It’s that time of year again: when the glossy pages of bedding plant catalogues land on your door mat, complete with page after page of massive double-flowered begonias in every Day-Glo shade possible. Indeed, these floriferous varieties are so popular that you might be forgiven for thinking that that’s all this genus has to offer for the bedding grower. But this could not be further from the truth. There are dozens of begonias available that, despite being mild-mannered in the flower department, are real showstoppers when it comes to leaves, in true Avatar shades of pink, red, silver, lime green, even deepest black.
With the genes of more than a thousand species as a potential choice of breeding stock, these plants are as diverse in terms of structure as they are colour, ranging from fuzzy-leaved midgets to towering, shrub-like stunners. While for some reason these are still generally thought of in the UK only as houseplants, most will grow just as well planted out for the summer and treated like any other bedding plant. As I only have a few words to play with here, I’d better stop waxing lyrical and get on to the plants.
For starters, to ease you into foliage begonias, ‘My Best Friend’ is a perfect dual-purpose variety, if you can’t bear to part with blooms, whose delicate powder-pink flowers float over crazy Jurassic Park-style foliage that’s so complexly patterned it’s hard to describe. Over a base of silver foliage, the margins of the leaf are edged with an olive-green border that’s dotted with white spots. All this struck through with fluorescent fuchsia veins. For fans of prehistoric patterns, but without the flashiest colours, ‘Emerald Giant’, ‘Green Gold’ and ‘Silver Jewel’ are your best bets.
For those who like massive leaves, ‘Escargot’ has plate-sized foliage that looks that it has been spattered with silver with an air brush. But this plant’s real claim to fame, as its name implies, is the curious swirling at the centre of the leaves. Here, the edge of the two sides of the leaf overlap in a pretty perfect mathematical spiral: a wonder of geometry and nature. ‘Namur’ is a similar type, with a more subtle spiral, but it’s slightly wavy instead of flat and has a shield-like overall shape. It’s less dramatic but more elegant (to me, at least).
So, I’ve saved the best for last: the giant cane begonias. I love the angel-wing foliage of B maculata ‘Wightii’, which seems to have taken over Instagram in recent years for its copper undersides with deep-green topsides dotted with bright silver dots. It can eventually grow, if brought in each winter, to well over 2m tall. Take the same huge stature and swap the butterfly wings for giant, hand-shaped leaves like a Umbrella tree Schefflera sp and you have B luxurians. All this for a plug plant that can cost you just a couple of quid.
Email James at james.wong@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @Botanygeek
