Here's about 75,500 images of wax begonias, most of them accurate, for comparison to your plants. I think "nonstop" is usually used to refer to wax or cane Begonias, both of which are excellent winter house plants as they will keep blooming if they have enough light. If/when they get too tall, you can just snap off the too-tall parts and stick them in the soil with the mama or in a new pot to make new plants. If they are wax, they are reliably hardy here, also 8b. If so, you could just put them in the ground in the fall. That would give you the option of digging it back up in the spring to do the hanging basket again, or you could leave it in the ground and use cuttings to start a new basket. Perfectly understandable about not wanting bugs in your house. You're in good and abundant company there! If you have a big bucket or plastic storage tub you can fill with water, a dunk that completely submerges the soil will cause any critters residing in the pot to evacuate. After 10-15 minutes, you can be sure there's no adult critters still in your pot. From there, it's reasonable to hope that nothing has laid any kind of eggs in there, so after it stops dripping you should be able to expect you're bringing in a critter-free pot. After that and a visual inspection for anything on the foliage or stems, I bring mine in for the winter on panic night (when a frost is possible.) If something does come crawling out, I might repot if it's a bug that could have laid eggs in the pot. Just depends on what it is. I do this for all my houseplants because they all go outside for the summer. HTH!

Location is definitely critical. The frost is most lethal when the plant's leaves are exposed to the clear night sky. Moving the pot under a roof overhang is often all you need to do. Some Tucson gardeners make a small PVC and frost-cloth lean-to and put a 40W light bulb under it.

This post is rather late compared to the last, but just to put out my 2 cents ... In the Bakersfield area, the big January Freeze knocked down Bougainvilleas, Cut Leaf Philodendrons, Pygmy Date Palms, Banana Plants, Lantanas, Australian Tree Ferns, Jasmines and Bird of Paradise plants. However, quite amazingly, even the most horribly damaged and dead looking plants are pushing up new leaves and shoots. Stark examples include Cut Leaf Philodendrons that looked like rotting stumps that shoot out new growth from deep in the soil and to the side of the old rotting stump. Banana Plants that looked dead and one might be tempted to root up and trash are regaining good height with new growth. About the only plants that I have that are still painfully slow in recovery are two Pygmy Data Palms, one of which is just beginning to put up new growth and the other, still green and tender at the base, just doesn't seem to want to wake up.

Hawaiian Bougainvilles are thornless and just the same beautiful colors .. I've had major problems with thorns from other Bougainvilles ...so found these. I'm in Florida so they are available !!