ONCE again the begonia semperflorens, fibrous-rooted begonias, have proved to be one of the most reliable of any of the bedding plants in the garden.

lt doesn't seem to matter what the weather's like, they still give a good show. It can be cold, wet and dull or hot, dry and sunny, as it was this year, they still come up trumps.

One of the problems with them is that they are not very easy to grow from seed. It's so fine, just like brown dust, and unless you can treat them properly and give them the right conditions, they just won't germinate. Once you get them through, they are so slow growing and so fiddly to prick out, it is not surprising that quite a lot of people get disheartened and tend to go for easier plants to grow or maybe buy in ready-grown plants.

But these can be quite expensive, because the growers have the same problems that we have and you are paying for their expertise and time.

However, as long as you have got some plants in the garden this year, there is away round this.

Dig up a number of the healthiest, best flowering ones and if it's a mixture choose your favourite colours. Pot them into five-inch pots or a size that accommodates the roots comfortably, using a soil-based compost such as John lnnes No l.

Then cut the tops back down to approximately one inch, water them and stand them in a cold frame or cold greenhouse.

If you haven't got either of these you could cover them with a cloche or just stand them in a sheltered part of the garden, remembering that these plants are not very hardy and so must be taken indoors when frost is forecast.

They will need light, so a window sill in an unheated room will be adequate for the next few weeks, although they will need to go somewhere a little bit warmer when the temperature drops below zero. The same applies to the ones in the cold greenhouse or frame.

You will have to provide them with some artificial heat or take them into the house to over-winter them.

They need to be kept just ticking over throughout the winter.

Give them enough water to prevent them from drying out completely.

If any leaves that are left on or any new ones that have been produced start to deteriorate, nip them off.

At the end of January or the beginning of February, start to water them to encourage them into active growth. Once they have produced young shoots about two inches long, these can be cut off and used as cuttings.

There are various ways of rooting them, in pots of equal quantities of sand and peat or in seed compost with added grit, but to root them in either of these mediums, they will need some bottom heat such as on a window sill above a radiator. There's no problem if you have a heated propagator. They will root very easily at 60f.

They will also benefit from being placed in a cold propagator so that they don't dry out too quickly. One of the best ways to root them on a window sill is to put them In perlite or vermiculite and water. Whichever method you use, prepare the cuttings by cutting them cleanly just below a joint, taking off the bottom leaves and insert them by half their length into the rooting medium.

If you are using perlite or vermiculite and water, fill a container such as a clean yoghurt carton to the rim, top it up with water and just push the cuttings in. Then just stand them on a window sill in a warm room, in good light, but out of full sun.

Keep your eye on them, top up the water every time it starts to dry out and within three or four weeks they should have all rooted.

Whichever method you use, once they are well rooted they should be potted up singly into three-inch pots of an open, well-drained compost, grown on and hardened off.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.