It would be nice to know the person (not the company) of these new introductions and hear what their views are. I wouldn't be surprised if these are siblings from the same seed batch. Many years ago a grower in Australia showed a cart of his seedlings (maybe 30 to 40) on the Yahoo Begonia Group that bore all the same traits but still enough variation to make each one a new introduction. He was throwing all of those on the compost heap. It's cool that we can have all these choices but where do we draw the line? Decisions, decisions.

Maybe I could at least wrote to the company. I don't know how to find the hybridizer.

I feel certain I have seen the darker one before. Maybe someone who has it will see this. I should post in the yahoo group too.

I agree, there is no line. I am not even asking for a line, just a name.

Man, I was so happy to see tags with names.

They also had Hugh McLaughlin, Salsa and Rumba. They were all covered in mildew spots though. I alerted an employee to the fact and she could only see mildew where the leaf was almost completely mildew! Anyway, I was impressed with the 2 I posted because they were sitting in the middle of all those mildewed plants, completely clean.

Mildew is the bane of begonias, rexes are hard hit along with the Mallet class, and I find a lot of canes with polka dots and silver streaks can be hard hit too. A lot of Asian tropical begonias can exhibit damage from mildew very quickly.

Hugh McLaughlin is one that doesn't seem affected by mildew - yay!

Anyhoo I buy plants that I like and don't worry about names. Some folks say they would never buy a plant unlabeled - their loss. I have done that in the past, seen a plant of interest, pass it up, come back a day or two later and they are all sold out. Never do that again. Buy it if you like it.

I don't know why, but I have been lucky with not getting mildew. Maybe because I like ot warm.

Yes, I do tend to buy plants I like even without names. I would rather have a name. Of course then I make myself crazy trying to find the right name for a NOID I bought

Keeping house plants in the house will help insure there are no mildew spores or if there are any, they are kept in check by warmer, drier conditions. My mentor does not put any of her plants outside for summer so they are pristine but they are also kept constrained in size since nearly all of them live out their lives under a plastic dome or in a fish tank.

I visited Peace Tree Farm last September but we were unable to go into the GHs where the begonias were grown due to Basil mildew outbreak so the owner said they were quarantined until the outbreak was over (he said it is very short-lived, maybe a couple of weeks). That was a bummer but we have to abide by their rules.

I wished Costa Farm/Exotic Angels would 1) label their plants and 2) at least put all they sell on line with proper ID. I guess the buying public is happy with the generic "rex begonia" label unlike some of us "plant snobs". HA! If the public gave them (and I am just picking on Costa Farms as an example) grief, I bet they would find it in their pocketbook to print out new tags every time they introduced something new.

My grandmother who had flowers around the house and in a few garden beds in front of her strawberry beds and tobacco plot named a lot of her pass-along plants after the person she got the cutting from. So an Abelia she had was called the Judd bush or by the common names if it was planted everywhere such as Rose of Sharon or old-fashioned snowball bush.

Hi guys,

The reason I don't have all the Rex begonias we sell up on the website yet will probably sound pretty silly to you, but I'm based in Miami and we grow our Exotic Angel® Plants up in Apopka, FL. I need to send a sample request to ship down any Exotic Angel® Plants I need for photography, social media giveaways, etc. I have a copy of the production plan that tells me when different varieties should be at a shippable stage so I can send a sample request. If a crop finishes a little early, then it may hall have shipped by the time I send my sample request. The logistics of getting specific plant varieties is a killer sometimes.

The other challenge I have is a personal one ---- photographing plants for the website is only one part of my job. And there are lots of times that other needs come up and I don't have the opportunity to shoot the plants anyway.

I know it's incredibly annoying that I haven't been able to get everything shot and uploaded, but I ask that you have patience with me. And sadly, in this case, you really can't blame Costa Farms; it's all on me. (If it makes you feel any better, I regularly get emails from folks telling me what a terrible company we are because we're not better at tagging, our website isn't helpful enough, etc. Responding to all those emails takes time, too.)

---Justin
Costa Farms Horticulturist

Thanks for letting us know what is going on Justin. The sample request seems cumbersome. Would it not be possible to have someone in Apopka take the photos and keep track of what photos have been done? It seems it would be easy for them to keep an alphabetical photo compendium, and check before anything is shipped to make sure there is a photo or take one to be added.

Justin,

It seems like in these days with nice cameras in smart phones that someone could take some pictures and send back to you for approval? We appreciate all you do but you know we are a picky bunch at times. Nothing's ever good enough - HA!

Odyssey,

The ABS board meeting was held at Malvern, PA last September. After the board meeting on Saturday we went to Longwood Gardens and for anyone interested we went to Peace Tree on Sunday.

These are the ones we got a tour of.

These were the ones where the begonias were at and we were told were off-limits due to the Basil mildew outbreak.

This was their example of what they could grow.

If I had to do it over I would still go just to see it but won't go again unless there is a guarantee of seeing the begonia GHs.

I think you can call ahead to see if you can drop by. Our youngest member visited a couple of years ago since he was in the area. He took a wish list for interested members but the four I requested were not available so I had nothing to go pick up when he returned. Bummer?