"madgardener" wrote in message
...
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

Do you have a Craigslist or Freecycle group in your area? Maybe if you
posted
a want ad to one of those groups, you could get lucky. You could always
offer
to trade... good luck!