Ted wrote:

I guess this reduces to two questions: 1) what to do to overwinter
these plants, and 2) can they be kept as houseplants during part, or
all, of the year, and if so how.

I have been overwintering my impatiens as house plants for the past two
years with great success.

I just scoop them into big plant pots with a bunch of wood chips and
soil taken from where they are planted and keep them by a SE facing
sliding glass door.

I had one 2 foot wide salmon impatiens flower dramatically all last
winter until it got mites in early spring. I then put it outside where
it got lightly frosted in our late frost. So I broke off almost all the
damaged branches, and to my surprise it grew back nice and thick by
June. It's in a pot on the deck right now and will probably spend the
winter by the door again.

I overwintered one of those rose-like double impatiens for two years. It
dropped all its blooms when inside each year, but filled out nicely when
I put it in a sunny spot in my garden. (Turns out, this double impatiens
doesn't like shade.) Since it doesn't flower, I just put it on the floor
by the sliding glass door where it gets enough light to stay alive.

I haven't grown nonstop begonias this year. But I have read that you
should cut back keep the nonstop begonias and treat the roots like you
would dahlias and that is what I plan to do. This is the first year I've
raised them.

BTW, I was sold two different kinds of flowers as "nonstop begonias".
The one looks just like a Reiger begonia, and I suspect that is what it
is. That one will work as a houseplant but will eventually run out of
blooms. The other is a big guy with large flowers and that is the one I
believe needs to be wintered in the basement in peat.

--Jenny

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