Green Tree Flower Gardens 
GENERAL 
Everybody likes Begonias. They’re so easy to 
grow that any one can do it, in fact they have 
become the favorite house plant of many folk, be¬ 
cause they thrive in that window that gets no 
sun, and in the outdoor gardep have taken care 
of that shady place where we thought no plant 
would grow with any degree of satisfaction. Yet 
some of us have had just passive success with 
them, the reason for this being, that perhaps we 
did not understand the nature of Begonias and 
so did not know how to handle them. 
They were discovered sometime during the 17th 
century and named in honor of Michel Begnon 
(1638-1710), a French Botanist. They are natives 
of Jamaica, Brazil, West Indies, East Indies, 
Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Cape of Good Hope, 
South America and Florida. While these coun¬ 
tries are located in the tropics and Begonias are 
tropical plants, they are not from the swamps 
of the tropics. They are remotely related to the 
Cacti, and from this fact one can readily under¬ 
stand why they should not be over-watered. 
It is believed that the admiration for them in 
the United States dates back to the Landing of 
the Pilgrims, for the New England States have 
been responsible for the general acquaintance of 
some varieties common in England in the 18th 
century. 
Male and female flowers grow on the same 
stem. The colors of the flowers are usually pink, 
white or red. The tuberous varieties have yellow 
and all the colors that are the result of the mix¬ 
ture of white, red and yellow. But the foliage, 
that is the beauty of Unusual Begonias, the color¬ 
ing of the leaves, the texture, the size, the vein- 
ing, the coloring underneath the leaf compared to 
that on the upper side, some speckled, some long, 
some wide, some narrow, some ruffled, some edges 
corrugated, some serrated. Well, if you have 
started a collection you are already aware of the 
interesting varieties. 
Grow your Begonias in a North and Northeast 
window, although in the Middle Atlantic States, 
generally speaking, they will accept all the sun’s 
rays there are available from November 15th to 
the latter part of January. But no longer as the 
rays of the sun strengthen perceptibly from the 
first of February. Deep window sills are much 
to the liking of Begonia nlants, as the change of 
air from cold to warm is very gradual. If the 
room temperature is 70 degrees, the deep window 
sill will be around 65 degrees, and they thrive best 
between 60 and 65 degrees. Your Begonias are 
not partial to weather stripping—the air leak¬ 
ages around the window frame give them the well 
ventilated atmosphere they need. An even temp- 
eratuie :s preferred by Begonias, 70 degrees is all 
they can stand, and they prefer less. Begonias 
are shade loving plants. 
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