Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1243542 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

Customer Reviews

If you can only afford one book about Begonias, this is it
This book has been my first source of information about Begonias since I first found it on the shelves of the library back in my high school years. Later, when I started my Garden library, it was one of the first books I sought out and, after forty years, I still refer to it often.
Other books have since been written, but few give such a complete guide to the care and propagation of begonias, as well as a good outline of the varieties of begonias available at the time of writing. Although thousands of hybrid varieties and hundreds of new species have been introduced since, many of the varieties she describes are still available.
She starts by telling us what a begonia is and gives us a picture of the many types of plants in the genus and the range of habitats. The opening paragraphs of this introduction include what I consider some of the most poetic images I have ever read in a non-fiction book. It left me with an appetite to learn more about the genus Begonia that has never been sated. There is always more to learn and it is usually fascinating.
she then follows with an excellent section on how to care for the plants, (One statement has stood out in my mind for forty years. Speaking about light, she says that if you can read the pages of a phone book, there is enough light for most Begonias. The book is filled with such simple, common sense pieces of advice.) followed by an even better section on propagation. This is followed by a section on common pests and problems. It is interesting to note that most of the insecticides she mentions are now outlawed. It is a wonder that so many gardeners from that era survived since some of those chemicals were a hundred times worse than agent orange. It is also interesting that most of the problems she describes are easily solved by changes in culture rather than by chemical treatment.
But the meat of the book is the sections devoted to the many varieties available and how to care for them. This is a major work in itself since there are presently 1,600 species of begonia and more being discovered every year, and they come from every part of the tropical world.
She handles this problem by dividing the genus by growth habit, with an outline of the cultural requirements of each type. she then divides each group into easy, intermediate and difficult to grow varieties. Of course, there is not enough room in the book for all of the varieties available at that time, but she does quite a good job of covering the most important ones. A greenhouse containing only the plants she mentions in the book would have to cover several city blocks and contain at least three different climate zones.
The whole tone of the book is basically practical, commonsense advice, She deliberately avoided the technical in favor of simple,everyday language. As a high school sophomore with little knowledge of scientific and biological language, I had no trouble following her comments and descriptions.
For those with who want a more technical coverage of the Genus, there are more complete books available, but for a beginner who just wants a overall picture of the genus and some excellent advice on how to grow them, this is just about the best book ever written on the subject.