Begonias, whether they are flowering or foliage varieties, do not get enough press coverage. However they are highly popular with gardeners and Thompson & Morgan report that they can never get enough flowering varieties to satisfy their customers. These fragrant beauties apparently fly out.

There are 300 species of begonia and these natives of moist, tropical countries are found throughout the world – except in Australia which is a begonia-free zone when it comes to natives.

The begonia is named in honour of Michael Begon (1683-1710) a Frenchman who eventually became the Governor of French Canada. However it’s thought he probably didn’t get to see one for himself.

Begon was honoured because he personally recommended the man who went on to record the first begonia to Louis XIV. Charles Plumier (1646-1704) eventually became the Royal botanist.

He was a Franciscan, vegetarian monk who made several South American forays among others. He was first to identify and describe the fuchsia, magnolia, lobelia and plumeria. The latter (commonly called frangipani) is a fragrant tree named after him by Linnaeus.

Plumier named the others himself, all after respected botanists. Leonhard Fuchs (1501-1566) was a German botanist and physician. Pierre Magnol (1637-1715) was the director of the botanical garden at Montpellier. Mathias Obel (1538-1616) was also a botanist. Plumier died in Peru after suffering a bout of pleurisy.

He was trying to visit the home of the cinchona tree, the miraculous fever tree whose bark yielded quinine. This drug was used by the Indians of Peru and brought to Europe by the Jesuits. Plumier left 6,300 drawings behind when he died and 4,000 of these were of plants he had noted in the wild. The Rex varieties (pictured) are grown purely for their foliage and Victorians used them as understorey plants in ferneries. They are rhizomatous plants and they mainly find themselves on shady window sills away from scorching sunlight. They have amazing leaves and, unusually for plants, these are present all year.

The red varieties colour up best in brighter light and the frosted silvers prefer lower light.

All must have a minimum temperature of 15°C (60°F) to thrive and one plant will live for years if happy.

The compost should be kept moist and you will also need to feed regularly with a liquid house plant fertiliser.

Take care not to over-water as wet compost will cause your plants to rot.

A north-facing window is ideal and you could grow streptocarpus there too.

Set both on pebbles in plant saucers or trays and fill with water to just below the base of the container to keep the humidity up. Rex begonias could tolerate being put into the garden for the summer months as long as they are out of sunlight and wind. You can take leaf cuttings in early summer and split the rhizomes to produce more plants.

Cover your pot of cuttings with polythene: they root easily then.