The Forever Begonias: Two Varieties I Keep Blooming Year After Year

Last years, and the year before's, and the year before's begonias
 ready to hang on the front porch.

First week of summer -- do you know what that means? This is when I finally hang our overwintered baskets of begonias by the front door.

Every spring, garden centers fill with rows of beautiful begonias, and every autumn, most of those plants end up in the compost pile. In our modern throwaway culture, we’ve been conditioned to treat these spectacular bloomers as disposable annuals. But over the years, I've discovered that with just a little bit of autumn care (and the right garage temps), begonias can become long-term companions in the garden. Today, I’m sharing the two distinct types of begonias I grow and exactly how I overwinter them to enjoy years of beautiful, cost-free blooms.

Begonias are divided into 4 categories, Cane, Rhizomatous, Tuberous, and Wax. I grow the last two, as they were readily available in nurseries in my area when I purchased them, and secondly, they keep coming back for me. Why ruin a good thing and change varieties, right?

Tuberous Begonias

the first year I potted these

Tuberous begonias are the showy (and sometimes massive) blooms that dazzle in vibrant shades of pink, salmon, yellow, and red. They spill over the edges of hanging baskets beautifully, and do well in those too-shady-to-grow-just-about-anything places. You can count on non-stop blossoms until early fall. 

This variety needs a true dormant period in order to overwinter. If they are planted in the ground, the tuber needs to be dug up in the fall before first frost, then covered with peat moss, sand, or a dry granular substance like vermiculite and stored in a cool indoors location for the winter. If they have been growing in pots or baskets, the whole pot/basket needs to be moved to that sheltered place. 

I overwinter ours in the garage, which is an attached garage and contains our furnace. It remains in the 40s to about 50 degrees F all winter in the garage (warmer closer to the furnace), which is the ideal temperature range for storing the tubers in dormancy, whether or not in soil. I keep the baskets about 5 feet from the furnace. The pots/baskets are allowed to fully dry out while in the garage. Moisture is the enemy, as they would cause the tuber to rot. Some gardeners overwinter dug-up begonia tubers in cold storage areas of their basements with success.

In mid-spring, after our last frost, I bring the baskets to the deck on the sunny side of the house. I begin watering periodically, but not excessively -- just enough for the soil in the baskets to be barely damp. Once new growth begins to show through the soil, I pick up the watering a bit. I keep them here for a month or two while they put on new growth. Last week I transplanted some Creeping Jenny to each basket, dug from an area where hanging vines rooted from a pot on the ground last season. I kept the baskets on the deck for this past week to make sure the Creeping Jenny received enough water to root well. Today I moved the hanging baskets to the north-northwest side of the house, where tuberous begonias do well. They will begin blooming sometime in July.

Wax Begonias

one of the pots of wax begonias and Creeping
Jenny that I overwintered in our garage

Wax begonias are typically sold as bedding plants. The blossoms are small, but provide non-stop blooming from late spring through early fall. Wax begonias can tolerate more sun than the other types.  I typically set them out in partial shade areas. 

Wax begonias grow from a rooted system and not from tubers or bulbs. Keeping them overwinter is slightly different as a result. Unlike the tuberous ones, wax begonias don't need a true dormancy.  They require a slightly warmer overwintering location than tuberous, in the range of 50 to 60 degrees, and are kept in the soil the entire winter. Some folks bring wax begonias indoors to a cool room in their home to overwinter as a houseplant.

What has worked for me is to move the pots into the garage around the same time as the tuberous begonia baskets, before the first frost (mid-October). I keep a couple of pots and 2 baskets of wax begonias closer to the furnace than the tuberous ones. And I give them minimal water, just barely enough to survive. Experts suggest placing the pots near a garage window or under a grow light. Ours do okay without any windows, only receiving light when either the man-door or the drive-through door is opened (a couple to few times per day). While the tuberous begonias have always come back for me, I have lost a small percentage of the wax begonia plants, likely due to my negligence. Truth be told, I really want a hands-off flowering plant for overwintering, and that would be the tuberous begonias. As I do with the tuberous ones, I bring the pots and baskets out to the deck in mid-spring, when I am certain we have seen the last frost. I begin watering them as I would any live plant. They perk up more quickly than the tuberous begonias and are in full blossom mode by early June.

There is a unique kind of satisfaction that comes from bringing those sleeping plants out of the cold, dark garage and into in the early April sunshine, then watching them spring back to life. It isn’t just about saving ten or twenty dollars at the nursery; it’s about the quiet joy of keeping something alive, year after year, and working in harmony with the seasons.

Your Turn: I would love to hear about the survivors in your own garden! What surprise plants did you find in your garden this year? Do you actively dig or store plants over winter to bring them out when spring arrives? Is there anything you do or neglect to do that encourages nature's free production of new plants? What are your best tips for obtaining free flowering plants?

One Anchor Ingredient: Elevating a Homestyle Father's Day Dinner

You friends all know this—the secret to a great holiday meal isn't spending more across the board. It’s about choosing one single 'anchor ingredient' to carry the luxury weight of the entire menu. An anchor ingredient is the one element or ingredient of a meal that wows the diners. It could make a meal feel luxury or it could hit the comfort-food spot. Last week, I made scratch mac and cheese to go with an ordinary weekday dinner of beans, veggies, and plain fruit. The mac and cheese was just the note needed to turn the plain food into a great dinner that wowed my family. (They're still talking about that special Wednesday dinner.) This past Father’s Day, my anchor was a simple bag of frozen wild blueberries from Walmart.

Now, I know what some of you might be thinking if you've checked out grocery circulars this week. Many of the stores actually have a fantastic selection of conventional fresh blueberries on a major sale right now, Walmart included. In a typical week, grabbing those fresh pints would be the automatic frugal choice. But as I planned our Father’s Day dessert, I intentionally walked right past the fresh display and headed straight for the freezer aisle. Even with the fresh sales, choosing frozen wild berries was a deliberate frugal pivot for a home-style dessert that felt like luxury.

For Father's Day, we could have treated my husband to a generic steakhouse dinner, spending who knows what for 6 of us. Or I could have made dinner at home and then bought a bakery cake locally, spending $30 to $40. Instead, I chose to make an easy scratch meal plus craft a from-scratch blueberry cobbler to go with it. More love, less money. 

Why Wild Blueberries? And Why a Name Brand?

For this cobbler I chose wild blueberries, as they have more flavor and the bonus of additional anti-oxidants. I can't buy wild blueberries in my area. By definition, they aren't planted and cultivated, but grown in the wild primarily in the northern US (Maine has the largest harvest of wild blueberries in the US.) 

Turning the corner with my shopping cart and down the freezer aisle of my local Walmart, here again, I had a choice to make. Do I buy the name brand (Wyman's) or Great Value brand?  The Great Value wild blueberries are priced about 6 cents less per ounce than Wyman's. As I try to minimize exposure to pesticides, I also had to consider which product would be best, and is that still a frugal decision? 

It would be easy to grab the cheaper Great Value bag, but Wyman's berries are harvested natively on Maine glacial lands under rigid policies that protect pollinators and minimize chemical residues. By choosing their sustainable farming practices over the Great Value global blend, I get to enjoy a premium, clean ingredient for a fraction of the cost of a bakery dessert.

I reminded myself that the wild blueberries would be my anchor ingredient, the single high quality component that would elevate the entire meal. As our adult kids walked through the kitchen door, the full blueberry cobbler greeted them, fresh from the oven and resting on a trivet. Seeing the delicious, juice-oozing cobbler set the tone for our evening meal together. A simple home-cooked dish became something that felt like true restaurant luxury by choosing the wild blueberries.

A Festive Dinner That Didn't Break the Bank

The rest of our Father's Day meal was simply fun. I made a walking taco bar with a fruit plate. My husband loves Mexican food. My daughter-in-law is careful around some food choices. It was easy on the budget. And we all loved the 'choose what you want and fill your own plate' aspect of dinner. It was a perfect hit.

The whole bag of wild blueberries cost just over $12. There are enough blueberries in the bag to make 2 cobblers and a batch of muffins. My cost for the cobbler in blueberries was about $5 to $5.50. Yes, that sounds like a lot. Paying a couple of dollars extra for that specific blue bag wasn't a failure of my frugal habits; it was an intentional choice. I opted to support sustainable, regional farming and protect my family's peace of mind regarding pesticide standards. Because we saved by cooking and baking at home, that cobbler was still a massive financial victory. It reminds us that we are the captains of our own budgets—we get to decide exactly where to pinch pennies and where to anchor our value.

Your Turn: I would love to hear how you make choices in your kitchen on cost vs. taste, nutrition, convenience, or supporting certain types of businesses! What is the most important factor in one of these decisions? Is there an anchor ingredient that you would be willing to spend more for when planning a holiday or special occasion meal? Do you tend to buy a special food or two for these occasions, or do you cook primarily from your kitchen’s ample supply?