Begonias, California Style 2019

This week was the National ABS Convention held in Sacramento, CA September 3-8 with the annual plant sale Saturday, September 7th.

My daughter Katie and I attend every year and buy a bunch of plants and hope that we can get them to survive the winter here in Sacramento.  We browse the plants that have been judged, and see what plants we want to be on the lookout for.  We look forward to it all year, and afterwards we go to a French cafe in Sacramento called Cafe Rolle.  Granddaughter Klara also came with us and spent the day.

This year they had the convention week attached to it, and we came in at the end of the week.  The write ups touted having thousands of plants, but what we saw on Saturday was maybe 200 plants if that.  We surmise that maybe convention goers had first chance, and the public had leftovers, though not at all sure about that.  

We still came away with many plants.  I got quite a few that were new starts that were relatively cheap.    I also am going to try a Maidenhair fern again.  I have bought them 2 years in a row, and I keep them for several months and then they dry up.  Going to try a different location this year.  My other 2 ferns thrive, but I am determined to get one of these to live this time!

These are a couple of the new starts that I am going to keep in the house for awhile until they get going good.  

This was another one called Begonia Kit Kat.  One of the leaves broke off in the car.  They had a real poor selection of this one.  My daughter grabbed one of them too.

These are a couple of my begonias out front that I have had for several years.  The smaller flowering one I got last year, and also the small reddish one on the right  that is sort of cut off I got last year.  It went through a rough spot over the winter but it is finally coming out of it.

This was a new one I got called Begonia Maiden.  There were several we have never seen before in all the years we have been attending this sale.

This one is called Cancun Christmas.  I love the leaves on Rex begonias so much.  My daughter doesn't have much luck with these but I don't usually have a problem.

And this one is called Merry Christmas.

This one apparently lost its tag somewhere.  So don't know the name of that one.

This one I have had for about 4 years.  It is called Begonia Dragon Wings.  I had another smaller one that didn't survive the winter last year.  When I know a frost is coming I usually just cover them for the night.  I tried bringing them into the kitchen one year, but they didn't like that at all.  

This was called Begonia Dicata.  This one and another one this year are from a nursery in southern California, called Kartuz Greenhouses in Vista, California.  I grew up in Vista, CA, and the street this is located on, Sunset  Drive my street ran into.  I don't recall that nursery being their 50 years ago though.  It was interesting that they had plants for sale in Sacramento.

After the sale, and browsing the prize winners in the show, we headed off to Cafe Rolle for a hot prawn sandwich, and I had a Toffee Creme Brulee.   Katie and Klara had the chocolate mousse for dessert.  

Such a great day, and so nice to get out of the house for a couple of hours!