I currently have a thriving B. 'Erythrophylla' that I started from leaf cuttings and I would like to have a few others to add to my collection.

Please no temperamental beauties :-) The groups I am most interested in are the rhizomatous (non-Rex), cane and shrub begonias. Some flowers might be nice, but that is not a priority.

Some big excellent canes with no real muss are Irene Nuss, Silvermist, and Sophie Cecile. Lucerna is an oldie but seems to be at its best in summer. Watch out for the thin leafed ones since they are mildew prone - examples are Looking Glass, Sinbad, Pink Minx, Maurice Amey, Don Miller, and many others. They are beauties in the summer garden but a pain in winter.

Don't exclude rexes - some are hard to beat for their flashy leaves but for best results they should be grown indoors year round to prevent mildew problems.

I will look up 'River Nile' and 'PHOE's Cleo'. Does PHOE stand for Paul Hammock Orchid Estate?

Yes, PHOE is Palm (not Paul) Hammock Orchid Estates. A great place to visit for begonia enthusiasts.

There are lots of begonias for the home but I'm thinking medium size, hardly any fuss, and be pleasant to look at too.

Here is River Nile under different growing conditions:

Outdoors next to a nice cane (Mary Ann Flunker?)

Indoors:

One more view:

Purple Curl outdoors last fall:

Indoors this year (where it has been since last fall):

Its blooms:

Easy to start from leaf cuttings:

PHOE's Cleo indoors: (it will probably defoliate in early spring or late winter but if you don't panic and overwater it causing rot, it will send out new leaves in a few weeks)

Close up of leaf:

Outdoors:

Here it is in the bottom of this picture:

I have 3 rex in a sunny bathroom window and they are doing fine. I put them there more because they matched the wallpaper perfectly than because they needed the humidity, LOL. That said, it is slightly more humid than the rest of the house and is the room where I move most of my deck plants into for the winter.

However (not to hijack, just wondering), mine are not bushy, like yours, hcmcdole. They are a lot like your Purple Curl, large leaved and metallic looking. But each plant has only 2 stems with 1 or 2 or 3 leaves on the end, which is pretty much what they had when I bought them maybe 3 years ago. Which is really odd looking considering how long the leaf stems are, and the long "column" of old stem rising from the pot. How do you induce them to branch out? Or is the answer to make new plants and pot a group up together? Is that plain perlite you have your babies started in? Thanks!

I have spent the past couple of days looking up pics on the web of various begonia cultivars. I seem to be drawn most to the basic rhizomatous types. Here are the ones I like the most (in pictures at least), in no particular order:

'Cowardly Lion'
'Aquamarine'
'Sakai'
'Midnight Twist'
'Black Coffee'
'Marmaduke' and its sport 'Snoopy'
'Small Change'
'Boy Friend'
'Black Raspberry'
'Shamus'

Have you grown any of these and/or can you tell me anything about them? 'Aquamarine', for example, looks lovely in pictures but I cannot find any information about how hard/easy it is to grow. 'Marmaduke' is one that I think looks downright ugly and awkward in almost every photo I have seen of it, but I saw a mature specimen in person this past spring at a flower show and it was stunning.

I do like the rexes, too. Especially the ones with more subdued, silvery foliage (blasphemy, I know). 'Fireflush' (not the curly one) is also a beauty and I love the fuzzy look to it. Can you recommend any really, really, really tough ones that will grow like gangbusters and thrive in a centrally heated home?

It sounds like your rexes aren't getting enough light if they have real long petioles but then it may be the nature of the plant too. Pinching is the best method to induce branching in most plants and that includes begonias. Adding more plants to the same pot always helps make it fuller too.

The tray of begonia starts is in a layer of potting soil on the bottom and perlite on the top. It can be straight perlite or straight potting soil but be careful with water when using potting soil (too much water will keep the soil soggy and lead to rot). I like to use cake or roasting pans with a clear lid. Poke holes in the aluminum pans, add medium, water (if using potting soil you may not even have to water if the soil seems damp), stick cuttings, cover with lid, and place under lights. They should root in a week or two.

ispahan,

I've grown most you asked about and find most very easy to grow during the summer. Here are ones that I cannot keep through winter for one reason or another.

'Marmaduke' and 'Snoopy' are notorious for doing the swan dive late winter or early spring but are beautiful through summer. I would grow this again but take more precautions in winter such as a humidity dome.

I have not grown 'Sakai' or 'Small Change' so I cannot comment on those.

'Cowardly Lion' is a beauty and while it seems to have fits like 'Marmaduke' in winter I have been able to keep it for several years now. It is fairly easy to propagate too while 'Marmaduke' can be a bit difficult to start (water rooting works well on it). Try 'Wild Pony' instead of 'Cowardly Lion' since it looks very similar and the one I bought this year has grown like gangbusters. Now to get it through winter may be another story.

'Midnight Twist' is a similar story to 'Marmaduke' but I keep trying. I have a huge one now but winter will tell if this one is a keeper or not.

These are of Midnight Twist and Wild Pony together:

I am trying 'Aquamarine' that I got from a begonia dig in September and it has grown quite well since I got it. Sorry no pictures to date.

I highly recommend 'Shamus' but it may take a while to get it going. I got a very small plant from Rob's Violets (2nd or 3rd time) and I put it in a small round glass bowl with a plastic wrap over the top. Over several months it started to grow and pushed the top off and spilled over the edge. I have since made many, many starts out of it.

Here is an example of how easy they start from leaf cuttings:

Full size (doesn't look like that any more - been cut back significantly)

'Black Raspberry' is another small start from Lauray of Salisbury and is a very slow grower for me in a BIG aquarium. Maybe I should move it to a much smaller pot and see if it will start growing.

'Boyfriend' is iffy. I have tried it a couple of times from eBay. I've finally kept the last one where it is touch and go in a small bubble. It seems to be finally growing but in August I went to a nursery in Orlando and bought a big hanging basket of it. It is in my kitchen and doing very good. And it is fairly easy to start by leaf cuttings too. I've gotten each leaf I've put down to root and send up several plantlets.

All that being said, it appears that having a big plant to start with helps a lot (except for 'Marmaduke'/'Snoopy' since I've had small and large and they always crash before the next summer perhaps from neglect or some other malady).

'Fireflush' is finally growing very good for me but I do have a cover over it. It is in a 12 inch salad bowl (you can order these on line or pick them up at Party City) and has a 12 inch cake cover over it (Sam's Clubs sells some big cakes) but the leaves are pushing the lid up several inches.

I cannot find any pictures of my current 'Fireflush' but here is one of 'Midnight Sun' and 'Curly Fireflush' in a ten gallon aquarium (lost both when they dried out).

'Black Coffee' is easy to propagate and grows well if you find the right conditions. I've lost many and grown many. I've got one growing in a Solo rinse cup for the last 4 years to keep it small and a good sized one in a lettuce container. I recommend it highly.

Here is one my mother grew from a start I gave her:

My Solo cup project:

'Wild Pony' looks beautiful. Problem is, I can't seem to find a source for it. Any suggestions? Palm Hammock Orchid Estate (thanks for the correction, by the way...:-) lists it on their website, but am I correct in thinking they do not do mail order?

Judging from what you are telling me, maybe 'PHOE's Cleo' would be a good choice for me after all? I mean, it has a dormancy period and all, but at least it wouldn't mysteriously kick the bucket like 'Marmaduke' or 'Midnight Twist'?

Do you grow a lot of shrub begonias? I am now wondering if 'San Miguel', 'Caravan', 'Ginny', 'Art Hodes', 'Concord' or others might be more reliable than some of the rhizomatous cultivars.

I am having so much fun looking at pictures and trying to decide. Thank you again for your help.

I got my 'Wild Pony' at a local nursery chain so if you can't find it locally and really want to try it, then mail order is about the only option left. PHOE does do mail order but getting someone to take your order might be akin to pulling teeth. Brush up on your Spanish (just kidding - the phone operators speak some English). If you can visit PHOE then you will be in for a treat but you will have a hard time picking out a cart or two from the hundreds they have to offer. Their mail order is (was the 2 or 3 times I ordered from them a few years ago) a trying experience though. I hope they've improved in that area.

PHOE's Cleo is a great plant but do not despair if it defoliates in spring. I've had it for 3 years now and it must be just its way of dealing with winter blues? To be fair on Marmaduke it may have been something I did wrong but it is a beautiful plant to have. I would buy it again even though every one has eventually kicked the bucket on me. This time I would propagate it several times so I could hopefully keep one.

I have grown 'San Miguel' from Logee's twice and lost it twice. It is very large, fuzzy, and succulent. Grows great in summer but it just collapses indoors from who knows what - dimmer light, too much water, not enough water, etc. I have venosa that might be a parent and it seems to be doing pretty good (second winter with fingers crossed). 'Caravan' is a lovely plant and I have mine blooming downstairs. I lost the plant I bought off eBay but not before I propagated part of it. It like a lot of begonias seems to like more humidity and a smaller pot - I have it in a small cup with straight perlite and I can water heavily with no dire effects. 'Ginny' was another touchy one for me but after the nth time I finally have one growing very well. I moved it to a bigger pot this fall and it is growing like a weed. 'Art Hodes' is up and down but maybe I put it in too large a pot. So now I have several starts from the mother plant in much smaller pots and I hope to let you know how they do in coming months. 'Concord' was another loser for me when I bought it on line a couple of times but then last summer I bought it (or a close cousin) from Home Depot in 8 inch pots. I bought two pots of it for a bit of insurance. It got through the winter okay and then grew to a large spread over summer. I just whacked one of the pots back to a few inches and left the other one alone. I got two trays of cuttings from the one pot.

Here are some pictures of most you just listed:

Art Hodes is nice when it is happy:

I propgated two cuttings of it last winter (you can also start it by leaf)

But Morocco might be better since it grows faster and looks very similar (I have many cuttings off this plant)

That is peltata to the right of Morocco and Selph's Mahogany to the left.

Concord cut and uncut

Concord and peltata (peltata is a nice weedy shrub - grows like a weed)

Caravan

Mother plant at Harmony Foliage in Florida

Ginny

San Miguel

Good luck to you, ispahan! Hope you will get some beauties!

Two leaves are not much to work with but here are your options the way I see it (without seeing how the plant looks). The leaves will probably fall off sooner or later so if they still look healthy it might be a good time to put them to use.

Your options:

1) leave it alone and hope it starts growing (I do this with some rexes since I don't want to bother with making more)

2) cut the whole top out and propagate it

3) cut the leaves off and propagate them and perhaps cut the stem and propagate it as well

If you do cut the top or leaves off, your rooted stump should (should being the operative word) throw out new growth. Make sure your pot is proportional to your plant and provide with a humidity cover to give your stump and cuttings an optimal growing environment. Lots of bright light will help as well.

Now I am curious about 'Morocco' and Begonia peltata. Would you consider both of them to be tough, easy growers? They look wonderful in your photos.

Here are some others: U508 (grey large leaves), phutoensis, crassicaulis (slow grower for me), 'Hee Haw', 'Suncana' (very easy), 'Raven', and 'Challenger' (very, very large leaves).

Passing Storm

Mirage

Sealover or Selover (there is a story about it on the Y*h** Begonia Group and its name - it was named after a hybridizer's wife's maiden name and should be Selover?)

Lost my wild pony and bandit early in the winter - trying
to find them - any input, the nursery in Apopka only deals in the Rex and a few strawberry begonias -