That’s not what I want to talk about.

Excuses, excuses, excuses

Well so much for my goal of getting out a couple blogs each month. 

I guess everyone has excuses, me too. 

We started calla harvest the middle of September and there are calla bulbs (or corms or tubers, whatever those confounded things are) everywhere. The warehouse is overflowing and they are stuffed into greenhouses and the old derelict mushroom plant down the road. 

But that’s not what I want to talk about.

I also went off in the middle of this busy time to study music with Fred Morrison for 4 days at Lake Tahoe. It was great fun and the weather and venue very pleasant.  The days challenging and the music after dinner delightful. The music just flows though Fred Morrison, like he’s some kind of conduit, and he gets such a kick out of it that he grins and laughs while he plays, like it tickles. This link shows Fred playing the Low D Whistle with his pipes on his lap.

Fred Morrison playing bellows blown Smallpipes

 But that’s not what I want to talk about.

We had a visit from Matthiuas Rohde of Rieger Begonias.  Rieger is in the business of producing begonias from cuttings.  They produce a begonia that is a cross between species of which one species is a tuberous begonia.  These crosses are also sometimes called hiemalis begonias.  But in our industry, Rieger’s begonias are so ubiquitous that their family name has come to mean a whole class of begonias. Mr. Rohde is the head of the family business now and a direct descendent of great grandpa Rieger.  Grandpa Rieger had only daughters and so none of the progeny carry his name.  Pity, I could have had my picture taken with a Mr. Rieger standing in our begonia fields.

We have a deal with Riegers where they will try and propagate our Scented Begonias from cuttings.   Since cutting begonias is their business (Riegers do not come true from seed), it stands a chance of being a way to get our Scented begonias to market.

But that’s not what I want to talk about.

I also had the wind taken out of my sails the other day. 

See, I was checking the links on this blog, the ones you see on the right, just to make sure they were all good.  ABS; check. Capitola Begonia Festival.  Check.  University of Minnesota:  Check. Our web site “Your Source for AmeriHybrid® Begonias”…our begonias…I got the message you see below.



What! No begonias?



I wrote, in a earlier blog, about our company culture being basically anti-retail but we aren’t even selling our own begonias! 

I, of course, went to talk to the sales guys and they gave me lots of disclaimers, reasons and qualifiers but said basically “we can’t have begonias on our web site or someone might buy them.”   I let that sink in a minute.

I went to our new CEO (me, rather disgruntled) CEO says he’s totally behind getting the begonias back to profitability through increasing sales.  Good for him.   He says there’s a new web site in the works. Good for him.  Going to be called CAbegonias.com.  “Good for you” says I, “when will it be up?” “End of January” says he.  Sooner, we all hope.

There’s some sort of ego thing going on here I know there is.  And I know, it’s my problem.  For 29 years I have bred tuberous begonias and I want to see them out in the public.  I like it when people are complimentary about the plants.  I even get some weird kind of second hand satisfaction when people grow our competitors tuberous begonias and like them.  And of course, now I’m blogging; another sign of an obviously out of control ego.

My wife says I need to detach.  I can, I suppose, continue to breed begonias for my own pleasure until our company declines to grow them any more.  Why would we stop growing them?  Well, because we don’t sell them!

Note:  Our begonias are available. Do a search for AmeriHybrid Begonias.  There are some nice web sites out there with our material that you can actually purchase.  I have updated the sidebar with some suppliers.

But that’s not what I want to talk about.  Not at all.

Tuberous Begonias by Jack Larter, a book review

My candle burns at both ends

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -

It gives a lovely light.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Book Review Tuberous Begonias an essential guide  by Jack Larter 

My buddy (and award winning begonia grower) Paul Carlisle sent me this book and it was a real eye opener for me.

I wrote in a previous post about tuberous begonias being the ideal pot plant that “A little fussing will give you a lot of rewards.  A lot of fussing will get you a prize winner”.  Well, this is that book about the lot of fussing getting a prize winner.  Mr. Larter is a prize wining begonia grower in the competitive arena of the British Flower Show.  I don’t know if we have anything quite as extreme as the lofty rarefied air of the British Flower Show in this country.  

I know realize that I am only half a begonia grower.  I know how to produce seed and tubers, I know how to breed true lines that give a high percentage of good double flowers on sturdy plants.  But how to take those subsequent tubers and get the most flower performance from them has been outside my ken.

Although this book does cover all aspects of growing tuberous begonias and would therefore be a benefit to beginners, it’s main purpose is how to plan for, grow and ultimately show tuberous begonias in a flower show.  The author specializes in showing cut blooms, just flowers without plant.  See below a photo from the book of this kind of show. 

Begonia "Cut Flower" show

 The author describes how he grows these huge blooms he also discusses growing pots and hanging baskets for show, as well as garden planting.  Below are the table of contents and a sample page.

Table of contents



Page 48, Tuberous Begonias by Jack Larter



I have had occasion to show our begonias.  Golden State Bulb Growers participates in the “California Pack Trials” every year.  This is an event where horticulture companies up and down California show their products to potential customers.  By co-operating on the timing of this event, visitors from all over the world can come and see the hort products of the Golden State at one time.  Anyway, we always show begonias although frankly it’s more about callas. Callas suit the professional grower model better than begonias, I wrote about that in the previous post about container plants.  We always show begonias from seed at about 17 weeks.  For tubers, we just plant them 10 or 12 weeks before the show, hanging basket pots, a bit earlier.  I am definitely going to try some of Mr. Larter’s techniques to improve our show.

 For show pots Mr. Larter shows his pots, at 5 or 6 months after planting, all blooms that develop before the show blooms are removed, all blooms that are too late for the show are removed, after the buds are selected the plant is “stopped” by pinching the growing points..  Counting the days back from the show date and measuring the buds allows him to chose which blooms are likely to be ready on time.  He hedges his bet by having several plants of the same type on slightly different schedules.  All effort is to produce a glorious plant for one particular date.  For his specialty, the cut flower competition, Mr. Larter grows only one flower per plant!

OMG tuberous begonia from Mr. Larter's book. Plant grown by Denis Hague

OMG #2 Tuberous begonia from Larter's book. Plant grown by Denis Hague

After the plant has produced it’s glory on the date, the plant is done (hence my quote at the top of this article about the candle burning at both ends)  This is not, of course, what I believe the 98% of begonia growers do, we want the bloom all through the summer ‘till fall.

I now understand why Blackmore and Langdon begonias are so prized by the elite begonia grower.  The reason is that they have a history of winning prizes at this level.  Frankly, I have always been jealous of B & L’s reputation.  I know that I can walk though our fields and find lots of begonias that, I think, look as good.  However, seeing a horse that looks as good as a race winner is different from being a race winner, isn’t it? 

I also wonder how difficult it would be to get a new, never seen before begonia to be accepted by judges that are used to seeing certain begonias over and over from competitor to competitor.  I am thinking about the exalted British Flower show now, I am sure you can win at the local county or state fair with our begonias.  Please try, and send me a photo.

Competition is a funny thing, especially judged competition.  Judges are drawn from the ranks of former competitors, they know all the players.  It must be hard for them to separate the competitor from the display.  I have had some experiences with competition, (though not in flower shows).   Competition can bring out your best on the day, but it’s real value is the day to day preparation for competition.  I think the author of this book enjoys the day to day effort engendered by the shows very much.  I judge this because he has named the two greenhouses, where all this fussing occurs as “Heaven” and “Paradise”!

Mr. Larter’s source list is hopelessly out of date despite the copyright date of 2011.  He still lists the Carmel Valley Begonia Gardens as a source and that business hasn’t been in existence for at least 10 years, maybe more like 15.  Antonelli begonias, also listed as a source for begonias in the U.S and by 2011 it was owned by Golden State Bulb Growers.   We, on the other hand, don’t get a mention, despite the fact that we have been growing begonias for four generations and were, at one time, the largest grower of tuberous begonias in the world .  We have also have an active and successful breeding program that has produced unique products.  Do I sound disappointed?  I guess this is the fate of a company that has been devoted to wholesale and not retail.  To be honest, this is one of the reasons I started this blog, I want to stop laboring in obscurity.

Another thing that bothered me about the book in a minor way, is the use of brand names for his fertilizer recommendations, such as “use Chempak No 2 at half the recommended strength”  I would have preferred “use 25:15:15 at 150ppm N”. or whatever, I guess that’s what I’m used to.  But it’s a small point the strength of the book is the scheduling and the ability of the author to make the reader feel that they too could grow these award winning plants.

All in all an informative book.

-Andy Snow

The Ideal Container Plant

Style, Fashion and Convenience.

by Andy Snow

Our company, Golden State Bulb Growers, has always grown begonias and callas.  Many years ago begonias were our main crop, we grew a few callas.  Now the situation is the opposite, in terms of acreage we grow ten times as many callas as begonias.  Callas are our cash cow.

Why?  Perhaps callas are the ideal container plant. 



Calla Pink Melody



Lets look at the calla and the begonia.

Callas are sleek and modern, they are like a runway fashion model. 

Begonias are old world, romantic and voluptuous, they are more like Marilyn Monroe.

Is that why callas are so popular? Maybe.

I think the real reason callas are so popular is that they bloom on a schedule and they can withstand shipping.  The vast majority of our calla sales are to professional growers who take the pot to market with bloom. 

I have noticed that there has been a noticeable shift away from planning to just doing.  I know that my mother and grandmother, for example, canned the produce of summer for enjoyment in the winter.  Even though I grow vegetables for our table, I don’t preserve anything beyond freezing pesto and plum chutney.

I think this not-planning has gone way overboard of late.  I hear that it is becoming uncommon for people to make plans for, say, the weekend.  They’ll just text “hey, were going to the beach…see you there?” or something, (no doubt using abbreviations and while driving).

We’ve become more the grasshopper, less the ant.

A calla that is grown in Half Moon Bay can be shipped across the country and sold at a corner flower stand in Manhattan. 

You can pick up a beautiful calla on your way to your mother-in-law's house for Sunday dinner, no planning needed.  She’ll love it.

Can’t do that with a begonia, sorry.  What are we giving up for the convenience? A grand one-of-a-kind plant that will definitely wow your mother-in-law.   Hand grown by you. Your mother in law will have it blooming for months, and again the following year.  She’ll think of you each time she sees it, she’ll say nice things about you to her friends.

Begonias do get sold to professional growers, but only a small percentage.  Only a specific kind of grower can grow begonias because they refuse to behave in a shipping box.  So the nurseries of tuberous begonia growers are typically a high-end and smaller operation.  They typically have a growing operation in the back and sell in the front. Hence, no shipping.  They are what we call a grower-retailer instead of grower-shipper.  The big guys are grower-shippers.  If your nursery has nice begonias, you can be sure it's a good nursery.  You should stay out of Cosco anyway, it's killing all that's good in merchandizing.

I have tried to work out how to ship begonias because I knew that it would increase our sales.  I have tried chemicals with only limited success and I bred a line of begonias just for that purpose.  The On Top® begonias which are a bi-color multi-flora type tuberous begonia were bred for this purpose. They're great in other ways too. They have lots of smaller blooms, they don’t require staking. They branch real well and take heat better than others begonias.  They make a good garden item, but it is not usually why people love tuberous begonias, they love those large spectacular flowers.

Tuberous begonia pots require a little fussing to give their months of bloom time; pick off the spent blooms, maybe put in a stake late in the season.  Feed and water.  If you're unlucky and the weather hot, mildew may be a problem. (Write to me, I have a couple recommendations, or see this that I found with a Google search.)

A little fussing will give you a lot of rewards.  A lot of fussing will get you a prize winner.  But if the minimal fussing takes you out to your porch at the end of the day (best with a margarita in hand) to touch and tidy your collection, isn’t that a good thing?

Beauty is not always convenient. 

Below is our front porch with begonias and freesias.

Tuberous begonias live a long time; I have in our breeding stock begonia tubers that are over 25 years old.  You could buy a few each year, keep your favorites and give the others to your friends and relatives and you will soon have a unique collection that reflects your taste; you will, after a couple years, have a “relationship” with them.

So I say, (without any prejudice) that tuberous begonias are the ideal container plant.

Begonia Picotee Sunburst