Begonia Meaning: Three Victorian-Era Books Say “Deformity” or “Deformed”, Modern Lists Say “Beware”

Begonia means “beware” in modern flower-meaning lists, including those of the Old Farmer’s Almanac and Iowa State University Extension. The begonia (genus Begonia) is named for Michel Bégon, a 17th-century French colonial and naval administrator, and the botanist Charles Plumier is credited with coining the name. The Victorian-era books that list begonia say something else. Flora’s Pocket Dictionary (1870) and a New York edition of The Language of Flowers (1884) give “Deformity”, and Hill’s Manual (1887) gives “Deformed”. The modern lists and web guides that tie “beware” to the Victorians do not name a book.

This page is part of our flower symbolism and meaning guide. It follows the same method as our cornflower meaning guide: each meaning is traced to the book or list that states it, and disagreements are shown rather than smoothed over.

What does begonia mean?

Begonia has no single documented meaning, because the sources fall into three groups that disagree. The first group is nineteenth-century flower dictionaries and etiquette manuals. The second is modern lists from an almanac, a university extension service and a florists’ trade body. The third is web guides that state a meaning without citing a book.

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The table below sets out what each source says. We searched the full text of seven English-language books published between 1851 and 1887 for the word “begonia”. Three of them list it, and all three give the same idea.

The table shows that “beware” appears in modern lists and in none of the seven nineteenth-century books searched. The entries that do exist in those books point to a different idea, deformity, and none of the three gives a colour or a variety.

Where does the “beware” meaning come from?

We did not find the book that first gave begonia the meaning “beware”. The modern lists that carry it do not name one either.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac prints “Begonia — Beware” in a chart and says the chart “reflects mainly Victorian flower language”. Iowa State Extension prints “Begonia—Beware” and also lists further reading. That reading list includes Hill’s Manual of Social and Business Forms (its 1883 edition) and Collier’s Cyclopedia (its 1892 edition). The 1887 edition of Hill’s Manual that we read gives “Deformed”. In the four scans of Collier’s Cyclopedia we searched (dated 1882 to 1900), begonia appears, where it appears at all, only in a passage on window gardens.

Several web guides go further and credit the meaning to the Victorians by name. SimplyBeyondHerbs writes that “in the Victorian language of flowers, begonias were often used to symbolize caution, beware, or a subtle warning”. Thursd says Victorian floriography conveyed “caution, harmony, gratitude, and uniqueness”. YourFlowersGuide calls it “a rather severe message”. None of the three cites a dictionary.

YourFlowersGuide adds that “botanists and cultural historians suggest” the meaning came from the plant’s lopsided leaves and “sour, sometimes toxic sap”. It names no botanist or historian.

One more explanation is wrong on its face. Auntyflo says “the name begonia translates into the word – beware or to be cautious”. The name does not translate to anything. Tournefort’s 1700 botany text, covered below, shows it honours a man named Bégon, and SimplyBeyondHerbs itself says the word has no meaning in Latin or Greek.

The earliest begonia meanings we could document are therefore “Deformity” (1870 and 1884) and “Deformed” (the 1884 index and 1887). “Beware” is documented only in modern lists.

Claims about begonia meaning, checked

Five claims recur across the web guides, and the sources we read support none of them as stated.

Each row has the same shape: a confident statement with no named book, set against a document that says something narrower.

Why Victorian dictionaries do not agree

Victorian flower dictionaries were never one system. The University of Iowa’s Special Collections describes two books of poetry in its holdings that each carry a floral dictionary, and says they show Victorian flower language was “far from standardized”. Its example is the bachelor’s button, which Osgood (1860) gives as “I with the Morning’s Love have oft made Sport” and Kirtland gives as “Celibacy”.

The begonia shows a milder version of that inconsistency. Four of the seven books we searched have no entry for it. The three that do list it agree with one another, and none gives a reason.

One reading, which no source confirms, is that “Deformity” refers to the plant’s lopsided leaves. Clemson’s Home and Garden Information Center describes the leaves of angel wing begonias as asymmetrical, and YourFlowersGuide makes the same observation about the genus. The nineteenth-century entries are single words, so the question stays open.

Begonia meaning by colour

Modern web guides give begonias colour meanings, and no nineteenth-century book we read does. The three books that list begonia give no colour variants.

The two guides below agree on most colours, which suggests they apply general colour conventions to begonias rather than drawing on a begonia-specific source. Neither names a book.

The practical point sits in the last column. Clemson lists yellow flowers only for tuberous begonias, and orange for tuberous begonias and for Begonia boliviensis, a species it names as a parent of the tuberous hybrids. It lists wax begonias in white, pink, rose and red, and angel wing begonias in red, pink and white. Among the types Clemson lists, yellow and orange therefore point to tuberous begonias or their parent species.

The colour meanings above are modern convention. They are not Victorian dictionary entries, and the guides do not source them.

Where the name begonia comes from

Who was Michel Bégon?

Michel Bégon was a French naval and colonial administrator who died in 1710. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography records that he was intendant of Saint-Domingue (Hispaniola) from 1682 to 1685. It adds that he was intendant of the galleys at Marseilles from 1685 to 1688 and intendant of the port of Rochefort from 1688 until his death.

The same entry calls him “one of the great intendants of the reign of Louis XIV and also one of the noted collectors and naturalists of his day”. It states that “the decorative plant the begonia was named in his honour”.

The biography describes the Bégon family as maritime and colonial administrators, and it gives Michel’s office as intendant. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s library guide calls him “the governor of Haiti”, and Auntyflo says he “was a governor of the Santa Domingo colony”. Tournefort’s 1700 text, published in Bégon’s lifetime, describes him through a naval office.

Who named the genus, and when?

The first printed use of the name that we found is in Joseph Pitton de Tournefort’s Institutiones rei herbariae, published in Paris in 1700. Its entry reads “Begonia est plantae genus, auctore Clarissimo Plumerio”: begonia is a genus of plants, on the authority of the most distinguished Plumier. It lists six species, each tagged with Plumier’s name.

The entry ends with a dedication. In Tournefort’s Latin, Plumier called the genus Begonia as an enduring monument to his regard for Bégon, whom the text describes as the King’s personal counsellor and head of naval affairs on the coast of the Santones. A French botanist, writing for Tela Botanica, translates this into French as “conseiller personnel du Roi et intendant de la marine à l’embouchure des Santons”, adding Rochefort in brackets.

The same Tela Botanica note reports that Plumier’s own 1703 book, Nova plantarum americanarum genera, does not describe the genus again because Tournefort had already done so. The 1703 book does list six begonias in its catalogue of species. The note adds that Plumier may have used the name in unpublished drawings, and that Linnaeus kept it in his Species Plantarum of 1753, citing Tournefort.

Some sources give an earlier date. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society guide says Plumier found begonias “in Brazil in 1690”. We found no dated document from 1690 in the texts we read.

Begonia types and what each fits as a gift

Four common begonia groups differ in how long they last, where they live and whether the flower is the point. The table puts the Clemson description of each next to a gift reading of our own. The gift column is our interpretation, since no source gives rules for gifting begonia types.

The table’s main point is that the type decides the colour, the season and the care. A rex begonia carries no colour meaning, while Clemson lists yellow flowers only for tuberous begonias. Our begonia types and care guide covers how to tell the groups apart once you have one.

Giving begonias: the contradictions

The modern sources above do not agree on one message, so a begonia gift can carry whichever message the recipient has read. The Old Farmer’s Almanac and Iowa State say “beware”. The Society of American Florists says “deep thoughts”. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society guide lists gratitude, friendship and kindness among four readings. SimplyBeyondHerbs and YourFlowersGuide describe a shift from “beware” in the Victorian period to gratitude in modern use, with no source for the timeline.

The Society of American Florists states on its meanings page that “there are no rules” today and that the sentiment gives the gift its meaning. The same page says Victorian flowers had specific meanings because the choice of flowers was limited and people relied on symbols and gestures more than on words. A card that states the sentiment settles the question.

The literal warning is better documented than the symbolic one. The ASPCA lists begonia as toxic to dogs, cats and horses, and names soluble calcium oxalates as the toxic principle. It reports vomiting and salivation in dogs and cats, and kidney failure in grazing animals. It says the most toxic part is underground.

For a household with pets, that is the “beware” with evidence behind it.

Some modern guides add spiritual meanings. Thursd, for example, says begonias are “believed to represent the equilibrium between light and dark aspects of the human experience” and are associated with protection against negative energies. These are presented here as modern belief. Thursd cites no source for them.

From meaning to growing

Whatever card comes with a begonia, the next question is how to keep it alive, and the type on the plant label decides which care page applies.

Our type-by-type begonia growing guide covers light, soil, water and seasonal care for tuberous, wax and rex begonias. For the polka-dot houseplant, the Begonia maculata care guide explains humidity and leaf-edge browning. A tuberous begonia needs its tubers lifted and stored before frost, which the tuberous begonia overwintering guide walks through.

Frequently asked questions

What does begonia mean?

Begonia means “beware” in the Old Farmer’s Almanac and Iowa State Extension lists. The Victorian-era books we read that list begonia say “Deformity” or “Deformed”, and the Society of American Florists gives “deep thoughts”.

What did begonia mean in the Victorian language of flowers?

In the three nineteenth-century books we found that list it, begonia means “Deformity” (Flora’s Pocket Dictionary, 1870, and a New York Language of Flowers, 1884) or “Deformed” (Hill’s Manual, 1887). Four other books from 1851 to 1884, including Greenaway’s, have no begonia entry.

Where does the name begonia come from?

The name honours Michel Bégon, who was intendant of Saint-Domingue from 1682 to 1685 and later of the port of Rochefort. Tournefort’s 1700 Institutiones rei herbariae credits Plumier with choosing it.

Was Michel Bégon a governor?

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography calls him an intendant, not a governor. Some web pages and one library guide say governor.

What does a pink, red or white begonia mean?

Two modern web guides give pink as love, kindness or gentle affection, red as passion or deep love, and white as purity and innocence. No nineteenth-century book we read assigns begonia a colour.

Is it bad luck to give someone a begonia?

We found no source that documents a bad-luck tradition for begonias. The “beware” entry is a one-word gloss in modern lists, and the Society of American Florists says there are no rules for what a flower gift means.

Are begonias poisonous to pets?

Yes, for dogs and cats. The ASPCA lists begonia as toxic to dogs, cats and horses because of soluble calcium oxalates, reports vomiting and salivation in dogs and cats, and says the most toxic part is underground.

Which begonia type makes the best gift?

It depends on the recipient’s light and space. Using Clemson’s descriptions of each type (the gift pairing is our own reading), a rex suits an indoor shelf, a wax begonia suits a sunny bed, a tuberous begonia suits a shaded patio, and an angel wing works indoors or in summer shade.

Sources

1. Flora’s Pocket Dictionary: A Lexicon of the Language and Sentiment of Flowers. Porter and Coates, Philadelphia, 1870. Internet Archive
2. The Language of Flowers, Including Floral Poetry. R. Worthington, New York, 1884. Internet Archive
3. Hill, T. E. Hill’s Manual of Social and Business Forms. Hill Standard Book Co., Chicago, 1887 edition. Internet Archive
4. Greenaway, K. Language of Flowers. Routledge, 1884. Project Gutenberg ebook 31591
5. Tyas, R. The Language of Flowers. Routledge, 1869. Internet Archive
6. Dumont, H. The Language of Flowers: The Floral Offering. Philadelphia, 1851. Project Gutenberg ebook 71779
7. The Language of Flowers. Milner and Sowerby, Halifax, 1852. Internet Archive
8. Old Farmer’s Almanac. Flower Meanings: The Language of Flowers
9. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Flowers and Their Meanings: The Language of Flowers (reviewed January 2023)
10. Society of American Florists. Meanings of Flowers
11. Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. Begonias, library subject guide (updated 8 March 2024)
12. University of Iowa Special Collections and Archives. Valentine’s Day and the language of flowers (19 February 2025)
13. Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Bégon de La Picardière, Michel (entry on the intendant of New France, passage on his father)
14. Tournefort, J. P. de. Institutiones rei herbariae. Imprimerie royale, Paris, 1700. Internet Archive
15. Plumier, C. Nova plantarum americanarum genera. J. Boudot, Paris, 1703. Smithsonian Libraries copy, Internet Archive
16. Chauvet, M. Plumier et les bégonias. Tela Botanica, 25 May 2020
17. Clemson Cooperative Extension, Home and Garden Information Center. Begonia (HGIC 1159, revised 21 October 2020)
18. ASPCA. Begonia, toxic and non-toxic plants
19. SimplyBeyondHerbs. Begonia Flower Meaning and Symbolism (20 May 2025)
20. Thursd. Begonia Flower Meaning
21. YourFlowersGuide. Begonia flower meaning and the Victorian message of caution and gratitude
22. Auntyflo. Begonia Meaning