Your description of the scent sounds wonderful... :) Would love to see some pictures, too!!

Great thread, ispahan. Thanks for posting it. Something new and beautiful to explore.

For those nutty enough to pay the price (like I am!) you can currently preorder John Smith Begonias from White Flower Farm for spring delivery.
Fragrance addiction can be quite expensive! ;)

-Robert

Robert,

In spite of the price you will love 'John Smith'. It is a very elegant, refined begonia with a strong, wonderful fragrance. Mine was a very heavy bloomer and there was never a day during the entire growing season that it did not have a lovely open flower or several. I grew it in an 8" pot thinking it would be large enough but if I could do it over again, I would have put it in a 12-14" clay pot right away. The tuber could have easily handled it. And have a good staking system thought of and ready. You will need it, such is the size of the blooms that they will snap off from their own sheer weight if unsupported.

I was hoping to save my tuber, but unfortunately I lost it while moving this fall. The plant was stupidly left out in the baking sun for days with no water before I found it. Sigh.

For what it is worth, 'Pink Scentiment' was also a great begonia with a nice scent, but it was never as vigorous or as floriferous as 'John Smith'. B&L begonias really are special!

Hi ispahan!

Thank you as always for the useful information. I had no idea that the flowers will need support so I'm grateful for the tip. To have a flower to sniff throughout the growing season sounds divine!
I'm sorry to hear that you lost yours. :(

-Robert

Robert,

I think you can find good instructions about staking tuberous begonias online, but basically you will need a good sturdy stake to tie the main stem to as well as several smaller stakes to support individual blossoms and/or bloom clusters. The begonia stakes sold by White Flower Farm are good for the latter purpose, and are very convenient, but they are too flimsy to support the main begonia stem. At the end of the season, the base of my 'John Smith' begonia stem was at least 3 inches in diameter!

Help me out guys.... How do I resist this temptation to buy a $50 begonoa bulb?

OK, srsly John Smith sounds like an awesome cultivatar but I'm not yet sold on the fragrance. How strong is it compared to Jasmine sambac? Just wondering if it will knock my socks off.

I've never smelled John Smith before so I can't compare it to anything but I can say why I'm kooky enough to go for it.

1. I've agreed with many of ispahan's scent descriptions in the past so I think we have similar tastes.

2. I wanted a shade plant which is fragrant (most of mine are sun hogs and something under the arbor would be nice).

3. The sheer novelty of a begonia that has a scent. I like to surprise my garden visitors.

4. It doesn't get too large and goes dormant in the winter so I don't have to worry about growing it inside in a sunny window during the winter.

I hope this explains why I forked out $63.95 (total with S&H) for a begonia tuber. :)

-Robert

Musaboro,

It is hard to compare the scent of 'John Smith' to Jasminum sambac. J. sambac has one of the unique scents of the plant world and not many flowers can compete with it in the scent department.

But 'John Smith' begonia is indeed fragrant. Will it waft like Jasminum sambac and fill up a room with its scent? Probably not, but the fragrance is very nice. For me, it often wafted several feet away from the plant and was strongest during the day, especially in sunlight. It has a nice fruity-floral quality to it and often reminded me of a mix of ripe nectarines and roses.

I purchased it for many of the reasons Robert lists above, and I was not disappointed. If any of you are looking for a truly fragrant begonia with absolutely GORGEOUS flowers, then 'John Smith' is certainly the best way to go! :-)

Thanks ispahan and Robert for the replies. I won't be holding my breath for the price to go down and will dive on ahead for this begonia. The qualities of this plant as described is just too perfect (everblooming+fragrant+shade/houseplant) I guess it deserves the asking price.
Dar

Many months ago Ispahan described John Smith and ever since I had to have this bulb...even though I am sure it will suffer in Florida and I will probably have to grow it indoors under lights to avoid rot and mold and fungus. I will be another one forking over an insane amount of money for one bulb...but I am a diehard when it comes to fragrance and the unexpected...count me in...here comes another order...better spent on something that I can enjoy rather then spending it on having my head examined...lol

Tulip World (www.tulipworld.com) is now offering Pink Blush and Sunrise Scentiment begonias for a very reasonable price. I ordered a Sunrise Scentiment tuber for $15.88 with S&H (they're currently on sale). It should arrive in March.

-Robert

Haven't read through this whole thread yet, but am loving it. I'd forgotten all about begonias. Is that sacrilege? I believe so. So I got down to OK and have this one bed that gets some dappled shade in the a.m., and then full shade the rest of the day. Actually it gets enough light to have grown morning glories, marigolds (that got leggy of course), snapdragons even limped by okay. Daylilies do okay. I'm finding, in Oklahoma, that when they say full sun somewhere else, doesn't really mean full sun here. Even morning sun everywhere else might mean a few hours of dappled sun down here. I used to grow begonias as patio plants in shady areas up north. But having realized they would probably be perfect for this shaded area, my mind was just totally blown out by begonias. That's like a whole world unto itself, is it not? Where to start!? Well, since I love fragrant flowers, might be a good place to start. I had no idea there was such a thing as a fragrant begonia. Glad to see this thread, all of you.

Howdy, neighbor! Welcome to Oklahoma. I live in Tulsa. :)

Yes. There are many fragrant begonias that would probably burn up under the intense Oklahoma sun but that doesn't stop me from wanting them! Unfortunately most are only available overseas. :(

http://www.bigbegoniarevival.com/charles-valin/fragrant-begonias/

Thanks, Robert. I'm in Wagoner (Whitehorn Cove). Well perhaps I will do some begonia-hunting. I've never grown them before (just as summer plants for the shady patios in the north). Are the tubers easy to save and grow for year-to-year plantings?

Seems pretty easy to store them over the winter. Some of the fragrant begonias are super expensive so definitely worth saving!

http://www.bradsbegoniaworld.com/tuber.htm

I just checked out the John Smith and Pink Scentiment. . . OUCH. It reminded me, for some strange reason, of the movie, "Saving Grace." I told my husband we should work on building a perfect environment for morels, first; and then we should buy a dozen John Smiths and propagate to sell. Hahaha! It'd be almost as good what Grace did--only we wouldn't have to set fire to them. So I will put off buying the John Smith and Pink Scentiment for this year; but NEXT year!

Okay, guys. I was a sucker again for another fragrant begonia. I noticed Burpee is offering 'Fragrant Falls Peach'. I'll give a scent report if I can get it to grow and bloom for me. :)

http://www.burpee.com/flowers/begonia/begonia-fragrant-falls-peach-prod500047.html

I also ordered the ‘Fragrant Falls Peach’ begonias from Burpee. One of the plants has a bud that is opening and sometimes a scent similar to ripe peaches or nectarines wafts from the bud. The Burpee catalog described the scent as roselike but it bears little similarity to a rose fragrance to me. Some photos of this variety’s flowers seem to show some yellow tints and shadings but so far mine is just pale cream with some pink on the reverse of the outer petals.

Sometimes I can’t smell any fragrance from the flowers of Fragrant Peach Falls either. But when the humidity is high and a stray beam of sunlight hits it then it is sometimes fragrant. The yellow tints in the photo are really just a trick of the light when there is bright light behind the flower.