First off, two things:
Thing 1:
It was tough for me not to write about my squirrel friends again this week. We have a newcomer who we’ve named Frosty or Frost, depending on how lazy I am.
Thing 2:
Fall is here, y’all. The leaves are turning crispy, and so is the air.
Do you know what’s been blooming for three whole months now? Even in these crispy temps? And when I say blooming, I mean these things started coming up through the ground in June and started popping off flowers in early July.
My begonias.
Here’s the first pic I took of them:
She’s tiny, but she’s gorgeous. Each one of my begonias is beautiful in its own way. I have pinks and reds and pink tinged with gold. Some of the pinks are delicate, some bold.
All of the reds are impossibly velvety.
If I remember correctly, I planted five begonia bulbs, and all five of ‘em bloomed.
Here is an overhead shot from this morning:
Do you notice anything unusual about them?
Like, maybe the way the blooms point directly at the ground?!
Here is a better shot:
All of them! All of my begonias point at the ground.
I have one “bush” (idk what else to call it. do begonias come on bushes?) with lush red blooms where they face a bit outward, at least.
But all the rest of them must be embarrassed to be around me because they are looking at the floor SO HARD ALL THE TIME.
Doesn’t matter, though, I still think they are gorgeous.
Even if I have to use my hand to show them to you. It’s worth it.
Now, at first, I thought I had done something wrong and planted the bulbs upside down or something. Look, my brain doesn’t always make the best sense out of things, and last year was a YEAR, y’all.
There were a few times we went to Menards or Ace or some other local nursery when they had mega bulb clearance sales that we took advantage of. That’s how we ended up with over 100 glads this year.
One of these times, we bought begonias.
When it was planting time, I took my time and planned out this bed.
- Dahlias at the back
- These grew but kept getting eaten
- Anenome in front of them
- These are THRIVING, and I am in love with them and plan to plant SO MANY MORE for next year
- Begonia babies
- Well, you see what happened there
- Ranunculus
- NOTHING happened with these. They are such pretty flowers, so I was quite disappointed.
But I am not too disappointed because I still have these:
I usually go about gardening all willy-nilly, so I was very proud of myself for planning this out.
Then, I wasn’t proud because I didn’t read the bag before I planted the begonias.
These are hanging begonias, not garden ones.
Oops.
So, I did some research on hanging vs. garden begonias. I learned that hanging begonias can grow up to 18 inches tall.
Garden begonias have been known to grow up to 12 FEET tall. I gotta get me some of them.
The plan with my current begonias is to get some hanging baskets and shepherd’s hook stakes and hang them beside the flower bed where they currently reside. It’s obvious they are thriving in this area. I still have more blooms coming!
And then I’ll be on the lookout for some garden variety begonias as well, so I can plant ‘em right back in the same bed.
Look, I’m not batting 1000 with this gardening thing, but I’m having fun.
Plus, we’re adding beauty to the world, which is so important now.
