Indoor begonia plants are renowned for their extravagant foliage colour and intriguing shapes and patterns. At Gardeners Dream, our nursery range of begonia varieties are nurtured in a multi-purpose compost - the perfect soil type for growing strong and beautiful plants for your home. Maintain the soil pH, place in a suitably dark sun-shade area, and watch your begonias thrive in their containers! With foliage colours ranging from yellow to pink, purple, and white, they make very attractive house plants. All our indoor begonias and outdoor begonias (see below for the distinction) are sold with free delivery across the UK. Whether you're creating an indoor jungle or just need to decorate a lonely windowsill with foliage or flower colour, we can deliver your new plants straight to your door.
There are more than 2,000 varieties of begonia plants, from the tuberous begonias you can grow in your garden during the summer, to the rex varieties that are popular begonia plants for indoors.
On this page, you will find our selection of healthy plants for growing indoors. Begonias are great for creating a low maintenance garden inside. Rather than having simple foliage and a bright bloom display, these varieties have vibrant foliage colour and patterns. Indoor begonia likes slightly acidic soil, as long as it is rich, fertile and not overwatered.
As for sun shade requirements, indoor begonias like partial shade rather than full sun exposure, but they aren't happy in a dark corner either. Aim for bright light! Native to tropical and subtropical regions in the world, begonias enjoy the warm climate of your home. Depending on the humidity in the air, you may want to tentatively mist these plants - check the individual description of each begonia at Gardeners Dream to discover its individual requirements.
At Gardeners Dream, we hand-select all of the plant varieties we offer. Whether they are sun lovers like the Aloe or want to hide in a shaded corner like numerous Palm Plants, we nurture the highest quality plants in our UK nursery, ready to thrive in your home. Explore our full range of houseplants, including begonia, to start creating your indoor garden.
As mentioned earlier, there are generally two types of begonias - those that live indoors in the UK, and those that can survive outdoors. While we have an extensive range of indoor begonia varieties, we also have some outdoor plants. Explore all our outdoor flowering plants next.
Begonias that thrive in hanging baskets, window boxes, and raised bed structures outdoors are often sold as plug plants. Read to go in flower beds, pre-planted baskets or even patio bag containers, they are semi-hardy perennials with either autumn flowering or summer flowering habits.
Regardless of flowering months, garden-ready begonias tend to have dark green leaves and lightly scented flower blooms. Flower colour, shape and style (including double flowers and edible flowers) vary between varieties. There are few bedding plants that provide a burst of colour in plain garden soil as well as begonias.
If you are looking for outdoor plants, take a look at our bee-friendly plants, outdoor perennials, and herbaceous plants. As always, they are delivered directly to your door for free by Gardeners Dream.
Indoor Begonia plants - including all the specimen plant varieties you see on this page - are not limited to dark green foliage and bright flower colour shades. Grown in pots, these popular houseplants will brighten a dark room with their foliage colour rather than blooms. Ranging from pink to purple, white spots to dark vein stripes, begonia foliage is eye-catching.
The ideal spot for the coloured foliage to grow is in semi-shade - a bright but not sunny windowsill could be ideal. To maintain the bright colours of these half hardy upright varieties, our horticulturalists recommend slight acidic soil pH and dedicated begonia care.
Water the soil when it becomes too dry, but don't let it sit waterlogged. Trimming off dead or brown leaves and repotting only when the begonia is bursting from the seams (most like to be pot bound) will keep it happy. Some indoor begonia plants will produce flowers too, with typical flowering months lasting throughout the summer.
You can use a high nitrogen fertiliser through the summer months, when the plant is in a growing phase. Explore our plant food next.
Here are some of the most popular begonia plants, suitable for hanging baskets outdoors and ceramic pots indoors. Click on any plant at Gardeners Dream to learn more about how to grow it and what care it needs to thrive.
Begonia rex and Begonia metallica are the two plants that are most popular for growing indoors in pots. Foliage colour ranges from yellow green (see the Baby Begonia Amphioxus) to red pink (see the Begonia rex Hugh McLauchlan) and every shade in-between.
The foliage enjoys some bright light, rather than direct sun. Begonia rex, a favourite at Gardeners Dream, will experience foliage damage if exposed to direct sun beams for prolonged periods. Most begonias like it hot and moderately humid, watering roughly once a week in the hot summer months and once a fortnight in the cooler winter months. Some of our favourite varieties are:
Begonia maculata - the Spotted Begonia with white dots on the foliage and the same in flower colour if they bloom over the summer months.
Begonia rex Zumba - the King Begonia is an air-purifying shade-lover that reaches a maximum size of 50cm in height and spread.
Begonia rex Fedor - this Fancy-Leaf Begonia variety has clustered, light green foliage with dark green veins and red stems. It's a classic that our customers love!
Whichever foliage colour you decide to fill your home with, order from Gardeners Dream to receive high-quality, pest-free plants delivered directly to your door.
Tuberous begonias, or simply known as tuber begonias, are an outdoor variety. Begonia × tuberhybrida are free flowering, with brightly coloured scented flower pouches growing in bunches, and dark green foliage. Often sold as plug plants, the flower colour doesn't last all year. This variety likes acidic soil and warm temperatures, so it will also need over-wintering.
Cascading begonias such as the Illuminating series and 'Million Kisses' series are garden-ready for hanging baskets and pots. They have a cascading or trailing nature and follow the same rules for soil type and high potassium feed (or try tomato fertiliser) as other outdoor begonias. You can enjoy the same flowering months too, with blooms that trail rather than grow upright.
Semperflorens begonia are technically perennials, but like paper bags at the supermarket, you can't really use them year after year! Grown most commonly as annuals in containers or pots, they provide flowering months over the summer with blooms in a range of colours, from yellow to red to pink. One such example is the popular Begonia organdy.
Indoor begonias can last 5 years or more, while young plants placed outdoors (outdoor varieties) will need overwintering to help them last more than a year. Many outdoor begonias are planted as annuals.
Indoor begonias prefer bright yet indirect light, rather than direct sun and part shade (e.g. dappled shade). It makes begonia a popular houseplant for shady homes!
Outdoor begonias should be planted as plug plants after the first frosts, as they will not survive hard frosts or strong winds at all. Overwinter them by either bringing them indoors (good for fibrous varieties), moving into a greenhouse, or covering the tuber in a thick layer of mulch outdoors.
Begonia flowers are perennials and could, technically, come back year after year in baskets or the flower beds of cottage gardens. However, as begonia flowers are native to tropical climates, they don't do too well in the UK winter and are often treated as annual varieties instead.
If you can move your hanging baskets and containers into a greenhouse, they may survive over winter. Frost will kill begonia flowers, so even in warmer climates you will need to add a thick layer of mulch to help overwinter them.
Whether you plant begonias as bedding plants or in baskets, their flowering months should be over by late autumn at the latest. You can then either bring the entire plant indoors to continue growing over winter, or wait for the begonia stems to drop outdoors and apply a heavy layer of mulch to protect them from frost.
For indoor begonias, you can purchase them whenever you like! At Gardeners Dream, we deliver all year round for free, whether it's late spring or late summer. As begonias do not need direct sunlight to grow (just bright light) you can start them off at any time of year, not just in the sunny summer months.
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