I'm not sure I'm still growing it--I put it where I thought it would be getting mixed sun and shade, but apparently there was more sun than I realized, and I really scorched the heck out of it. It was several days--because I thought it was safe--before I checked on it, and I'm not sure it'll recover. But it's tough, and a beauty, and I'll have to get another if I've murdered this one. It used to be known as 'Pinafore Sport', so I assume it is--wait for it!--a sport of 'Pinafore'. Keep meaning to get Pinafore too. But oh, there are So Many I want!

'Torch' is a great addition to the begonia collection and a real performer given the right care (I must not be doing it quite right since it hasn't produced heavily - maybe needs repotting). It doesn't get very tall (2 foot is tall for this begonia). It can take more sun exposure than a lot of canes but introduce it to more sun over a couple of weeks.

Here is my daughter's 'Torch' begonia from a local nursery.

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greenelbows1 - What a shame about your sunburned Torch. Maybe if you put it in the shade and keep it moist it will drop these leaves and put out new ones. I never heard it called Pinafore Sport. I will have to do some research on
its history.
hcmcdole - Thanks for the growing info. Your daughters Torch is just beautiful. Don't you just love the way it
blooms so profusely. I don't fertilize mine much at all and it is blooming like that. I didn't know it only grew to 2 feet. Mine must be as tall as it is going to get then.
What other cane begonias are ya'll crazy about?

Maybe in shade (or FL) they grow taller. Here is some at Discovery Cove a couple of weeks ago. Looks like they just planted this bed.

Torch

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Silver leaf one ('Don Miller'?)
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'Maurice Amey' and maybe 'Sophie Cecile'
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One of these years I've gotta learn to post pictures. Right now I guess my best begonia is Silvermist. It had a little trouble over the winter and I put it in the ground, and when my plant club met here last week I gave everyone who wanted one cuttings, so it's not real huge but it's blooming well and filling out nicely. Cracklin' Rosie is looking pretty good, and so is Little Miss Mummey. From a little distance Lois Burks looks great--she's huge and full of bloom (not a tall one, but probably close to three feet across) but up close it's got some bad leaves from getting too dry too many times, and some bare stems where I've taken off leaves. Tom Ment and Snow Capped are similar and pretty small, but too busy blooming to grow much. They're all favorites! And then there's the rhizomatous ones--
As for Torch--as soon as I found it I gave it protection, and the stem looks live, but it doesn't have any leaves to drop. It may well be back--it's amazing what they'll put up with. I'm sure it would have been okay with that much sun if I'd realized it was that sunny there and taken it a step at a time. Usually do that, but that's a new area I've just started planting in.

I think I might have a sport of it but I've noticed some of its leaves are dotted like angel wing so it's a hybrid, I guess.

My favorite rhizo is beefsteak and my all time favorites of the begonia family are the canes.

Susan

I meant to say "Thanks" to HCMCDole for posting those beautiful pics and sharing the beautiful begonias in FL with us who will probably not see sights like that in their lifetime. :)

Susan

I have a rooting of my sister's plant and it is growing really well, but I have noticed spots on the leaves and a sappy, sticky substance on the leaves just today. What could this be?
This Torch begonia came from a large plant that does beautifully if put in the right place. I have mine in a large planter that I can move as we tend to have really hot weather in S. Georgia.

I don't have b. Torch right now but have a lot of others and would like to share my b. Cachuma in a photo if someone will tell me how to post it. I do remember having Torch and think it was in a hanging basket. Most of mine are in pots while a few in the ground.

I think that if you had gradually done so, you would have found that 'Torch' can be grown in full sun, and when grown in good light it produces an incredible amount of flowers, Panicles (if that's the right word) that are huge. A twelve-inch plant I had last year produced clumps of flowers that that were so long that the end rested on the ground.. Last year the city that I live in used 'Torch' in the windowboxes that they place in front of every business. The window boxes that received direct southern light had leaves that were very, very dark dark and produced so many flowers that you could barely see the foilage. I got mine in early spring and I planted them outside when the soil was warm enough after a brief interval when I kept them inside. They grew very quickly in the strong light that I gradually acclimated them to and started blooming when they were about 8 inches tall. I grew them as 'standards', limiting them to one staked stem and pruned the lower leaves.
The results were nothing less than astonishing.

Yes, I believe sun helps a lot on getting some of these begonias to bloom. Here is one at my mother's place middle August, around 12:30. I had to underexpose it to get a good picture.