Cultivar
B. ‘Whirly Curly’
Identity
- Genus
- Begonia
- Name
- B. ‘Whirly Curly’
- Originator
- Susie Zug
- Date of Origin
- 1958
- Publication Date
- 1960
- Place
- San Dimas, Ca.
- Country
- USA
- Region
- America
- Plant Type
- Rhizomatous
- Female Parent
- B. heracleifolia var. heracleifolia
- Synonyms and Comments
- Sport of the female parent
- ABS No
- 172
- Publication Reference
- ABS;B63 a116
- Article References
- The Begonian Dec 1960, p 272.
Plant
- Description
- Exciting New Whirly Curly - By DOROTHY S. BEHRENDS, Encinitas, California Begonia 'Whirly Curly' is the most ex new begonia to be introduced for a long time and It won the coveted H. P. Dyckman Trophy at the 1960 ABS. Convention Show. It is a sport of B. heracleifolia var 'Sunderbruchi' and was observed and later propagated by Mrs. Percy (Susie) Zug of San Dimas, California. The large star-shaped leaf that is recognized as a typical heracleifolia leaf had a change of heart m this sport- representative. This new Begonia 'Whirly Curly' is a delightful dwarf-growing begonia, a welcome addition to the window gardener's collection. The leaves of B. 'Whirly Curly' are handsomely black-green with a varied amount of chartreuse-green. The leaf stems are short but are seldom seen be- cause the sharply lobed leaves are always folded and the plant grows quite dense. The center lobes at the sinus are slightly frilled and "curly in a whirly way." The plant has an interesting back- in that Susie Zug severed the sport-growth, over three years ago, from the parent plant and inserted it in a rooting medium. It rooted and grew slowly. I was visiting Mrs. Zug about two years ago and asked to be placed on the list for plants when she propagated them. Susie promptly went to the cutting bed and produced an un rooted cutting for me. This cutting was cherished and, after it was well established and growing, I placed two leaf stems (and they were very short) in the propagating medium, along with a small section of the rhizome. This was a test to see whether the petiole (leaf stem) cutting would produce “true" plants, or whether it would be necessary to propagate by rhizome cuttings (clone) only. The plant is slow to reproduce, but it comes true to its sport-parent. It takes from ten months to a year to produce a well-shaped, young plant - so the demand will. be much greater than the supply for quite a while yet. The begonia plant entered at the convention show belonged to me but was. entered as a new begonia by Susie Zug as obviously it could not be entered or claimed by anyone except the originator. A begonia does not have to be grown by the originator to enter this class as it is often found that the originator has been prevailed upon too often to grow and maintain a nice specimen. The originator is constantly cutting the plant for propagation. I appreciate Susie Zug's sharing her plant with me and in turn Susie is glad she did. Reason? Susie's plant died, leaving the shared plant the only one to continue the line of the sport. An extinct plant loses all claims. B. 'Whirly Curly' will take its place alongside, B. Sir Percy as being one of Mrs. Zug’s most. Popular begonias. Begonia Sir Percy is in more begonia collections today, than any other cultivar introduced in the last ten years. B. 'Bow Joe ranks second." Everyone is delighted with this new begonia and happy for Susie Zug.
Lineage
Parents
Sport of the female parent
Ancestry tree
Descendants
No recorded descendants.
Culture
No populated fields in this section.