February 8th, 2022Begonias on show

IF YOU’VE ever visited the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens glasshouse, you will have seen the amazing tuberous begonias, flamboyant, colourful and huge – but only viewed from behind the glass walls.
Now they are easily accessible with Jesse and Peter from the Tuberous Begonia Garden showing and selling these amazing plants and hanging baskets every weekend, from Saturday, February 5 until Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 8.
Also on show and sale are the old fashioned fuchsias – you may remember them from your nan’s garden – now riding a wave of popularity.
Jesse said both tuberous begonias and fuchsias were shade-loving plants and so went hand-in-hand for showing and sales.

“We have a large shade house and one side is where people can come and look at our plants and the other is where they can buy them if they want. They will flower from now until past Mother’s Day and make the most wonderful and unique presents. After that they die back to tubers and the following year they will come back again.
“We have about 60 varieties of fuchsias and we are growing tuberous begonias in the thousands as we only sell them when they are two years old. And they don’t have names because each one is individual. You never have two the same so you can name them yourselves – tuberous begonia variety Donna and Kyle for example. And they will always have that name.”
Jesse said tuberous begonias were very difficult to propagate and Peter had been working on that side of the business for the past five years, only showing and selling them for the past two.
But while the propagation is time-consuming, keeping a tuberous begonia is pretty easy going, and Jesse has prepared both an instruction sheet and YouTube video to keep things simple. (The video can be seen at www.whitehousenursery.com.au/tuberous-begonias)
Jesse said anyone who loved colourful flowering plants would love both tuberous begonias and fuchsias. “We have had lots of customers from last year calling us to say how happy they are with their plants, and how much pleasure they are getting from them. They can both be brought inside during the day, to enjoy their colour, but they do need to spend the night outside.”
The Tuberous Begonia Garden, 691 Ashbourne Rd, Ashbourne, is open weekends from February 5 to May 8 from 10am to 4pm. Covid-safe practices include checking in to the QR code, sanitising on entry and preferably wearing a mask, even outside.
Link: www.whitehousenursery.com.au/tuberous-begonias