Good breeding
Auckland plantsman Graham Milne has bred begonias with scent, stripes and spots and says these easy, cheery plants deserve another look.
Kiwi plantsman Graham Milne’s begonias have scent, stripes and spots!
“The begonias came first and the house came second."
When Graham Milne’s grandmother gave him a begonia for his ninth birthday, it’s unlikely she knew what she’d started. The boy was mesmerised, and it wasn’t long before the future begonia breeder began growing them himself. “As a young fella, I used to save up five-shilling postal notes and post them to begonia breeders Blackmore & Langdon’s in England, and they’d send me back a tuber.” Although Graham’s boyhood affection for begonias never waned, he admits to spending some time moonlighting with orchids and carnations before settling down with the genus for good.
He’s been growing begonias continuously since the mid-1980s. He and partner Raewyn Lennon’s native bush-clad home on Auckland’s North Shore houses one of the largest private collections of tuberous begonias in the country as well as a large number of foliage begonias (all begonias have flowers but foliage begonias are grown for their unusual leaf shapes and colourful patterns).
Graham also grows and breeds streptocarpus. He says their colours – purples, pinks and white – contrast well with tuberous begonias.
Graham and Raewyn (who is also a knowledgeable plantsperson), designed the house so that they could be in among the garden. “The begonias came first and the house came second,” says Graham. Most impressive and glorious enough to change any begonia denier’s mind (let’s just put it on the table – there are some begonia snobs out there) is the couple’s “cathedral” of hanging basket begonias, many of them emitting citrus and rose notes.
What! Scented begonias? Graham says that in the wild, only a few species of begonias are scented and, along with other breeders, he’s done a lot of work cross-pollinating tuberous begonias to develop scented varieties. He focuses on hanging basket hybrids (which have a cascading growth habit) because plants suspended in this way have a more discernible scent at different times of the day.
Breeding scent into begonias is a chancy business, and although Graham always has a plan, he’s never quite sure what he’s going to get – sometimes the results smell like cat pee. “It comes down to the science of genetics,” he says, “and we don’t know the science in tuberous begonias very well at all because I don’t know whether scent gene in a plant is dominant or recessive. I can do a whole heap of breeding and get no scented ones and on another line on the same cross, get a heap of scented ones.”
The scented variety he’s most proud of is ‘Seductive Bride’, a white variety with a beautiful form.
You might rest on your laurels a bit after successfully breeding scent into a plant, but not Graham. He’s also the first to breed stripes into tuberous begonias. ‘Mystic Charm’, a red begonia with yellow stripes, took 15 years to perfect and is beginning to gain a name for itself on the international begonia scene. Graham plans to breed stripes into other colours, but wants to perfect stripes on red begonias first.
And if you’ve mastered stripes, why not spots too? The same cross that resulted in ‘Mystic Charm’ also produced some spotty “dalmatian” begonias and Graham has also bred an orange begonia with yellow spots, ‘Apricot Charm’.
When it comes to breeding colour though, he’s most proud of ‘Salmon Delight’, a standard tuberous begonia which opens white, then turns a beautiful salmon colour two days later.
Since 2004, Graham has also been working with a group of tuberous begonias known as picotees, where the outer
After falling for the genus as a schoolboy, begonia specialist Graham Milne went on to develop and breed one of the largest collections of tuberous begonias in the country.
“Start with the best potting mix because that's the life blood of the plant."
Graham does concede that ruberous begonias have a certain gaudiness about them which appeals to male gardeners.
edges of the petals are in a contrasting colour to the main hue of the flower, trying to breed a white begonia with an extremely dark red outer edge. “I’ve done crosses on two lines, crossed them, back crossed them, gone brother to sister, and if I’m still alive in 10 years I might find what I’m after.”
Graham is also trying to breed begonias that are resistant to powdery mildew, particularly with the fancypants foliage begonias, known as rexes, which have multicoloured leaves but are high maintenance and easy to kill.
When it comes to begonia care, watering them correctly is key. Water when soil is dry to the touch and never leave a plant to sit in water. “In the wild, they live in the crevices of rocks. They get lots of rain but it goes straight past them and the plants, which breathe through their roots, dry out before the next rain,” says Graham. If you’re growing them inside and you need to place a saucer under them, allow the water to drain from the pot before placing it back on the saucer.
A rookie mistake that irks Graham is when people use poor-quality potting mix. “I see this so often. People will go to a garden centre and pay $20 or $30 or $40 for a plant, then they’ll choose the best-looking pot, then as they walk out the door they get the cheapest bag of potting mix they can find. They’ve got it all back to front. You should start with the best potting mix you can because that’s the life blood of the plant.”
Graham has a mix specially made for him, which consists of 40 per cent Lithuanian peat, 15 per cent aged pine bark, 15 per cent pumice and the rest is dolomite, lime and fertilisers. He advises against mixes containing coconut fibre, believing it causes root burn in begonias.
If you want to grow a few begonias around your home, Graham says tubers and plants from garden centres are OK. However, as many of the tubers are imported from the US, by the time they make it onto retailers’ shelves, many of them have not been dormant for a full season, so they never really reach their full potential.
To grow a begonia that’s really spectacular, this former president and now patron of the Auckland Begonia Circle recommends joining a club because you can buy plants that members have grown from cuttings, which are superior.
When I gingerly suggest that begonias are a polarising plant ( BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don caused outrage when he described them as repulsively ugly during a broadcast at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2016), Graham and Raewyn loyally retort, “But what type?”, pointing out that it’s hard to generalise about a genus that has more than 1800 species and countless hybrids.
Graham does concede that tuberous begonias have a certain gaudiness about them which appeals to male gardeners. His theory is that it’s a form of self-recognition, explaining: “It’s nature at its finest. The female flowers are single and they’ve got the seedpod but the male flower is big and double, and it goes in nature that the male is always the more beautiful of the species because they have to compete to get the female’s attention.” (Apparently, he likes to wind up the female members of the Auckland Begonia Circle with this analogy, then wait for the brickbats to be thrown.)
Raewyn agrees that men do seem to have a penchant for tuberous begonias. “I like growing the species ones and streptocarpus, but I couldn’t be bothered growing tuberous begonias myself,” she says.
But as for Graham, if he had to choose one type of begonia to grow, he's quick to admit that it would be tuberous begonias all the way.