of Mustangs on both! thanks for saying, Hi!

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  9. Tornado well behind, our town is reborn... Will definitely check out all your sites... :) I will stay in touch now that I found where your at!

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