Meet My Begonia ‘Golden Swallowtail’

Meeting #1

Marta Calderon, MScE
The Green Thumb

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Begonia “Golden Swallowtail’ in October 2023. Photo taken by the author.

Welcome to my new series of articles about my house and garden stars.

Each article will introduce one of my house or garden plants and tell the story about how it arrived at my home, what has happened since, care tips, and what their future looks like.

My husband bought this Begonia ‘Golden Swallowtail’ in September 2023 at the Fall Garden Festival, Green Spring Gardens Park, in Virginia; he was fascinated by the yellow-green leaves dotted with dark brown at the margins. The leaves are lightly spiraled, with undulated and crenate margins.

After a few days inside our sunroom, I hung it on a branch of a native hibiscus tree in the yard. It stayed there until mid-December when the temperature approached 45 degrees.

While it was outside, I feared the squirrels would dig its soil to hide seeds and damage its roots. Luckily, they didn’t touch it. They don’t spare any pots in my yard.

Right now, it is in the sunroom again. I had no expectations about flowers when, one morning at the end of January, I found a stem with a tiny bud that looked like a flower.

In a few days, at the beginning of February, more light pink blossoms sprang up, becoming the showstopper in the sunroom. I took it outside in a sunny afternoon to…

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Marta Calderon, MScE
The Green Thumb

Plant lover and eco-friendly gardener. Want to be an eco-friendly gardener? Join my weekly newsletter: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/IyRTLEF