omg , those are beautiful. i could sit out there with a cup of coffee and daze for hours. i really like that short stuff in the second pic.

question..top pic, hanging in the tree on the right, what is that plant that looks like it would feel like velvet ? , it's lovely .

thanks for sharing your photo's.

miss daisy

Really beautiful, albatross, thanks for sharing! Here in the south of Louisiana we have weather rather like yours for about eight months, and then it gets cool enough that the begonias and other tropicals that love the heat and humidity and grow like Jack's beanstalk get nipped or I have to find someplace to protect them. But there are a lot of hybrids that exhibit 'hybrid vigor' that might do well for you too. I have trouble with rexes too, including the species rex, in the hottest part of the year, but then they come back better when it cools off. No help for you there, I guess! But some do quite well as long as they're in a potting soil that drains well. They seem to do better in pots than in the soil, which is not so necessary with canes and other rhizomatous types or with shrubby ones. As hard is it is to find different varieties here without mail-order, how is it for you?

Really beautiful. I love the way you have them grouped together. Thank-you for sharing.

Anna

Begonias first put in:
{{gwi:429238}}

{{gwi:438744}}

{{gwi:24393}}
End of season:
{{gwi:429246}}

{{gwi:429245}}

{{gwi:7851}}

{{gwi:438749}}

{{gwi:7842}}

Thanks everyone for the compliments.

Miss Daisy
I think the plant you are referring to is Lycopodium squarrosum. A kind of fern. I have a handful of varieties of these ferns at the moment but none are as well established as this one. If you look carefully, there is one other variety hanging just right next to the baby staghorn. That one does not have nice velvety touch but as interesting as the fronds are squarish.

Greenelbows 1
You are absolutely right, they need very well draining soil but very high humidity. I water them twice a day during our dry months but I am begining to suspect the others that die do not take this threatment. Some of the really deep red Rexes tend to lose their colour intensity under our hot weather. We do get plants from our highlands with beautiful colours but after a while in the lowlands the colours are lost. No mail orders here for plants and no speciality shops either. In the city where I live supplies is sparodic. We get good supplies but only once in a while. I have been looking for a variety called B. rajah with nice leaf markings. It is supposed to be from Malaysia where I live but I have not seen in here instead I saw it being offered recently by a supplier in USA. How is that for irony?

Tom8
Nice pictures. How long did it take to flower?

Albatross,
your pictures are lovely as well.

I started them myself from seed in the house. So it's been great to see (not literally because the seed as many know is DUST) the progression. It took forever for them to bloom (ok, it seemed like forever!) I would say they were in the ground approximately 4 weeks before they started to bloom. The foliage is lovely - which I'm happy with - but it took 4 weeks to start blooming - and about 2 weeks later they were in almost full bloom. but once they got going they're a mass of red blooms and shiny green leaves. Really can't complain...

Tom-

It's definitely ironic--or I'd say, grossly unfair!--that you can't get a native begonia there and would need to import it! That's one I grow and love, tho' it's not so enthusiastic about what passes for winter here. It'll do almost too well in a terrarium tho'--needs a bigger one than I have unless I haul in one of the big fish tanks for it. Lovely, and different. Nice to have one that's unmistakable. So many really pretty ones you say, well, it could be this, or it could be that--nothing else looks like rajah!
Definitely nothing to complain about, Tom--that's a knockout display!

Albatross- Don't bother with Iron Cross. The reason you struggle is that B. masoniana is native to cooler areas in China. They do NOT like hot humid weather. I live in Tampa Bay, and after 3 summers of trying, I gave up! They do beautiful for winter here but by June are dying. They hate extreme heat and moisture. However, go to www.begonias.com and see many other varieties quite similar that will do well, some with B. masoniana in their parentage. Greg Sytch AB S Horticultural Correspondent