Bonaventure Magreys wrote: "Yes, the hardy begonias are great, but leave bare ground from the end of bulb season until mid-July when they start coming up for me here in central New Jersey." By mid-July here in zone 7 Maryland, Begonia grandis is already eighteen inched to two feet high. It begins to emerge while daffodil foliage is still greenish, so in this climate it compliments some bulbs ideally. It does take awhile for them to provide total cover and become effective weed suppressors, but in the meantime nothing seems to perturb them. It's interesting to me that it seems to behave so differently only a few hundred miles north of here. Jim McKenney Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where I recall reading that the sap of begonia leaves was once used to burn decorative designs into the skin of goldfish.