Begonia Festival preparations in full swing

While preparations are in full swing in the lead-up to the Ballarat Begonia Festival on March 11-13, City of Ballarat’s nursery gardeners work year-round to cultivate and curate the beautiful and rare begonias for the city’s annual celebration of flowers.   
 
The bright floral display in the Robert Clark Conservatory is the result of 12 months of work from City of Ballarat gardeners Sheree Blood, Erin Brennan and Mark Oliver.  

The trio dedicate their working days to caring for the begonia collections, which form an historical and significant part of Ballarat’s identity.  
 
Rare collections  
 
Curator Gardens and Nursery Donna Thomas said the Ballarat Botanical Gardens’ begonia collections began in the 1890’s.  
 
“The Gardens began importing tuberous begonias from English nursery Blackmore & Langdon in 1901, which considers 75 of the City of Ballarat’s begonias rare, with some believed to be the only surviving varieties left world-wide,” she said. 
 
“The other half of the collection is from all over the world with about a third from Australia.”  
 
The nursery’s collection of the “big, showy” tuberous begonias — which grow from an underground tuber, similar to a bulb — and the non-tuberous begonias, which feature striking leaves, are registered with Plant Trust Australia. 

Ms Thomas said the nursery is home to 240 different cultivars of tuberous begonias and strives to grow nine of each annually to sustain the collection.  
 
Growing begonias  

After the begonia display finishes, the tuberous begonias are allowed to die naturally. The begonia is then removed from its pot, cleaned with a brush and then bagged with its individual label, before being stored for seven weeks in winter.  

In spring, the begonias are then repotted and moved into the heated glass house. Once the shoots have reached 7 to 10cms, cuttings are taken for propagation. 

The begonias are then potted to their final pot size and moved to the non-heated glasshouse, where they are staked. 

The team disbuds flowers until the start of February to encourage the larger flowers and ensure the begonias are looking their best for the festival.  

Floral centrepiece 

Once the begonias are installed in the conservatory, the team hand waters them every morning before the doors of the conservatory open.  
 
Ms Thomas said the team also removes the smaller female flowers.  
 
“Begonias have male and female flowers and for each of the big showy male flowers there is often one or two smaller single female flowers underneath it that are removed,” she said. 

“This enables the plant to put all its energy into the big flower and not into producing seed. 

“Each individual stem of a begonia is staked to support the weight of the flowers and each flower head has a wire underneath it as well for extra support.” 

Ms Thomas said the overwhelming colour is what makes begonias so special. 

“The begonia display is breathtaking," she said. 

"You never get tired of it, you never get used to it and you are never, not impressed by it.” 
 
For more information about the Ballarat Begonia Festival and to view the collection of Begonias online, visit the website.