Hmm, your plants look pretty small but it's good to see they did bloom. Did you start them growing from a tuber or did you buy them already blooming? I have seen them in Home Depot and Pike nurseries midsummer in large hanging baskets for about $25. I would really rather not pay that much, especially if they will not be blooming very long. Was thinking about ordering a tubor and see if I could get flowers from it this summer. Just hate to go to all that trouble and spend the money if they don't do well here. Your CA pictures sure look pretty. I wish I lived somewhere where I can have flowers like that. I also like fuchsia flowers but there are similar problems with them.

In my very limited opinion, the newer begonia boliviensis tolerates our southern heat and humidity better. They don't look as flashy as these hybrids, but they do seem to live, which is more than you can typically say about the others.

I had one of them part of last summer. It did well for awhile. I did not realize it was a tuberous kind, which would explain why it rapidly turned yellow at the end of summer.

Regarding the kind pictured previously that I really like, I wonder if it would be possible to grow them indoors in an east window, if not outside? I just really like them. They must not do well indoors either or I would find more info on that.

Indoors is typically a hostile environment for plants. Some tolerate it better than others. Big flowered tuberous begonias are prima-donnas.

I had boliviensis and many of its hybrids - lost them all after one summer. Always worth a few bucks just to grow during summer. Bonfire is the one on the left compared to boliviensis next to it. You can see that Bonfire is more stunning.

Here is Bonfire at our local chain nursery a few years back

The big growers continue to come out with new hybrids almost yearly these days.

I can always grow them for the summer and treat them as annuals...

Personally I get more bang from Dragon Wings and Big for about the same price or less.

Yeah, a well started angel wing (like Dragon's Wings) would probably give more pleasure as an annual.

I have to report that my boliviensis certainly survived the winter dormancy and is flush with at least a dozen new growth points coming out now. I'm going to repot it and put it a larger container after growth gets going pretty good (say late April). I'm told that the second year (and on) the stems are stronger and stay more upright than the first year (was a cutting taken probably a year ago last January). I'm excited to further judge Southern performance this year.

dbarron, keep us informed on your progress and methods of keeping boliviensis going in the south. I'm all ears! HAHA!

One of our members was able to root small twigs of boliviensis and get a nice sized tuber in a few months. But then he was working for the state and had a greenhouse to work with - not sure if it was my winter care in a basement or his greenhouse that made the difference or maybe it was his attention to detail when growing something. I have a feeling it was the latter...

Look at the size of this tuber from a small cutting he started just a scant few months earlier!

He got a few cuttings from me and was able to do this in the greenhouses he managed in less than six months. (So I am guessing that a greenhouse with expert care makes a huge difference). BTW the greenhouses were old hoop houses and were torn down a few years later with the plan on putting in brand new ones (i haven't been back in years since he retired a couple of years after I visited)

Looks like Lana here.

My Special Angel

Silver Mist or Silvermist? I think the second form is the correct one.

Lots of sempervivum (hens and chicks)

Yep, my wife walking through one of the greenhouses on that chilly Leap Year Day 2008.

I bought tuberous begonias for the first time last year here in TN zone 6b and they did great in a pot on my shady back deck. I put the whole pot in the garage and totally forgot about them but just noticed a few weeks ago that they were sprouting again. I'm excited to see if they will bloom.

Well my boliviensis came back with considerable vigor and the first flowers are now opening. I just treated it mostly like achimenes or gloxinia. I left it dormant in the pot, watered perhaps twice in winter, when it felt really too dry to me.

I admit by September last year, it was looking fairly sad, but it stayed with me.

Kitchenlady and dbarron,

Your news sounds very encouraging! I bought four more tuberous last month even if they go kaput on me later this summer. Too beautiful and inexpensive not to try again and again.

B. 'Silver Mist' two words, one of the late great Irene Nuss's B. dichroa crosses.

My boliviensis came back this spring. I was surprised because last fall I did not realize it was tuberous and left it out, and then when I learned it was I thought it would have frozen this winter but it was a rather mild winter here and anyway it came back. It's been growing well and has some flowers starting to open already. I also got three tubers to try of the other kind that I originally asked about and like better. They all began to grow but one tuber rotted and I think the other plant is dying now. I have one left and I'm going to try again with more tubers. I had them in peatmoss and perlite at first and then when they grew bigger I planted the plants in perlite, peat moss, miracle grow potting mix, and sand. I had read something recommending including sand and leaf mold but I couldn't find any leaf mold. Anyway the new soil mix was too heavy and they sat there and didn't grow. One of the tubers had already started to rot before I changed the soil. I have a hard time knowing when to water them because they seem dry but then I guess down deep they must not be. I repotted the other two back into the 1:1 peatmoss and perlite mix and that may be when the second one begin to wilt. But it wasn't looking very good before that. Anyway it has not recovered and I'm not sure what's wrong with it now. The third one is doing ok but not growing very much. If anyone knows what magic soil I should be planting them in for summer let me know. I read some things elsewhere online but nothing was very helpful.

That sounds good to have them survive outdoors in winter. Where were the tuber(s) stored? In the pot or the ground or where?

I just buy them as annuals here so I don't have to fret about their winter care. I doubt they would survive our winters (low 20's, some nights in the teens)

This coir lined basket (below) is in fair shade while the other two get morning sun up to noon or later. That means I have to pay attention to wilt on the first two more than this last one.

My boliviensis or similar was left outside in its pot sitting on the ground after the leaves turned yellow. Then last month or so it started growing again! So I hung it back up in the backyard where it gets part shade and did fine last year, though I bought it later in summer. The other tubers I ordered and they are the kind that are more traditional tuberous begonia looking. I have the only healthy one on the east porch which is in the shade but bright. I just ordered more to try. It's hard to find those kind of plants here.

Here's the other one.