I wish I'd listened to Monty, I planted a load of begonias under a tree this year and although they have filled a very difficult space I hate them. Maybe I should have planted a muted colour and not red, orange etc.
They don't go with the rest of the bed at all which is big ferns, white nicotiana and gentle hebes. The colourful stuff is on the other side of the grass.
I think that taste can totally be acquired, and lost. It can be quite transient. I've actually come around to begonias after this thread. There are so many varieties of plants, that sweeping statements are also a bit daft. I have a love hate relationship with many plants. Many have their moments. Like yesterday, when it was wet the laurels I have in pots, looked fantastic, another much maligned plant. After reading the slur, I'm quite excited at the prospect of Monty going for the Top Gear job. There was that dogs flying planes programme, so perhaps there's room for Nigel as the Stig.
I've never really been one for bedding plants, but I'm sure I'll have my time.
The other Monty (Withnail and I):
"I think the carrot infinitely more fascinating than the geranium."
@aym280, if you have a satellite receiver you can get quite good freesat boxes. We can't pick up terrestrial TV or use iplayer that easily out here in the countryside. But I guess, no TV means not bothered.
The garden was going through a mid-summer lull and we were having friends around for the day - eating in the garden etc - I decided to treat myself and bought that brilliant begonia and one of those bright vermillion flamboyant rosette-type ones that looks like a Spanish dancer's dress - it sits on the water butt outside the back door in an artistic post-modern ironic sort of a way. I also bought one of those dark leaved bright scarlet impatiens for the big table on the terrace outside the studio - that way when you look at the garden the eye travels around in a triangle from one splash of vibrant colour to another, a bit like you construct a painting. The impatiens is fabulous in the lowering evening light as the luminosity of the colour seems to float in the air.
All that colour, coupled with the perfume of a pot of big blowsy oriental lilies, has made our normally quite sedate garden into a bit of a vamp at the moment
Last edited: 03 August 2016 09:31:47
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
“If begonias were a song, they would be the kind of maudlin croon performed by a ‘family entertainer’ in a toupee. The leaves have a bat’s-wing quality, with colourings reminiscent of the pavement outside a pub at closing time on a Saturday night.”
Posts
Big net philippa....
I believe you can get chocolate coated ones
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I wish I'd listened to Monty, I planted a load of begonias under a tree this year and although they have filled a very difficult space I hate them. Maybe I should have planted a muted colour and not red, orange etc.
They don't go with the rest of the bed at all which is big ferns, white nicotiana and gentle hebes. The colourful stuff is on the other side of the grass.
Still we live and learn.
Begonias are gorgeous used in the right way
They can provide a great accent of colour if used with style and flair
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I think that taste can totally be acquired, and lost. It can be quite transient. I've actually come around to begonias after this thread. There are so many varieties of plants, that sweeping statements are also a bit daft. I have a love hate relationship with many plants. Many have their moments. Like yesterday, when it was wet the laurels I have in pots, looked fantastic, another much maligned plant. After reading the slur, I'm quite excited at the prospect of Monty going for the Top Gear job. There was that dogs flying planes programme, so perhaps there's room for Nigel as the Stig.
I've never really been one for bedding plants, but I'm sure I'll have my time.
The other Monty (Withnail and I):
"I think the carrot infinitely more fascinating than the geranium."
Last edited: 03 August 2016 09:15:27
@aym280, if you have a satellite receiver you can get quite good freesat boxes. We can't pick up terrestrial TV or use iplayer that easily out here in the countryside. But I guess, no TV means not bothered.
Last edited: 03 August 2016 09:15:04
The garden was going through a mid-summer lull and we were having friends around for the day - eating in the garden etc - I decided to treat myself and bought that brilliant begonia and one of those bright vermillion flamboyant rosette-type ones that looks like a Spanish dancer's dress - it sits on the water butt outside the back door in an artistic post-modern ironic sort of a way. I also bought one of those dark leaved bright scarlet impatiens for the big table on the terrace outside the studio - that way when you look at the garden the eye travels around in a triangle from one splash of vibrant colour to another, a bit like you construct a painting. The impatiens is fabulous in the lowering evening light as the luminosity of the colour seems to float in the air.
All that colour, coupled with the perfume of a pot of big blowsy oriental lilies, has made our normally quite sedate garden into a bit of a vamp at the moment
Last edited: 03 August 2016 09:31:47
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Dove is starting to sound like Monty:
“If begonias were a song, they would be the kind of maudlin croon performed by a ‘family entertainer’ in a toupee. The leaves have a bat’s-wing quality, with colourings reminiscent of the pavement outside a pub at closing time on a Saturday night.”
Could be worse - his writing earns money
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.