Much touted by Christopher Lloyd as a keystone perennial in his Dixter borders, I started some of these plants from seed in 2018 for the memory garden. Many of them germinated and grew, but I lost a lot of them over the winter. The two that were left have been superstars, though, and they are starting to seed around a bit, so I should have voluntary V. bonariensis for years to come.

There are many things to like about this plant. It is tall–gets to about five feet for me, with strong stems and deep green color. The tiny flowers still manage to be showy in their massed umbels and they last for months, opening a few florets at a time over the summer and fall. This plant is also a pollinator favorite and one of the few plants I can count on to attract the Skipper butterflies that I love.

I will try to get more photos of the plants in 2020–I’m not sure how I managed to not get any pictures last year. I guess that speaks to this plant being more of a background enhancement and less of an attention-seeking diva.

This Beefsteak Begonia was sent to me as a cutting from Leon’s cousin Imelda in California two years ago. I stuck it in a gallon pot with another cutting and pretty much forgot about it until this spring when I was cleaning things up and decided to give it the respect it deserves. The leaves are fantastic on this plant–fleshy, red-backed and deep green. The flowers are nice, too.

The plant is just leafing out now (early June) on the patio. This is the only photo I have so far–I’ll add more as it fulfills its beefy potential.

This amazing plant has been in my collection for at least ten years. It was a discount plant I purchased at Wight’s nursery, if I remember right. I put it in a patio pot and it has put on a bigger an better show every year. The leaves are deep green with red tones and backing, and the stems are maroon. They shoot up tall in spring and the flower show of myriad red flowers starts soon after.

The last two photos are how the plant looks in 2020. My plans are to try a few leaf cuttings of this plant this spring/summer to have more of them. It grows so perfectly on the patio that a few more would add to the patio show in summer. I’ll keep the plant fed and watered and we’ll see how it blooms come July.

This hybrid might be “Honeysuckle” but the tag is long gone. This was a tiny plant from Molbak’s nursery that I bought for my office when I was just starting my Lung Association job–about 20 years ago! This plant is a survivor. It is similar to the other cane begonia that I have, but is shorter, has fewer spots on the leaves, and the flowers are lighter in color. I keep it in the greenhouse now and I haven’t taken great care of it. It keeps on growing, though, and blooming late in the year when the greenhouse really needs color.

My 2020 plans for this plant are well underway–I potted on into a bigger pot and better soil and fed it really well. It is already responding! I expect a large batch of flowers come August.

That this plant continues to exist in the greenhouse is somewhat miraculous. I started it from seed at least ten years ago and have done very little to maintain it or care for it since. I leave it in a large pot in the greenhouse all summer. It leafs out in February/March, blooms early (May/June) and then goes dormant in the hottest part of the year.

The other miracle of this species is its fragrance. It fills the greenhouse with a sweet, clean scent. The flowers are pretty, too, thought hey seem prone to predation by insects.

Since I’m appreciating this plant more appropriately this year, my 2020 plans include topdressing it’s pot, dropping a Jobe’s spike in there and hoping the plant will grow more and spread a bit.