ABS Astro Branch - Website
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ABS National Convention 2008 Houston TX
The 2008 National Convention "The Great Adventure", will be held in Houston TX On May 14 through May 18. The location will be the Sharaton Houston Brookhollow Hotel located near the intersection of I-610 and US-290. To see details of the event, just click 2008 convention.
Seed planting Program
The September Astro meeting was highlighted by a program on begonia seed preparation and planting. Ruby Lenert lead the session and offered some experienced advise. Here are a few pictures of the activities. click the small picture to see and expanded view.
Links to other websites
Check out the Links page for new additions and access to old favorites. Lauri Gray Bounsall has two sites of interest.Links
Classic Botanical Begonia Prints
We have added a section to this website for "Classic Begonia Prints". These pictures have been made available by our former President, Howard Berg, from his private collection of begonia literature. These were published almost a century ago in the Curtis etc. and are quite rare. Each print is also accompanied with a precise description of the plant. A typical example can be seen by clicking Begonia albo-coccinea
Johanna Kitson Presentation
Following a fun "trail ride" with the Houston Rodeo, Johanna Kitson spoke to the Astro Branch on her art and demonstrated the preparation of a begonia "strawberry pot". Everyone enjoyed the program, especially Brenda Andrews who assisted Johanna and Lynn Smith who "won the pot".

Heritage begonias
A detailed listing of heritage begonias is now available on this website. The list covers all cultivars hybridized from 1848 through 1982 that are mentioned in the Begonian, plus more. Click Heritage Begoinias.
Floral Designs
The "Houston Designing Women" met for the last time this summer and displayed seven unique Moderistic Designs inspired by the artist Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), recognized to be a pioneer in abstract art. To see these, just click here.
Astros at the Houston Federation of Garden Clubs, May 12, 2006
Once each year the Houston clubs "affiliated' with the Houston Federation of Garden Clubs are responsible for decorating tables at a monthly meeting. The HFGC consists of 80 flower culbs with over 4000 members, 100 of which typically attending monthly meetings. Cheryl Lenert, Astro Branch President, decorated two of the tables used at the event with beautiful begonias. Plants were later given to the table guestsand used in as door prizes. Marian Claybaugh, former president of the Federation, displayed one table decoration at the Judges table.

Astros at the "Houston Flower and Plant Extravaganza", May 5-7, 2006
The Astro Branch had an outstanding begonia display at the recent Houston Flower and Plant Extravaganza. The show was held in the The George R. Brown Convention Center, downtown Houston. The show was sponcered by the Houston Orchid Society with participation from the Houston Rose and Fern societies too. It is anticipated this will become a nationally recognized event and be held each spring into the forseeable future. Click HFPE to see more pictures of the Astro display.

Our guest speaker, Brad Neugebauer. Show setup.
Astros Annual Plant Sale, April 15, 2006
The Astro Branch held it's annual plant sale at "Another Place in Time".It was a great success with over 700 plants sold. Click these pictures to see a larger view and click, branches page to see more photos.

Astros Branch in Miami, March 1-5, 2006
We had eight of our members attent this year's annual ABS Convention in Miami; Cheryl, Fred and Francis, Mildred and Orvil, Bill and Marian, and Malcolm. There are a few more pictures on this astro website plus over 60 pictures on the SW Region Web site

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Visit of Mark Tebbitt, February 5, 2006
Mark Tibbett visited the Astro Branch for our February 2006 meeting. He gave a very informative "Power Point" talk on species begonias, with several of the featured plants present for members to view. After the program, we had a book signing. Click the small pictures to see an enlarged view. (These photos by O. R. Love)
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Species Pictures
The species pictorial key has recently been updated with additional pictures of plants, leaves, and flowers. There are now over 500 pictures available, along with a corresponding number of small"thumbnail" size pictures. These pictures cover approximately 190 species, 30 african, 120 american, and 40 asian. The "Key" arrangement allows rapid screening, hence identification of plants. To start the Key identification process, just click Species Pictorial Key
Cultivar Pictures
An additional 80 new pictures of cultivars have been added to the site, bringing the number of cultivars pictured to approximately 485. Again, the pictures are arranged alphabetically and also in a format similar to the ABS Show Schedule. These two arrangements greatly simplify the task of identifying a particular plant. To view the cultivars, just click Cultivar pictures
Astros Christmas Party, December 05
Over 40 members and guests attended the Astro Annual Christmas Party. The affair was hosted by Meador and Norman Wiggington at their lovey home in west Houston. To see pictures of the attendees and guests, just visit the webpage Astros Xmas party 05
Guests and Speakers November 05
Charles Jaros and Don Miller visited the Astro Branch, November 6, 2005. Charles gave a slide program on exotic begonia species. Tom Keepin's new cultivar was named B. 'Misty Morning" (seen with Gail)and leaves were distributed to branch members for propagating and trial growing. Phyllis is with the door prizes, and the snack table artistry was the work of Brenda and Nancy. Click the small picture to see an expanded view.
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Species Pictorial Key
As a major revision of this web site, pictures of all species are now contained within a "Key" structure. By using the key, the plants are organized by their physical characteristics so that identification is significantly easier. The structure of the key follows that of the Smithsonian Begoniaceae Key but is much simpler due to the smaller number of species involved. To identify your species start with the "Species Main Key" by clicking Species Main Key

Site Objectives

This web site is designed to give to the the begonia lover, a data base of important information on a large number of the newer, more popular begonia cultivars. Data has also been accumulated on a large number of species. The principal reference sources have been: