Angel Wings and Halos!

Sometimes things just have a way of finding their way back home.  I am now in possession of a plant that came from the old farm place.  Mom had very few potted houseplants because she always said that she did not have a "green thumb".  The few she kept on the screened porch did remarkably well in spite of this claim.  Granted a good bit of their care fell to Pop, the farmer.  He would repot the plants each spring and fertilize them throughout the growing season.  The "care" that Mom showed was careful watch on the soil.  If it became dry, she watered.  Like I said, the plants flourished under this dual-care system and grew to great sizes.  They always bloomed profusely which was much to Mom's delight.  Probably her favorite of all houseplants was the Angel Wing Begonia.  I can fully understand her admiration of this plant.  It is quite beautiful!

A couple of weeks ago, my brother toted a huge potted plant down to the Little Bayou House.  "Here." he said...that was it.   "Here."  This brother is one of those folks that can say a lot in just a few words.  He could have said some "flowery" little speech about how he wanted to give me this gorgeous plant that he had babied all of these years.  He could have pointed out that albeit cracked, it was planted in one of Mom's large terra cotta pots.  He could have told me that he did this because he loved me and I was his favorite sister!  Ok, so that last one was stretching it a bit but, hey, a girl can dream!  Anyway, he just said "Here."  I had to drag out the part about this being Mom's plant and her flower pot.  He did profess that he was giving the plant to me because he did not want to drag it inside with every threat of a freeze.  Ha!  See, I know better than that!  He secretly does think I am his favorite sister!!  Now the plant sits in my entryway so it can be seen by everyone that enters!  This evening, I went to lock the door and was astounded by the plant.  Earlier I had turned on a heat lamp to protect the tender foliage.  The way the light was illuminating the plant was most fitting!  The plant had a lovely glow about it.  My Angel Wing Begonia had a halo!

The Angel Wing Begonia is actually a hybrid begonia.  It is a cross between a begonia aconitifolia and a begonia coccinea.  A lady named Eva Kenworthy Gray crossed the two in 1926 and came up with the lovely Angel Wing.  She named it thus because of the shape of the individual leaves.  These leaves have a wonderful speckled appearance but they are not the plant's only claim to fame.  The plant has great clusters of reddish pink blooms almost endlessly during the warmer months.

Now that the Angel Wing has come to be part of the Little Bayou House, I sure hope that I can care for it just as Mom and Pop did and with the continued loving care that my brother gave it.  I would love to have a long screened porch with rocking chairs and Angel Wing Begonias.....just like at the old farm.  (Oh, and just to be honest, my brother, Tommy,  has one of these for our sister, Susan, as well.  I guess he loves her, too.  But I am his favorite!  Just saying!.....Maybe?)