January 2007

U002 Begonia (Begonia x 'U002')

U002 is a trailing scandent begonia that loves a humid environment. Forming a beautiful compact groundcover, U002 will flower year-round here in southeast Florida. U002 is a natural hybrid between Begonia thelmae (once known as 'U009') and Begonia soli-mutata (once known as 'U003'). These parent plants were growing in the Brazilian garden of world-renowned landscape architect Roberto Burle-Marx. Recently, hybridizers have crossed these abovementioned species and germinated seeds and named the hybrid Begonia x 'Manaus'. So, perhaps we truly have a named cultivar for the natural hybrid first labelled U002! Thanks to Johanna Kitson for her thoughts on this, her favorite trailing scandent begonia. Also thanks, Doris Happel for a great photo of a U002 plant.