Bloomin' Begonias

Annie posted a photo for a blog project called Beauty in Your Own Place.  I've been meaning to show you a photo of our begonias so even though it isn't really a little vignette like Annie's pond, I thought I'd share it with you anyway.  I've never grown begonias before because I thought they looked a little delicate and wouldn't stand up to our dogs who often traipse through our flower beds.  I decided to plant some on both sides of our garage in a little planter bed where we have a new bush that has pretty colors.  I put the sticker for the bushes on our gate post so I'd remember what they are called.  Good thing because I had forgotten that they are named Coprosma Tequila Sunrise.  This Sunset Magazine link also calls it a Mirror Plant and it's a good shade plant that grows to 5 feet.  Ours is growing slowly but 5 feet would be just about the right height.  But I digress.  Surrounding the Mirror Plant are a mass of begonias.  I bought them in little inexpensive pony packs and they just took off.  I have pink, red, salmon and white flowers and some of the foliage is green and others are almost a maroon-color.

  

Yesterday, Jeff spent the whole day at UCLA with his mother.  She will be participating in a study on Alzheimer's.  We don't really know if she has Alzheimer's but she does have dementia.  She often gets confused about things, loses things and she forgets to take her medicine.  Jeff has to call her every morning and evening to remind her to take her medications.  He has finally convinced her to stop driving and he's getting her car ready to sell.  That's going to be really hard for her but she's close by and Jeff picks her up often and takes her along to the dog park and they stop at the market.  He also takes her to church on Sundays.