Michael gets excited by new varieties of this long summer flowering faithful
I love begonias and I’m not even ashamed of it! Some people out there think they’re not very trendy anymore, but I don’t mind because they give me colour and joy. And, they also bloom for about five months of the year, and how many other plants do that?
Did you know that some of the best begonias are bred in Germany, by a company called Benary? They began many years ago with the Non-Stop Series, which you have no doubt heard of. I visited them recently to see their latest developments.
Groovy Series
This is a really, really superb hanging begonia with really interesting little flowers that are almost like confetti. The colour range is as tropical as you can imagine, but my favourite is this vibrant orange red. Excellent for window boxes, and very useful for shady balcony corners.
Non-Stop Flame
Benary revolutionised begonias with the introduction of their classic Non-Stop Series, which does exactly that, flowering all through the summer.
Before this, begonias were more grown for exhibition purposes, not really as a casual bedding plant. One of the best colours is this two-tone ‘Flame’, which really echoes the apricot shade tones, which I think must be the best-selling begonia colour in the UK.
Stonehedge Series
A super clever name, for a super giant begonia. You can expect plants that are more than 1.2m (4ft) tall, with giant black leaves and the most lovely bright pink flowers.
This can be used for landscape bedding, as you won’t need many of them to go round. An excellent performing plant, with a striking impact. Last year I tested a few out as houseplants and they really looked great!!
Non-Stop Mocca
That fantastic Mocca Series got even better with the addition of these black leaf types, which are the closest to a designer plant that begonias can get. They look particularly good when blended with gorgeous foliage plants, or even ornamental grasses.
Mega Cool Series
This is a B. semperflorens-type begonia, a vast improvement on the original types, which I think never really gave that much impact when flowering because the plants often stayed too compact and shy. This amazing series has leaves like water lilies, and big clear flowers that are incredibly weatherproof, best grown in sun or shade.
Solenia Series
You can see that this is closely related to the houseplant types of begonia, from the Begonia elatior family. Yet Solenia is incredibly different, as it can be grown outdoors, and will also cope with more sun than regular begonias, which makes it incredibly versatile, oh and did I mention the five months of flowers??
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