Purple, beautiful Begonia. I bought the exact, same Begonia at Logee's back in the 90's.
It's a fairly fast-grower. In fact, it needed continuous pruning.

Last summer it kicked the bucket. My fault..it's a long-lived Begonia. Doesn't need as much humidity as other types.

What a bargain!

Lemon Geranium, umm. Do you not like the looks of the leaves, or does it need fixin' up?

The Geranium is just an ugly plant, IMO. I bought it to fondle & sniff - smells like "good citronella" to me.

I thought this Begonia was a bargain, too! What happened to yours, if you know? If you remind me when it cools off, I'd be happy to send you a few pieces. Here it is, "on the record."

If it grows that fast, there's gonna b kitties around here anyway. Can't wait to get in the pot tomorrow and see what's going on. Out of dirt.

Love this begonia. My mom calls it an mini angel wing. She bought both of us a small one. I think I killed mine though :-( Death by over watering I suspect lol

Hey Purple,

Nice begonia, if I had that porch I'll fill it up w/ them; very pretty, w/ its delicate pink bloom.

Hi folks,

Well I'm not in on the kitty effect discussion, but I will jump in on the Cart Jumpers. Yup, happened to me recently, I just put up some pix. I think I had no business buying these, they're too tropical, but they had such pretty foliage, that is often my weak spot.

2 no name, lovely Calatheas (I think)

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the leaf itself:

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Here's the other:

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and its leaf

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Can you blame me for being smitten? (Besides, they were only $5 each, tho' a bit fuller when I first got them.)

purple,

That's a very beautiful begonia!! I wish I could find one like that, I would defiently grab it.

And I keep looking out for those scented geraniums, I can't find them anywhere locally. Your very lucky!!!

-FPT

Jessie, sorry!

PG, those are very pretty! I would absolutely buy either (or both) of those for $5.

FPT, there was only 1 of those Geraniums, lemon-scented. My honey is not as smitten with smelling it. He says it smells like Lemon Pledge. Smell really is subjective because he likes the smell of those big white Magnolia flowers but I don't... because they smell like Lemon Pledge! Hahaha!

I managed to repot this plant with only this much breakage. Since removing that dumb tray inside the pot and putting holes in the true bottom, I hope not to see any more yellow leaves, which were not visible down at the bottoms of the stems unless you started poking around in there, but they were bugging me. It was in some kind of weird chips of stuff that were kind of shiny like mica, staying way too wet.

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I think this pic I took just before it got dark last night shows the pretty pink over color better.

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Purple, your Begonias are beautiful.
Is the plant, 'Begonia?' to the left bottom a diferent plant? It's so pretty..Looks like Snow Cap.

Karen. Beautiful Calathea. I've never seen that particular leaf pattern. Do you know its cultivar? It's definatley a Roseo Picta, but don't know which. Very nice.

Thanks, Toni, but they're so new to me, the credit goes to the previous keepers still.

Bottom left is this one. Hopefully the ones my neighbor gave me will make some flowers soon so I can tell them apart better. It takes me a little while to get to know a new plant, so getting 3 very similar plants at the same time has been confusing to me. Fo sho!

I love the way the leaves of all of the Begonias I have look so different depending on the light. Amazing plants.

I was just reading a book about adaptations, and I swear it mentioned that begonia! Something about the white spots spreading the light so it can survive under the trees.

Sorry, I know I probably shouldn't be posting since I am a newbie, but that was waaay too Deja vu.

A.

Somehow I missed your comment until now, Panda. I appreciate the interesting info, and please feel free to post whatever thoughts you have. That's what the forums are for!

According to the Wiki article on variegation, Begonias have at least 2 types of reflective variegations. Fascinating plants, aren't they?

Wiki:
Some variegation is due to visual-effects due to reflection of light from the leaf surface. This can happen when an air layer is located just under the epidermis resulting in a white or silvery reflection. It is sometimes called blister variegation.

Another type of reflective variegation is caused by hairs on parts of the leaf, which may be coloured differently from the leaf. This is found in various Begonia species and garden hy-brids."

As you can see in the pics above, this plant had a few light pink blooms on it when I brought it home about 3 wks ago and is now starting to make fuchsia / hot pink blooms. Interesting.

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(Some strange punctuation added to avoid compulsive linking of my words to ads!)