The year was 1956. I was 8 years old and my family was on vacation on the California coast. We were traveling up Highway 101 and came to the town of Capitola, near Santa Cruz. There along the side of the road was a nursery growing tuberous begonias and, for this kid, it was love at first sight.
Fast forward six years to my first job at the Coronado nursery — I still can’t believe they actually hired me at 14 — and one of my jobs was to pot up tuberous begonias. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
Begonias are shade-loving plants that come in both upright and hanging varieties and have colorful blooms that look like carnations on steroids. Far superior to the current “nonstop” varieties, these American tuberous begonias are extremely hard to find but worth the effort to locate them. With a little effort the tubers can be saved from year to year, resulting in larger and larger plants each successive season. I have seen tubers the size of dessert plates.
Those early impressionable years of my youth left me with a fascination for begonias and to this day I still have an interest in the many variations of this fabulous Genus. That brings me to the topic of bonfires, Bonfire begonias, to be specific. Bonfire begonias originate from the species of begonia called Begonia boliviensis. As the name indicates, Bolivian begonias originally came from the eastern sides of the Andes in Bolivia and Argentina.
The arching stems of the Bolivian begonia are clothed all summer in brilliant flowers, generally orange, pink or red. Flowers are in pairs or threes, and have four pointed segments often flaring at the ends. These fall off naturally after blooming — they don’t need “deadheading” — and will be replaced continually with new flowers. (At first glance one might think these begonias are actually fuchsias.) The leaves are pointed, similar to angel-wing begonias, and form clumps spreading to 2 feet wide and approximately a foot high.
In the Northwest, Bonfires can grow in morning sun to all-day sun as long as they have plenty of water. They work equally well in hanging baskets as they do in flower beds. For a punch of hot orange/coral or pink, try a bonfire in your garden.
Moving on to the subject of bogs, carnivorous bog plants are the personification of total weirdness when it comes to the plant world. The cool part about them is that we can grow them in our gardens very easily. I am sure that these bizarre-looking plants are living proof that aliens once inhabited this planet.
With some slight alterations to the soil and a bit of pond liner, it’s easy to create a bog garden in no time at all. If you prefer you can grow them in containers where the drainage is controlled so they will stay moist year-round. A small bog garden can be a real conversation piece and as an added bonus these plants are carnivorous and will help control unwanted insects like flies and mosquitos.
Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville and can be reached online at info@sunnysidenursery.net.
Bog class
Don’t get bogged down in the details. Sunnyside Nursery is hosting a class on bog gardens at 10 a.m. May 23. For more information, go to sunnysidenursery.net.
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