Tastes change, often. We can all remember when magenta was as distasteful to people as yesterday's coffee. Then there was odious orange, the color everyone loved to hate. The succulent, sprawling stems are packed with overlapping, crinkled, angel-wing leaves that grow to 3 inches long. Plants form broad clumps from creeping stems that root as they spread, producing thick, tuberous crowns that enable them to endure months of winter dormancy, either outside or in containers.
Plants emerge in late spring and begin blooming a few weeks later.
In the wild, B. sutherlandii is found in eastern and southern Africa at elevations of 3,500 to 5,000 feet, which bestows sufficient hardiness for plants to be grown with protection in Zone 8. Folding Sutherland's begonia into the garden batter is as easy as baking chocolate-chip cookies. The effect is electrifying. Sutherland's begonia adapts effortlessly to pot culture. I have maintained two containers for five years with little care.