A Gardener's Notes

The temperatures are falling here in Zone 8. If you haven’t dug your begonias, you need to do it now! You CANNOT let frost touch your begonias. If you dig and store your corms after a frost, they will just rot.

Here’s how to dig your corms: Break off all greenery and flowers (very hard to do). Try to break the stems as close to the corm as possible. Carefully loosen the dirt around the corm. You don’t want to nick the corm or damage it in any way. It’s best to leave more dirt around the corm than you need so you don’t “bruise” the corm. If you do this every year, your corms will get very large and you’ll be able to make more corms. I’ll blog about that in the spring so you’ll know what to do.

When you can feel the edges of your corm, push your trowel under it to pry it out of the dirt. Brush as much of the dirt off the corm as you can. Set the corms on paper bags in a cooler room like a garage. Write the color of the corm on the bag.

Leave them on their bags until they feel dry. I usually leave mine for three weeks. You should be able to brush more dirt off of them. Then put them in the bags that they’ve been sitting on being careful to get the right ones in the bags with the right color written on the outside. I keep all corms of the same color in one bag. Roll the tops of the bags closed and put them in a cool, dry place until March.