I bought this Begonia last year on the flower market. It had obviously been treated very badly, most of its leaves were torn or scorched, it stood there all alone like forgotten in a too tiny pot, It had one big single flower, so gorgeous that I felt like adopting it..
Slowly it started to recover after some intensive care, but only showing its full glory this year.
I searched for hours on the web to find its ID, alas to no avail, I think it is tuberous as it went dormant over the last winter, this winter not yet, though it stopped blooming..

The leaves are big especially the basal ones, up to 25cm, they feel like velvet, densely soft short haired which gives them a silver greyish green tone..
The flowers are single and very big when fully open with a diameter of over 10 cm.

I have been searching for hours on the web, but didn't find any true match, the closest I came upon for a match with the flowers is Begonia 'Pin-Up', but that one has glossy leaves..
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantse...

I realise it might be impossible to get a name for it, but one can only try For myself I have given it the name Begonia 'Aurora'

As it made plenty of seed, I have sown a few and they are germinating right now, so the seed is viable!

Pin Up does look very similar Myriam! It's a beauty, I would have wanted to adopt it too! Seed I hear you say?

http://www.bonplant.fr/begonia...

I found that Pim Up is a series ..

http://www.wellgrowhorti.com/p...

BEGONIA HYBRID PIN UP ROSE

http://www.gardenworldimages.c...

This one has furry leaves..

http://www.sciencephoto.com/me...

It does look like Begonia Pin Up Rose. I found some sites selling seed of these too.

Thanks Janet! You found the perfect match in flowers as well as leaves in the last link! But they call it Begonia tuberosa 'Pin-Up', as far as I understand they consider it a cultivar and not a hybrid? that would be different then than Begonia Hybrid Pin-Up Rose?..after all the leaves on the other links do look glossy and darker than mine.. I find the leaves on mine much more attractive than the glossy ones, the grayish tone and furriness harmonizes so well with the pink..
yes, I have plenty of seed!

I think this is bred by hybridisation Myriam, that is by crossing species or hybrids or both.

The RHS has the preferred name Begonia 'Pin Up' but there is an entry in the plant file for Flame.

Tuberous Begonia (Begonia x tuberhybrida Pin-Up® Flame)

The science library has it as Begonia tuberosa 'Pin Up'

I can't find it listed in the plant finder on the RHS, but their feature page should give the correct name, which is Begonia 'Pin Up' or maybed you could call it Begonia 'Pin Up Rose'

I found the full details, Pin-Up is the registered trade mark.

http://www.provenwinners.com/p...

Common name: Tuberous Begonia

Genus: Begonia
species: x tuberhybrida
Cultivar: Rose
Trade name: Pin-Up

Flame should be done the same way

http://www.provenwinners.com/s...

I see that Begonia 'Pin-Up Flame has semi double flowers.

I'm still confused Janet, sorry, as the Science Image library is the ONLY one that has the exact match and name it : Begonia tuberosa 'Pin-Up', do you mean they don't use the right name, but should change it to Begonia 'Pin-Up' instead like in RHS, while the picture of the plant there has obviously dark glossy leaves?

You will find different places naming plants a little differently Myriam. The Proven Winners site shows Flame as single, they are both from the same breeder. The 'Flame' in the files here might be something else, yours isn't.

http://www.provenwinners.com/p...

I wouldn't worry about the leaves on the RHS photo, it could be due to water on the leaves or sun glare or flash, it's not very clear.

Read more about Proven Winners, they seem to be the one's who either bred them or market them.

http://www.provenwinners.com/w...

From their site..

Common name: Tuberous Begonia
Genus: Begonia
species: x tuberhybrida
Cultivar: Rose
Trade name: Pin-Up

Thanks Janet for your patience!
OK, I'll enter it in the DB as:

Common name: Tuberous Begonia
Genus: Begonia
species: x tuberhybrida
Cultivar: Rose
Trade name: Pin-Up

(but for myself I will keep calling it Begonia 'Aurora' more dignified and poetical than Pin-Up )

Yep, that's correct!

When a trade name is entered it will be added with an = sign.

You guys are so good maybe you help id a couple of begonias I would like to enter in the database. I grew tuberous begonias for many years and at one point I had 90 corms. Moving from an ideal climate for them to ones that were not so good, finally did them in. I had kept some of them for several year and the corms were huge. "Pin-Up" was one that I had in my collection and I had totally forgotten about that one until the name came up here. The photos were taken 2009, just before they all froze.

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Proven Winners and ATP are now the only two sites on earth referring to this plant as Pin-Up 'Flame', so I hope we're right and everyone else is wrong.

I got a lot of hits for Begonia Pin-Up Flame Dave. Proven Winners even sell the name tags for them, so do hortipak..

http://www.hortipak.co.uk/prod...

http://www.backyardgardener.co...

http://kcgardens.kansascity.co...

http://seemnemaailm.ee/index.p...

http://www.pwfourstar.com/2009...

http://www.google.co.uk/search...

Margaret, I'll see what I can find later, such a shame you lost yours! I grew some to big tubers years ago but they didn't live long even with lifting and storing. Maybe growing from seed gives them a better chance.

Thanks Janet.


I just checked the Pin-Up links and the one I had was "Pin-Up" Rose.