Begonias

Definitely you can Luckygirl. And when you lift the corms up at the end of this season, that's a good time to split them too. When you lift them, you'll see little white bits beginning to grow out of the sides. You can cut between them and store them in a cool dry and frost free place until next Spring, when they can be potted up individually again. Double your plant stock for free!

I would not say begonias are repulsive but there will not be any in my garden.

Ah, thanks - I am a total novice, as I am sure you can tell - but garden is looking very pretty!

Luckygirl, think they may be garden ready plugs to plant now as late bedding. Begonia tubers are sold to be delivered in spring to give you a chance to “bring them on”.

There is an offer that has come into my inbox for 60 begonia plants for £10 - they are not tiny little things either. I IN the picture the root ball is about the size of the palm of my hand. I have a space where I would like to put them and just wondered if I could make my £10 go even further by keeping the tubers over winter. I might make this investment and give it all a try!

I did, quite successfully for several years. (The tuber begonias are really big, bold and flashy, love ‘em, slugs hate ‘em too!). Not too much of a pain lifting them, drying them then storing in newspaper. Didn’t do it last winter, they all froze to death. Will get some more for next year. (I don’t agree with MD either, and we had a cat named Nigel before he named his dog Nigel).

I seem to be rubbish at it. I did try a few years on the trot and only got a few successes out of loads of tubers stored.

I dig them up (obviously), air dry them and wrap them in newspaper and store them in a shed. Where do I go wrong?

I must admit to liking an instant 'hit' of colour and spend too much in my local garden centre which has kept reasonable prices and I find supermarkets such as Aldi etc. occasionally have good strong plants for reasonable prices. The uprights from Aldi are very strong already and they were , I think, 6 plants for £1.69p

All the begonias are doing very well and established nicely and my favourites are trailing begonias.

I did not agree with Monty Donn who said begonias were repulsive. He won't be invited to tea. ?

Indeed yes and very successful they are too.
A big saving but of course you do have the extra work of potting up etc............but still well worth it.