Jangchub wrote:
On Sun, 03 Sep 2006 01:26:37 -0400, madgardener
wrote:

first thing, what you heard about growing seeds of canna are true.

Are you saying it's true or not true? I said growers rarely propagate
cannas from seed. Is that what you understood me to say?

yes, my misunderstanding! g I assumed the lady was questioning if she
should attempt growing them from seed and I misread what you actually
said. My mistake. Somehow in my brain your just mentioning that
growers rarely propagated cannas from seed just did a short in me brain
cells. Sometimes I wonder what my mind is thinking!


If you're in zone 6, since your canna's are already planted, the
question is how deeply are they planted?

Canna's will perish in zone 6 if you have sustained temperatures in
single digits for as little as 10 hours. The ground can freeze to 18
inches or more. If these cannas are ones you really like, I recommend
my original suggestions.

I agree, the key word is sustained temperatures in single digits in that
time frame, wheather daytime or overnight. But how long has it been
since temperatures have gone down to single digits lately? If it's been
ten years, I'd say just for safety's sake, to protect them as Mom's
Nature throws a curve to wake us up when we get to complacent. Not
knowing Kentucky's micro-zones I'm not familiar with the lowest
temperatures in her region. She is. As a new gardener, it's always
nice to give several options, and she apparently is going to do BOTH
methods. (or should I say all three?) seed, bring in and leave some
outside with protection. that's what I'd do myself, just to ensure I
don't lose the original's, I'd be curious about the seedlings flower
colors.

I still haven't located the hardy purple leafed canna that I see around
here that has been here for decades surviving the coldest winters and
has screaming orange flowers or deep velvet reds, but the leaves are all
purplish green ones and no more than six foot in height. I've seen
great clumps of them in obviously older neighborhoods around here and
know they're an old fashioned canna (well, maybe not hundreds of years,
but at least 70-100 years ago, especially when I see them in huge
islands at ancient farmhouses tucked back off a main road here. (I
still haven't located someone to ask for permission to get a toe of one
of these, as it's not polite to poach and I have more respect for that.
As a gardener, I noticed these canna's 14 years ago as I was first
traveling around the inner country roads around here, trying to get lost
(I did, many times, nothing like being totally lost and turned around at
dusk in a new place). One day I will either see the ominous bulldozer,
and go back and grab my Fiskar's spade to save a clump, or I will see
someone's vehicle in the driveway and stop and ask for permission to dig
a piece. Patience is on my side. And I might happen across someone in
the mean time that has older purple leafed canna's and is willing to
share. g


Since yours are growing good, don't panic, there's no need to dig them
up and bring them inside the garage. I have better luck with mine in the
ground. But if you've ever successfully wintered rhizomes or bulbs
through, then go ahead and do it that way. I know people who have no
problem and great success. There's a trick to it with peat moss, but as
good as I am, I'm not been successful and maybe someone can walk you
through the process who has had continual returns.

Actually, I said to dig them up leaving the soil on the rhizomes and
put them into a bushel basket.

I musta blinked or was distracted by the hummer's outside my window
taunting and teasing me with air shows. No disrespect there either.
After you put the bushel basket in the garage, do you keep them totally
dry or allow a bit of slight moisture besides the air's humidity to be
introduced. My rhizomes in soil dried out to the point of total loss.
A bit of watering got them growing in January, too soon and tired out
the rhizome until it killed itself feeding off of too early. I have put
them on the carport where it gets cross northern winds, indirect eastern
light and westerly breezes and really indirect western exposures. And
lost them. I have also put them inside the tool room where it's cool,
never below 56o and dryer, and left them totally alone. Lights off,
with only the faint glow from the small northern window up on the wall.
The cold air seeps under the flood hump at the bottom of the old
rusting out garage door and the room can get as cold as 35o no more
though. The garage door has styrofoam of all things, and I've lost
roots in that room, although the Clivia did like it there just fine......

I know why I lost roots that were sent me. It's too warm and dry
upstairs for any rhizome or root to survive the winter, even in the nook
where it's not over the rest of the enclosed house and has that lower
exposure of the carport whistling under her skirts so to speak. I just
wonder what I'm doin' wrong? (even madgardener's learn, I suspect that
it's more than learning, I just don't have luck with some things! LOL )

Next canna's I get upon a whim, I'll try your bushel basket idea again
and you will have responded before that and told me where I've gone
wront. (seriously, I've not successfully been able to winter over
rhizomes yet! I do better to let them live winter watered, in a sunny
window and diligent of mealy bugs and then bumped into the gardens to
thrive during summers and then repot into a larger container come fall
than attempt keeping bare roots. But that's just me. I will try your
bushel basket idea, because maybe since I've murdered my last canna
root, I have attained more patience and diligence with sustaining it's
existence. We'll have to do this next spring as there are no canna's to
challenge me (unless I can find some scraggadly ones at Lowes......)

thanks for remarking back.
maddie