Hardy Begonia

Surprise!

This begonia is hardy enough to be just another shade perennial in my garden.

“Just another shade perennial” is how I casually refer to it when people are surprised to see it growing and flowering in the ground.

It doesn’t have the leaf patterns and varigations of some begonias.

Nor does it have big flowers… I’ve only seen it with pink flowers.

It’s also not one of the first perennials to break ground in the spring. Why should it be in a hurry in spring? It’s not going to bloom until late August.

And it doesn’t sulk when it’s dry, like its neighbor, this wild ginger.

(Oh, that picture shows a bare spot over on the other side of the wild ginger. Oops, a better garden photographer would have taken that photo from another angle so you wouldn’t see that. I swear that in the springtime, that blank area is covered with trillium and dogtooth violets and such.)

Anyway, we aren’t talking about that bare spot, we’re talking about hardy begonia, Begonia grandis and what it has going for it.

What it has going for it is hardiness! Zones 6 – 9, maybe 5 if you mulch it “real good” in late fall.

And while the leaves may be plain green, look how lovely they are with the light shining through them.

The light shining through the backside of the leaves makes you forget all about the plain green front.

And then the fact that it survives in the garden as “just another shade perennial” makes it one of my favorite late-flowering perennials!