Friday Flower Fiesta — They were the biggest I’ve ever seen!
It’s hard to believe that this is my first Friday Flower Fiesta in August. Shame on me!
If ever I forget to do a Friday Flower Fiesta by noon Pacific Time on Friday, just leave a comment on any of my posts saying something like (sung to Dire Straits’ 1985 #1 hit “Money for Nothing”):
“I want my… I want my… I want my FFF.”
Last weekend I went to the convention for the American Begonia Society. I have always been infatuated with begonias, especially tuberous begonias. Unfortunately, even though I have a green arm, somewhere out there on my hand is a brown tuberous begonia thumb. I can grow all of the begonias except those tuberous ones. In fact, my back patio is a begonia haven. The American Begonia Society classifies begonias into eight major categories:
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cane-like
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shrub-like
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tuberous
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rhizomatous
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semperflorens (wax or fibrous rooted begonias)
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rex
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trailing-scandent
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thick-stemmed
All of them except the shrub-like are represented on my patio right now, even the tuberous since I wind up buying at least one each year at the beginning of the Summer bloom season, ultimately killing it by the time Fall rolls around.
Tuberous begonias get quite large — the size of the plant, the size of the leaves, and the size of the flowers. The show plants at the ABS convention had the largest begonia flowers I’ve ever seen! For your viewing pleasure:
Picture 1 (see if you can find me!)
Picture 2 (I want a terrarium like this!)
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6
Picture 7
Picture 8
Picture 9
Picture 10
Picture 11
Picture 12
Picture 10 is my favorite. I love the edging and the fluffy ruffles.
Picture 7 is slightly out of focus. I decided to use it to show you what could be done with “bad pictures” so that the focus doesn’t matter. I like the result, shown below, so much that I used it as the featured image for this post.
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Posted on August 17, 2012, in Adobe, Digital photo editing, Flora, Friday Flower Fiesta, Mother & Father Nature, Photos and tagged 2012 american begonia society convention, begonia pictures, san diego convention pictures. Bookmark the permalink. 43 Comments.
Tut, tut for forgetting – stunning photos to make up for it though.
absolutely gorgeous!
Glad to see Zoey The Cool Cat approved your post.
I’ve always heard some types of Begonias take a little extra TLC..
As for your photos, all are quite beautiful but my pick has to be #12.
Ceil Winters
The tuberous begonias are the ones that require the extra TLC.
Wow these are just amazing…
Reminds me of roses, I don’t think I’ve seen begonias in real life. Do they have a fragrance?
No. That is probably their only fault. Except for the tuberous begonias, they can take water, no water, sun, shade, part sun, love, neglect, so they have a lot of advantages of roses. And, of course, they have no thorns……..lol
very pretty…I will need to keep them in mind for spring next year, as I do not usually baby my plants.
I love begonias!!! Especially scarlet ones!
Beautiful flowers. I would also like the terrarium
Beautiful photos!
Beautiful shots. Have you ever heard of people growing begonias for their leaves instead of for their blossoms?
Yes. Those are the rex begonias.
These are gorgeous!!
Thank you Russel. Wonderfully beautiful photographs. Your love of begonias shines through each one! It makes the viewing even more specialer (yes I know not a word, but it just felt right here)
I’ve never seen tuberous begonias, just the standard landscaping ones – which I don’t care for. Tuberous are AWESOME! Thanks for introducing me to a new variety!
The standard landscaping begonias as the wax wing begonias. They are the ones that got me interested in begonias because they bloom year round and can take a lot of neglect. I only have a couple on my patio. Most of mine are the cane-like and rex begonias.
Gorgeous photos!
Luxuriating in these huge, huge blossoms–and agree completely about the desirability of that terrarium.
pretty!
Begonias make beautiful photos! You can’t go wrong when they are in full bloom. Aweful photos!
They are all so beautiful, so beautiful and yes, I am same with you I want this number 2 too… Thank you dear Russel and lovely cat, Have a nice weekend, love, nia
I just love Begonia’s and have many in my own garden.. Thank you for sharing these wonderful Gifts.. ~Sue x
Beautiful shots! I’m partial to the sunny yellow of # 3.
I spotted you so not sure how you did that!
Begonias can truly be stunning, and a lot of variety. It is too bad they don’t have a fragrance to match – but, can’t have it all.
beautiful…i also like the terrarium.
I loved how you captured the texture of every petal.
The flowers that always cause me the most difficulty are the solid reds and solid yellows. I’m learning how to treat them in Photoshop, though.
Beautiful begonias! If you and Jim get the chance to go to Victoria, BC, then be sure to check out Buchart Gardens. It is a fabulous garden that was originally a rock quarry.
As many times as we have been to Vancouver, we have yet to go to Victoria. We can’t really explain why because Butchart Gardens has been on our list of things to do in that area for 15 years now. We’ll get there!
That terrarium – amazing! (and the Buchart Gardens are worth the trip)
Wonderful photos, I love flowers they make me feel happy.
I understand. Me too!
Way back when, Amos and Andy talked about a Ruby Begonia. Your pictures brought back that memory! Thank you!
I see ya there in the glass, Russel. The flowers are all so gorgeous, it’s too hard to pick a favorite. Now a white gardenia in full bloom…
Blessings – Maxi
These are beautiful! I especially love the last one
WOWzers! all beautiful to me!
Hi,
Very nice. I love the colors.
Ciao,
Patricia
Everything is coming up – what kind of flowers are they? Very pretty ruffly wuffly flowers. Thanks for camping out at my blog
Very beautifu begonia’s. I have them too in my garden, but they are quite different from these. What happened to Zoey TCC, is he rotated by the flowers?
Zoey the Cool Cat is just having fun…….lol
Gorgeous! I have a lot of out-of-focus flower photos, trying to capture jus that “perfect” one! Now I’ll see if I can’t make something special out of them into of tossing into the delete pile.