MINIATURE REX BEGONIAS
These begonias are also rhizomatous, but the brilliant patterns of their leaves put them in a class by themselves. Few other foliage plants have such startling combinations of peacock colors.
‘Baby Rainbow’—Crinkly, jewel-like leaves with bands of royal purple, emerald green, silver, raspberry, amethyst. Grows and shows off best in glass.
‘Dew Drop’—Thin, ivy-shaped leaves completely overlaid with shimmering, lavender-pink mother-of-pearl.
‘It’—Branching, upright rex type with silver-splotched green leaves, multitudes of large pink flowers. Likes some sunlight.
‘Lorraine Closson,’ ‘Louise Closson,’ ‘Lucille Closson,’ ‘Lucy Closson’—A group of aristocratic dwarfs with taffeta-textured leaves in varying patterns of black, purple, red, pink, silvery green.
‘Pansy’—Small, pointed, deep-green leaves with sharp zone of lighter metallic green.
‘Peacock’—Jet-black and scarlet leaves on short stems. Stays small if fed sparingly.
‘Red Berry’—Sheer, shimmering satin leaves of unrelieved claret.
CARE. Little or no sun, warmth, humidity, humusy soil kept moist. Many rex begonias may go partially or completely dormant in winter, dropping some or all of their leaves. Simply keep them warm, with the soil slightly dry, until signs of new growth appear.
PROPAGATION. Rhizome cuttings, leaf cuttings. Seeds will produce an unpredictable mixture, seldom like the parent plant.
Bertolonia Melastomaceae
The slowly spreading stems look like fat little top-of-the-soil rhizomes; but the foliage is like nothing else on earth. Perfect pointed ovals seem fashioned of sheerest silk; the skeleton of veins is sunken and strikingly marked. Such daintiness, to be endowed with bristly whiskers! Wee flowers cluster at the top of short upright stems. None of the bertolonias are very large; these are the available miniatures.
maculata—Sheer leaves deep green shading to light, pencilings of silver along the lengthwise veins, wine red beneath.
pubescens—Many veins pucker the leaves like small-scale seersucker. Colors are copper over green, plum purple down the center.
CARE. Partial sun, warmth, humidity, humusy soil kept moist.
PROPAGATION. Stem cuttings (in warmth), seeds.
SPECIAL USES. Artificial light, terrariums.
Boea hygroscopica Gesneriaceae
Six-inch tropical gesneriad with fresh green, quilted leaves and clusters of violet-like flowers campanula-blue, with yellow centers, on willow stems.
CARE. Partial sun, moderate warmth, humidity, humusy soil kept moist.
PROPAGATION. Division of crown, seeds.
Bouvardia longiflora humboldti Rubiaceae
Two-foot tropical shrub to perfume the dream greenhouse in fall and winter. The luxuriant, glossy, evergreen leaves are a fine foil for the celestial white flowers—trumpets with long, slim tubes flaring out into perfect four-pointed stars. Florists grow the larger-flowered variety, ‘Albatross,’ for cutting.
CARE. Full sun, moderate warmth, humidity, humusy soil kept wet except when the plant is resting after bloom.
PROPAGATION. Stem cuttings of new wood with heel (in warmth), root cuttings in early summer.
SPECIAL USES. Greenhouse shrub.
Buxus microphylla japonica Buxaceae Box, Boxwood
Slow-growing boxwood with small, prim, shiny green leaves filling out the plump shrub shape. It is hardy outdoors, but nice in pots and frequently found at plant counters in variety stores.
CARE. Full sun, cool temperatures, average soil mixture kept moist.
PROPAGATION. Stem cuttings of half-ripe wood.
SPECIAL USES. Artificial light, dish gardens, model landscapes, terrariums, indoor bonsai.