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It happens repeatedly at
any begonia show. A bystander walks up
to look at the plants and
exclaims:"That's a begonia?"
It seems everybody knows
Semperflorens Cultorum begonias (they
call them "wax begonias"),
tuberous begonias (the big flowers are
hard to miss), and "angel
wing" begonias.
But the others? Forget it. To just
about everybody, they're as obscure as
the snail darter was before they built
the Tellico Dam.
That, in short, is why we are
publishing this Begonia Handbook issue
of The Begonian. It's a brief and
basic primer about the fascinating
world of begonias and how to grow
them. Though veteran American Begonia
Society members may find a helpful tip
or two, the Begonia Handbook is meant
primarily to introduce new members to
begonias.
The society will send a copy of the
Begonia Handbook to each new member as
long as the supply lasts. It replaces
a leaflet, Culture of Begonias,
published for the same purpose in
1974.
The editors wrote the text, but a
great amount of credit is due many ABS
officers and other begonia
authorities, who checked our
manuscript and made helpful
suggestions. These include Jan Clark,
Joan Coulat, Corliss Engle, Alice
Gold, Jack Golding, Elda Haring,
Carrie Karegeannes, Pat Maley, Thelma
O'Reilly, Joy Porter, Elisabeth
Sayers, Millie and Ed Thompson, and
Herb Warrick.
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