DIRT

(Page 2 of 3)

Although you can often find a few good ones at Buckley's, Whitmore's and The Baywoods, treat yourself to a plant adventure and go north to Logee's in Danielson, Conn. This nursery is the unparalleled sovereign of tropical plant container gardening in our region, and begonias are their specialty—a dedicated family with fabulous taste for the exotic is at work here.

I have been placing mail orders with Logee's since the beginning of my plant-mad life. Early on, I fulfilled my lust for passion vines. But after several winters combating rampant growth and sticky infestations in my jerry-rigged, sort-of greenhouse that faced (incorrectly) north, I gave up—except on the glorious begonias. Buying them by mail order is perfectly satisfying, but many of my most respected plant-hungry friends (especially Abby Jane Brody, whose word I always take for gospel) said that one simply had to go there in person.

Last year, I made a point to find Logee's en route from Boston (very close and easy once you have crossed the Sound). You have to see—and smell—the horticultural life force for yourself.

In the Logee Big House, there are zillions of begonias. Their myriad, fascinating growth habits are shrubby, bamboo-like, trailing and mounding. Their leaf shapes are extravagant. They grow deliberately and slowly, so you can control their size by selectively nipping off shoots and side branches to make them fit anywhere, allowing you to indulge in variety. Once you transfer them from their tiny plastic pots to a nice, medium-size terra-cotta or clay container, you rarely have to worry about changing to bigger pots.