so, did you bring them in?

if you put them in a sunny window they will continue to grow for a month or two (but stop blooming may be) or even longer, but then they'll need a rest for 2-3 months. and then restart in mar.

I brought them in. A few are still in the garage til I get everything housed properly. For a while I bought a few in and out when it got warmer, but that didn't last long. All sunny window spaces are now occupied by things that don't grow dormant (like coleus). Remaining begonias will just have to take what they can get.

Caladiums took the hint and went dormant quickly. As soon as I am sure the soil in the pots is dry they will go down in the basement.

I had something odd happen with one begonia is a mixed pot with caladiums. The stems dropped off quickly and I thought it was ready. Then I saw it was budding straight out of the tuber! Flower buds with no leaves and stems so short as to be almost not existent. Never saw anything like that before.

i had one like that in early spring with barely 2 small leaves and it popped a flower - very funny. it did not survive :0.

when i go away i used to leave begonias on wicks in sunny window to decline slowly by themselves - in hopes that this will plump up the tubers for next season. don't know really if it helped or not.

i have a big non-stop still going like crazy - i'll put it in the window for a month to see what it'll do. but we'll only get a few days of frost and then back to low 40s at night - they like that anyway. it does better in the cold then indoors .

I had a beautiful tuberous once. One of the very few I was successful with. I tried hard to dry it into dormancy for the winter. It took a while. Come to find out when I tried to find the bulb there was none. It was a seedling apparently which hadn't developed a bulb. I killed it. Still heartbroken about it. I think if they want to keep growing let 'em.

kyle, you must've had a non-stop. they sell rooted fresh cuttings, they don't have a tuber. they need to be grown continuously for 9-10 mo and with cool temps below 62F to form a tuber. and then tubers are very small and it's very hard to overwinter them. not worth it really, the new starts in spring will be much stronger and healthier.

but a real tuberous begonia of course will have a tuber.

You're probably right. Looked just like a tuberous above ground. Pink blooms with white edges, more blooms than nonstops I've seen. In clusters and about 1.5" across. Wish I could relocate it. Any ideas what it might have been?

even with a pic it's hard - too many cultivars :). but without a pic - no way...

If you bought it already leafed out it could have just been a rooted cutting. I have bought ready made hanging baskets of those. They were not non-stops or Riegers, I can tell those apart by their flowers. The ones I am describing, the leaves and flowers look just like tuberous.

Like you, I found no tuber when I went to dig them up. What it means is they are just too small or too young to have made a tuber.

I have found one way to keep them going. In fall let them dry and decline. Don’t water. When the stems drop off naturally, discard stems and foliage. Then store in a cool dark place. For me, that is one basement closet on the cold concrete floor. THEY MUST BE DRY enough not to rot. DO NOT dig them up! Leave them undisturbed in their original pots.

In spring those tiny tubers will start growing again, just like regular full size tubers. I start checking on them in March or early April. When I see little pink nubbins appearing I bring them up to the light and warmth. I don’t water until I see a leaf forming. They go outside after the last frost date. They seem to be a little behind schedule compared to the ones I bought in the current year, which probably had the benefit of greenhouse starting. Out of the 5 or so baskets I had last year, which had maybe 4-5 plants each, a couple of tubers did not make it. So I dug up a few with a fork and consolidated, giving me 4 baskets.

I still had a fabulous display. I did not repot, except for the consolidation. Because I judged nutrients were exhausted in whatever peaty mix they were planted in, I did use a granular fertilizer. At the end of their second season, they do have discernible tubers now.

Even with the full size tubers I buy, I have better luck saving them by storing them in their pots of dry soil. If I dig and bag them they seem to dry out or get some kind of dry rot. I can always dig them up and repot them in the spring once they have sprouted.

i do similar process with my caladium corms(overwinter dry in pots untouched), otherwise the small ones are impossible to overwinter.

i had one tuberous begonia going for 4-5 years - but that one had a large tuber and i would dig it up and clean it for storage.

i had grown non-stops very late a couple of times - so they did form a small tuber may be 1/2" and i saved it and it sprouted but it was a very weak plant. so i decided not to bother anymore.

Mine was probably a Rieger or similar. When I looked for a tuber all I found was that little mesh that it started as a seedling in. Can Riegers be kept going for years or treat them as annuals?

i regrew and rebloomed 2 plants one year out of curiosity - they became bigger then the originals.

but it doesn't work on all - some decline and just refuse to regrow. their blooms are triggered by short days - so in fall/early spring times.

so I dug up my non-stop out of curiosity: it still was doing very well and flowering, but we were leaving for the holidays and I didn't want to freeze it accidentally. it formed a nice tuber - slightly over an inch. I let it dry for sev weeks and packed it for storage - we'll see if it sprouts in spring.

as an experiment.

when I tried resprouting non-stops before they never grew as well as the newly bought ones (from cuttings most likely).

but this one was so robust I am willing to try it once more. it's also a yellow one.