This is an experimental post of sorts. Having nothing in particular to say, I am blogging about one of my plants. This is an Angel Wing Begonia. I have a lot of plants, and if this goes over well, I may post future plant articles.

Angel Wing Begonias are striking to look at and very easy to grow. I never intended to have one, but there you go. Sometimes these things just happen.

A woman I worked with said she had this really pretty plant and offered me cuttings. She didn’t know what kind of plant it was. Soon enough she comes with a few little slips of Angel Wing. I stuck them in a pot and put them in my kitchen window. That was then, you know. Back when it was three inches tall. But Angel Wing is a Cane Begonia, and as you may have guessed, it is no longer three inches tall. It outgrew that little spot in about two weeks. I’ve shifted it from place to place since then, trying to find a good spot. And all the time, it grows and grows. It was nearing six feet high last year before I cut it back. I took the cuttings and gave them to a woman who blogs about plants here in town. (While I waited for her to arrive at the coffee shop, people mobbed me with questions about the cuttings. Quite a conversation starter; who knew?)

Anyway, it’s been a challenge to place this guy properly, but I think I finally found the perfect spot. See, these are wonderful to look at from the front, but the back end isn’t so lovely. I always had to turn it so I could see the spots – the leaves are just red on the back. And with it being so huge, it was hard to turn it. But now I have it under a skylight, so the side that’s visible is the side that’s pretty.

This is the first plant one sees when they come in my front door, so I’m glad it appears to be liking this spot. And it is welcome to grow tall, because it isn’t in the way of anything. Six feet is no problemo now. But I will continue to prune it regularly anyway to keep it full.

If you are a local friend and want a cutting, just let me know. Angel Wings are not rare but free is free, right? They are incredibly easy to grow indoors (if you have room) and will root very readily in water. They are not overly prone to fungal infections (though of course they can get them) or pests (ditto on that) and they produce really nifty dangly pinkish reddish flowers that taste of lemon. When I sold these in the garden center, one of the customers made a habit of pulling the flowers off by the fistful and eating them. That was annoying and made the plants harder to sell, so if you want to eat the begonias, I suggest growing your own. He was just doing it for shock value, really; they aren’t particularly yummy. But they do taste of lemon and look incredible on a salad.

These and other Begonias can also grow outside during the frost-free months, but they need pretty good shade. I keep this one indoors year-round. I could take cuttings and fill the patio up with them all summer… but then I’d feel guilty when winter came and I had nowhere to house them, and they’d all be about a thousand feet tall by then so it would be quite a massive death scene.