I'm curious too. I've heard of crassicaulis but not crassifolius.

I had two but looks like I lost the smaller one. The bigger one is perhaps two feet tall, gets large divided leaves, the rhizome or stem I should say is quite thick (maybe two inches in diameter), and this is my first year for it to bloom with white blossoms.

Here is crass last winter (two years old)
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last summer:

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The lens cap is almost 3 inches across:

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This is how divided the leaves are:

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Hcmcdole, thanks so much for the information...your plant looks identical to mine, except that mine has pink blooms. Yes, the rhyzome is around 2 inches in diameter. I'm not surprised that the nursery owner misnamed it...he called Art Hodes "ant hole"...took me a lot of searching to discover its real name! LOL This plant was propagated by laying the rhyzome horizontally on wet potting soil...with no drainage...there were 3 of them for sale...only the one I purchased had blooms...one hadn't leafed out yet, one had a couple tiny leaves. Mine is about 8" tall with beautiful pink blossoms. The owner said that the rhyzome will get enormous and that you can propagate them by cutting them into 4" pieces and laying them on moist soil. Please be so kind as to tell me the requirements for this begonia...most begonias like a fast draining potting medium...this one has soil that was soaking wet. Does this one need more water than the typical begonia? Should I leave it in the heavy potting soil or re-pot into the typical soil mixture for begonias? Do you know the humidity and light requirements for this plant? From looking at your plant, it appears that the only way to propagate this one is to cut off the entire top of the plant...but, then again, my plant is vertical but the rhyzome is horizontal...so, perhaps the rhyzome will grow and I can remove portions of it without harming the foliage? I want to thank you profusely for properly identifying my plant...it's odd though that we have different bloom coloration. Again, thanks so much! Fondly, Patrick

I've had this one for about 3 or 4 years so it is a slow grower. I have yet to see any offsets and can't prop from a leaf and hate to cut it too. Maybe this year I will cut the top out and prop it and hope the stem branches. The other option is to pollinate the flowers by hand and hope for some viable seed. You can probably buy seed from the ABS if you are a member.

Mine is not really rhizomatous - it is all vertical but is curve shaped which bothers me but its hard to change nature.

It is pretty hot and humid in Atlanta and it handles it with ease. I moved it up to the bigger pot last summer in Miracle Gro potting soil which dries out better than a heavy peat mix (yeah, I would get it out of wet peat ASAP). In the basement I may water it once a week or less and it gets some natural light from a window plus whatever fluorescent hits it.

If you want a bigger plant then you need a bigger pot - just be careful on too much water if you do this while it settles into its new home.

I bought one from GHW years ago that I knew as soon as I received it was not crassicaulis (maybe a hybrid from it) but I liked it so much that I kept it and have given away tons of it. It also develops huge stems but doesn't get tall since the weight of it makes it more horizontal (still not a rhizome in my view). At one time it spanned 8 feet. I bought a Red Umbo last summer which I thought might be my mystery plant but I see enough differences to know they aren't the same.

Here is the one I bought as crassicaulis from GHW. I now just call it "sprawler".

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You can see its sprawling nature in this photo if you let it grow for a number of years.

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And in this photo it has been cut back and is a more vertical growth next to nelumbiifolia.

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And here is Red Umbo which doesn't have the big stalks but is rhizomatous in nature.

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Hcmcdole...I DID respond to you and my post never appeared! This is the 2nd time in as many days that that has happened. I'm just too confused about my plant...it looks identical to the plant in your first two pictures, posted above...but, mine is obviously a rhizomatous begonia and has pink blooms. Do you think that you could grow yours as a rhizome if you were to cut it off and divide the stems into 4" pieces? Mine has equally divided leaves as yours does...but, not as divided as, say a B. luxurians. Mine is definitely not like the one you received from GHW...the foliage on mine is deeply incised. Until I'm better informed, I'm going to stick with the name you provided, B. crassicaulis. I did searches on this name and came up with nothing conclusive...your pictures look like my plant. BTW, I received two orders of begonias today...20 plants...from Taylor Greenhouse and Kartuz...very nice plants! I'm excited about them. Again, thanks so much for your tremendous help...you're a real godsend! Fondly, Patrick

Can you post a picture of your plant Patrick?

I sent my picture of the mystery plant to an expert and he said it was 'Bayberry Lane'. I've had this one for over ten years so now I have a name.

Mark Tebbitt describes crassicaulis

hcmcdole...sorry, I can't post pictures...too computer-illiterate!! I received in the mail yesterday the book on begonias by Mark Tebbitt, which you linked to...thanks. My begonia looks exactly like the picture of B. crassicaulis, including the pink blossoms, in Mark's book. It's a rather tough book to read...a bit too technical for me! I ordered two other books on begonias and am busy reading one of them, which is much more enjoyable to read. I'm glad you finally have a name for your GHW begonia...it's soooo nice having names for our plants!! Again, thanks so much! P.S. I love your B. challenger!! Fondly, Patrick

To post pictures you first need to upload your images to some photo sharing web site (I use Picasa and Windows Live for example). You can click on your photo to get the full size image to display, right click on the photo and do properties (copy shortcut should work or the site may have an area to get the link for embedding), double click on the address (URL) in the properties page.

Now on your message type in "" (the double quotes are not used but are used here to show what you need to type in) Put your cursor before the > sign and do a paste (CTL-V or right click and select paste).

This first picture is from Copy Shortcut on one of my pictures
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The same picture is from copying the URL address (much smaller picture)
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hcmcdole....sorry, whenever I read instructions on posting pictures I'm totally lost whenever the words "cut and paste" and "url" and many others are used...I'm totally illiterate when it comes to computers...I won't even try...the only things I can do on a computer, other than read e-mail and post on websites is I'm very proficient at ordering 100's of plants!! LOL But, thanks for your efforts. BTW, I love those pictures of your "Copy Short Cut"...you certainly have some admirable begonias...just gorgeous! I assume you grow outdoors most of the year? I'm going to ask you again, because I'm so curious...your B. crasicaulis...can you cut the stem and root them horizontally? I really, really, really appreciate all of your help! Fondly, Patrick

Don't worry about posting pictures at this time. We will get you going on that front later.

I only grow outdoors from about May until the end of October (although this past fall I went to nearly mid Dec with a lot of them).

I have not tried rooting my crass from cuttings and don't plan to anytime soon. Maybe I can get some viable seed from it since it is blooming now and grow oodles of them to experiment with.

Oooh, Butch,

what lovely pictures! That rex in the middle of the last picture, with the splash of silver extending out the leaf veins is quite a looker!

Hey, and is that B. amphioxus peeking up from the bottom of the image? You keep it outside for part of the year? How humid is it outside where you are (i.e., are the growing requirements more flexible than the 70-90% reported for where this plant is found)??

So do I understand it correctly that your mis-labelled GHW plant (aka "sprawler") is really B. 'Bayberry Lane'? When kept in check, its a very nice looking plant ('tho still a large grower). You did a great job on grooming it to become a very balanced mound of growth - I find that much more difficult on the larger begonias. That one grown in the shallow bowl/tub is gorgeous!

And your B. crassicaulis picture from last summer is stunning! Wow! I'd read it was a "shy bloomer", but it sounds like the real trick is to let it get Gigantic and then it can bloom, huh? How tall did that whopper get last summer? It looks at least 4 feet.

Thanks for sharing the lovely photographs!
-Jane

Hi Jane,

Long time since I've seen you here.

Thanks for all the kind comments.

You must have sharp eyes to spot that little amphioxus in that one picture. I have it in a small pot with Miracle Gro potting soil. It gets fairly humid here in summer which I suspect running in the 50+ - 99% range. In winter I keep a plastic 2 liter soda bottle over it and it responded nicely.

Yes, the sprawler was ID'ed by Charles Jaros as 'Bayberry Lane' - very easy to propagate by leaf or stem cutting. I must have dozens of them plus dozens I've given away. If anyone has room for this then it is an easy begonia to grow.

B. crassicaulis is an oddball. It seems more like a thick-stem than a rhizomatous due to its vertical growing even though it is not straight (kind of snaky). This is the first year it bloomed for me and it isn't overly tall - maybe 2 feet tall but the stem may be closer to 3 feet due to its angled growing. Anyway I captured as many seed pods as I could and sowed a few pods so hopefully some will germinate.

i have a Rex begonia, Escargot. There are three in a large pot and their stems are about 8-10" and they are flopping over the pot, they look leggy and wandering. I live in Wisconsin and have had them in a well lit Eastern exposure room for the winter. I just put them outside and wonder if I should cut them back or just let them be and hope for new growth? Should I give them an acidic fertilizer? The comments and photos I've seen on the site suggest that the pot be shallow. My pot is deep and large, I had it potted at my local greenhouse, but perhaps they didn't know the shallow potting needs of a Rex? Do I now take them out of large deep pot and re-pot them in a shallow one?

If they did good in winter then I wouldn't worry about the pot size (just watch the watering). A balanced slow release fertilizer and/or a weak water soluble fertilizer is all you probably need.

Escargot is one of those fussy begonias since it is very susceptible to mildew which can quickly make it unsightly. If you put it outdoors you may want to check into Milstop to control the problem. I'm on my fourth Escargot and decided to test Milstop to its limits with this particularly frustrating yet beautiful begonia.

They were floppy in the winter too. They only looked nice when I purchased them, then they got all floppy and wilted looking... they did blossom, however.
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