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| Photo Credit: Gerald Klingaman |
| Big containers deserve big plants like Dragon Wings™ begonia! |
I’ve been in the horticulture biz for over 35 years now, and I’ve seen lots of plants rise in popularity, only to be dashed against the rocks as gardeners tire of them or a plant’s less desirable attributes become known. But in my humble opinion, Dragon Wings™ begonia is one of the most remarkable new garden flowers to come along in my career.
Let’s start with its good looks: Dragon Wings is a 2- to 3-foot-tall, cane-forming begonia with deep, glossy-green, 5-inch-long leaves and tons of drooping flower clusters near its top. While the original Dragon Wings has bright red flowers, you can also find pink and white forms. And because this hybrid’s sterile, it just keeps blooming from spring till frost. In fact, I really only have one complaint with this beauty: It’s a bit messy on my deck. The plant makes so many flowers, I have to sweep them away from time to time to keep them from staining the wood red! The fact that Dragon Wings is sterile is actually a good thing for us gardeners, as well as for the seed company that produces it. For us, sterile plants keep flowering over and over in an unfruitful attempt to procreate – adding nonstop color to our gardens. The seed company benefits because the only way seeds can be produced is to make the cross by hand and then harvest the seeds, which guarantees a lock on the market for this unique plant.
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