I've never heard of 'Long Stem' either. Perhaps 'Thick Stem' which is a strange term in itself? Here is a begonia I bought as crassicaulis which it isn't but the stems are rather "thick" and "long". I have never found the name for this one but it is still a keeper. This was two years ago before a heavy frost damaged all the stems. I cut all the stems off and started several new plants with some of the less damaged ones. This was about 5 years ago. I had several begonias in the same bowl but this monster took over. Lesson learned - "Do not plant small and large varieties in the same pot". Here it was 3 years ago on a baker's rack on our hot deck. As long as I kept it watered every day, it grew like a monster. P.S. This plant is still growing in the same soil from 6 years ago.

I would not think of growing it in ground in our location which is Zone 5. I am not saying that it is impossible but the efforts required to insulate it from extreme cold is prohibitive. Some experts in NJ try different ways of covering the plants from cold and others just take a chance in Zone 6. Some day I may try in the ground but just to see if the roots will survive (and shoot later from groun) because I am sure the wood above the ground will not survive in Zone 5 winter here. Also, if you are keeping plants in pots and take them to safety in the winter then there is no concern for the plant hardiness and your main concern is early/late ripening i.e. before the frost.

OK, let's try this. I'm guessing that it only works exactly this way if you have a Mac. 1. I move my photo from iPhoto onto my desktop, just drag it over. 2. I go to TinyPic.com, which is in my Favorites menu so I just have to click on it. There are ads and other things -- I just ignore them all. 3. It says "Upload" followed by a thing (like my grasp of computer lingo?) that says "Localized string not found" with a line circling it. I have not the slightest idea what this means. However, I click on that weird sentence. It turns blue! 4. Then a little menu appears which lists all the THINGS on my desktop and one of them is the label of my photo, in this case IMGP1391.JPG. I double-click on that. 5. A tiny little photo with that label next to it appears to the right of "Localized string not found." 6. Several lines (which I ignore) below this, there is a thing that says "Upload Image" with a line circling it. I click on this. The computer takes several seconds to obey my command. I try to be patient. 7. Then up pops a small copy of my photo and the sentence "Image successfully hosted" and three long boxes each full of symbols, letters and numbers and labelled: HTML [IMG] Link which seem to contain basically the same information about my photo in different forms. I don't know what they all are, but that's OK for me right now. I don't know how my car works either, but I can drive it. 8. I select the whole contents of the "HTML" box, go to Edit, and copy it. 9. Then I go to my GardenWeb post and paste this into my text. Then when I click on "Preview Message" there's my huge photo! I let my son read this and indeed he did laugh. I would be amazed if any of you could use this information to post your own photos, but I was so happy to learn this myself that I'm fine with looking like a computer fool in public. If you have a PC instead of a Mac, try going to TinyPic.com anyway and "see if you can figure it out." That's what my kid keeps saying to me! Nancy PS Please let me know how you do with all this!

This is a North American native plant. In the right place, like at the back of a border, it is absolutely stunning. It is a good wildlife plant -- birds were how this it was probably planted to begin with. From the Lady Bird Johnson organization there in Texas: http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=PHAM4 http://www.wildflower.org/expert/show.php?id=9424 FataMorgana