Don't worry I do it all the time. I think I am smarter than I really am. OTOH, the wife thinks it is great because she loves surprise gardens. I am far too OCD for that but am succumbing.

SCG

at least you know they are begonias I have seeds I have collected and have no clue what they are.

I do that with my geraniums. Of course i'll remember which one it is... Right. For begonias, i have a marker for each identifying them and how many years i've had them. I keep saying i'll do the same for the geraniums, but never do. :)

Oh, I forgot, I did the same thing with the geraniums. Some are the variegated leaves, so that's okay, but there's a couple of green leafed ones I have no idea. I decreased the number I saved, and seem to remember tossing in a couple of nice ones at the end, but who knows what appealed to me then.
How do you label your begonias Marcia. That's the reason it didn't get done. I have no good method for doing it. For dahlias I just write on the tuber, but how do you use a marker on the begonias?
One year I put them in paper bags and labeled the bags. They disintegrated by spring so I was none the wiser. Then I've put them into mesh onion bags, but if they start growing in there it's hard to get them out without damaging the sprout.

I might be worse - last year I planted my vegetable garden by chucking seeds in and raking. :S It was interesting tasting cilantro/parsley every time to see which it was, and finding beets I didn't know I had planted underneath the zucchini.

Gil, too funny! My son did that one year, but he was pretty little. He had a great little garden too! :)

Marie, my labelling is a piece of window blind with "Red" and each year i've had it. That's it. When i dry off the tubers to store them in the fall, i keep the label with it and put it into the bag with the tubers. That's it - pretty in depth scientific, eh? LOL

I did that with poppy seed last fall, I have a container in the greenhouse but no idea what color it is. I labelled all my carrot rows this year, I have some very different varieties, and didn't have much seed for them so I was sure to label just in case I found this new extraordinary variety I wanted to make sure I could identify them. And then on Saturday night four calves got in while we were out and had a tap dancing contest to see who could mess up the beds the best. Sunday morning I replanted by just scattering some good old nates seeds on top. It never fails so from here on in I'll go with the surprise me garden. C

Thanks everyone; I feel better now that I know I'm not alone, lol.

North, I was at a friends, yes it is hard to believe :-), last night and she stored tubers and the like in nylon stockings which she wrote on with a jiffy marker.

My problem with the idea is getting use out of the nylons first. Maybe worn under shorts I can start a new trend. Lol

SCG

Well darn, I wear nylons hardly ever and whenever I find some holey ones, I cut them up for garden ties. They work so great. They're soft on the plants, and stretch as needed. I'm always looking for more.

But that sounds like the best idea so far. If these begonias do well and I'm inclined to save them again, I will try to remember to try it.