Good morning from the garden!

If you’ve followed me for long, you know I like to say ‘never say never’.  I definitely tend to change my mind over time about things that I like … or don’t like.

For example, I once thought I’d never use sparkly gold shoe laces, but I did.  I also thought I’d never wallpaper again, but I did that too.  Well, it was in miniature so maybe that doesn’t count?

I also thought I would never want begonias in my garden.  You know I have a lot of shade, and any list of ‘flowering annuals for shade’ will include begonias.  So it was a bit unfortunate that not only did I not really like the look of them, I also had trouble keeping them from getting root rot.

But that was when I thought the only begonias out there were the old ‘wax begonias’.

I’m sorry, but I don’t think those are even remotely pretty.

Then I discovered rex begonias.

That variety is Shadow King Cherry Mint.

They do flower, but clearly they are grown for their foliage rather than their flowers which are usually hidden beneath the foliage anyway.

I first planted them in my front window box and discovered that they absolutely love it in that north facing location.

This year I tried a couple of new varieties in the window box.  Here is Escargot …

along with a Sea Salt artemesia (on left) and purple heuchera (on right).

I added this fun spotted begonia (sorry, I didn’t keep track of that one’s name) to the front window box too.

I also planted up some pots on the deck with the Cherry Mint rex begonias along with Blueberry Muffin hostas,  and more of that Sea Salt artemesia.

The beauty of these sort of combos is that they don’t rely on blooms to look good.  Also, in the case of these pots on the deck, I have a matched pair on either side of the door and one gets much more sun than the other.  So the sunnier one would always have way more flowers than the shadier one when I planted flowering annuals in them.  This way they look more balanced.

Another huge bonus to rex begonias is that they are easy to over winter as houseplants.

  You also can easily propagate more of them from cuttings.

  So they can be an excellent way to save money by not having to buy new plants every year.

And actually, if you are budget minded, this is the 2nd year for those Blueberry Muffin hostas too.  I pulled them out of the pots last fall and put them in the ground, then when they came up in the spring I dug them up and put them back in the pots.

They are getting a bit too big for the pots now though, so I may not be able to use them there again next year.  However, I can find a spot for them in the garden so they won’t go to waste.

But not only am I now loving the Rex begonias, I’ve also discovered some hybrid begonias that are much prettier than those old varieties like this Elatior begonia …

It’s planted with a Diamond Snow euphorbia and a Summer Breeze caladium.  This pot is in fairly deep shade, but it does get some early morning sun from the east, and that begonia is absolutely covered in blooms.  Not only are the flowers larger and more vibrant than those old wax begonias, but the foliage is prettier too.

I put three more of this variety in the planter on the potting shed too.

I recently read that you can overwinter these begonias as house plants as well, so I may be giving that a try this year.

I could really cut down on the cost of filling all of my planters in the spring!

How about you?  Do you like begonias?  Maybe you even liked those old wax begonias?  Leave a comment and let me know.