During the time we lived in Magnolia House we had a big plant which I think is called a grape begonia. It thrived and grew to be 8 feet and stood in the corner of the porch near our back door. For the coldest part of winter we (that is the gardeners) would take the plant and its large pot and its carrier on wheels with the large saucer that caught the water into the living room. Every year it would have the most extraordinary pink blossoms all over the plant.
When in 2007 I moved first to the Lowenthals in Berkeley for 6 months, then to Tiburon for two + years, the plant came with me. In Tiburon when I put it outside on the deck it lost all its leaves and became a stick (or several sticks). Rocky, my trusted garden person said “Don’t worry, it will come back.” I worried anyway. The plant had no leaves, never mind blossoms. It did eventually recover.
Then in July 2010 I took it to the Barn. It is always very vigorous and very green – but it never had another flower after leaving Magnolia House, 11 years ago.
Until Now!
For the record the girls in the photographs above the plant are cousins, my paternal grandmother Margaret Hannon at 16, she married Joseph Daley a few years later. She is lower left, she is my namesake. Also lest you think the begonia is a small plant, it is not.
The shelf above the set of colored baskets is 7’11” off the floor. The mess of cuttings in the vase are being prepared to give to Gabrielle for her new decks on Coleman Drive.
Life is full of surprises.
daily woodring 