Begonia pedatifida (late March 2014)
After our coldest winter and latest spring in many years, I went out in the garden this morning and pushed away the mulch from some of my plants, and this is one of the things I found. This unimpressive-looking little sprout has me excited, because it's a begonia, and it survived my area's coldest winter in 20 years. This is Begonia pedatifida, a Chinese species that already has a reputation for being fairly hardy but this winter was the real test. What I find interesting is that the rhizome creeps along the surface of the soil; aside from a bit of mulch this plant had virtually no protection all winter, yet still made it through several nights in the 9-12 degree (F) range and several extended periods with temperatures well below freezing. This thing is pretty darn hardy. With any luck I'll have it blooming in a couple of months, when I can attempt some crosses with other begonias.
Begonia pedatifida, leaf (September 2011)
Begonia pedatifida, flowers (June 2012)
And as for my indoor plants, spring can't come soon enough. I am up to my ears in plants that are ready to go out, and they are overflowing into places where I don't usually grow plants. Here are some of my begonias, waiting under a table by the back door for a bit of warmer weather when I can finally put them outdoors!
I find that Begonia pedatifida leaf to be very beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThe deeply divided leaf is fairly unusual for this genus. I would love to work it into some of my hybrids, but this species blooms when I don't have many other begonias blooming. I did get seedlings from a cross with B. grandis, but they weren't terribly interesting and didn't hold up well to summer heat.
DeleteI think the unusually high number of snow events probably helped as some of the cold snaps happened when there was a few inches of snow on the ground providing that much needed natural insulation.
ReplyDeleteI think you're absolutely right. We were very fortunate to have snow on the ground through most of these cold waves--even an inch or two can make a huge difference.
DeleteVery exciting news about Begonia pedatifida's survival! I'm with Loree, that foliage is gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty excited too! Sorry to say the foliage doesn't always look this nice; it puts out most of its foliage in the spring, and can get a bit tired-looking later in the summer.
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