Begonias

The begonias are beautiful right now.  These tubers from Costco wintered over fine in the shed last year, which is always a nice bonus.  There hasn't been a drop of rain to ruin the fragile flowers and break off the heavy, moist leaves.

After such a long string of warm, dry days (just look at that "grass"!) we're all wondering what the coming winter will bring. The weather gurus predict another El Neutro winter (neither Nina or Nino) which can mean just about anything. We're overdue for one of our epic, paralyzing Seattle snow storms. But who knows, maybe I can squeeze another summer out of these begonias?

Begoniaceae is one of the largest flowering plant families with about 1500 different species and hundreds of hybrids. The genus is unusual in that species throughout the genus, even those coming from different continents, can be hybridized with each other, and this has led to an enormous number of cultivars.  In other words, the begonia breeders have gone crazy-- they're as bad as the fuchsia nuts!   Like fuchsias, the range of begonia flowers, foliage colors and sizes are incredibly diverse, and spectacular. 

I've always thought of them as "old lady" flowers, but The Grateful Dead once wrote a song called Scarlet Begonias.

She had rings on her fingers and bells on her shoes
And I knew without asking she was into the blues-
She wore scarlet begonias tucked into her curls
I knew right away she was not like other girls.

Well I ain't never been right as I ain't never been wrong,
As everything works out the way it does in this song.
'Cause once in a while you get shown in the light
In the strangest of places if you look at it right.