Canna 2012

Not sure Bilbo, you may be right.
My thoughts are that if you are wanting to get straight species seed, then self pollination might work.
I'm just thinking, to get something a bit different flower or foliage wise, it might be good to cross pollinate some of the hybrids.

Or even cross hybrids with species, the sky is the limit.

 

The first Canna I grew was warscewiczii. I sowed seed indoors in September, under lights, they flowered in December! and set seed in January!! I got something like 150 seeds from the 6 plants I had raised. I doubt there was much in the way of any sort of useful insects in my office, and definitely never saw a hummingbird! so, for warscewiczii at least, self pollination seem likely. I wasn't trying to get seed, per se, so didn't do any paint-brushing or plant-shaking specifically.

 

Just had a google on pollination of cannas.
It seems the species can actually pollinate their flowers before they open, thereby being unable to cross and stay true, I guess.
Hybrids need pollinators apparently.
Bees, hummingbirds or bats?

 

Just repotted 2 of my cannas. Canna Durban and canna paniculata
Might have let them get a little pot bound, they have been growing great guns this last week
Don't think I will get any flowers though, lovely leaf colour mind

 

They are late this year but got a few blooming now.
This ones for Sal, the seed from Thailand..


First "Wyoming" flower, this year.


Every "Cleopatra" plant seems to have a different flower combination.


I'm thinking its still early days yet for cannas, if the weather continues as it has the last couple of weeks we could still get a good show flower wise.
Cannas seem to flower better late Summer/early Autumn, we just need the warmth and much less in the way of snails and slugs.

 

Sal, I have one other growing in the garden and another in a pot.
I just put one in the pond as an experiment as I've had a good one a few years ago growing as a marginal.
The others will flower soon.
As to flower colour, you dont know what plant your seed plant was pollinated by, so the genes of the pollen might well have altered the flower colour.
Even the plant size, although I'm sure seed grown plants dont reach their full height on the first flower.
Which is why we should all do our best to cross pollinate the hybrids and see what seed plants we can come up with.
Species seed is likely to be just that, the same as the parent, but hybrids are much more interesting.

 

Is the one in the pot bigger? plus do you remember what where you saying about pollination!!! they are coming from Thailand , hummingbirds are everywhere , now you make me think that maybe they are all hybrids or maybe , the bush of cannas where actually different type of cannas .
As i remember I`ve actually seen a nice pink canna as well.
look at this

but the flower I`ve seen was like this

 

option n2 , they yellow canna it`s actually an hibryd and the pink is the native form of it.
Overall not impressive , but a really nice natural form of canna.

 

I think both are Hybrids Sal.
Cannas come from the Americas, I think, so unlikely to be native to Thailand.

We just need to wait and see what the others flower like, seed are always a gamble.
You win some you lose some, but I would not write off a seed grown plant in its first season unless it was totally crap.

 

what i really love about this thai canna , is the different form of leaves , they may native to america , but they done pretty well over there , I would say I`ve seen about 6/7 types of cannas , but never seen anything like .
still impressed by the red stem canna , it was amazing , the torch form as well and the rainbow leaves .
rainbow , actually in nature they look better then this picture

 

My Canna altensteinii is growing vigorously now and stands at 4ft; not bad considering it did nothing until late June/early July and its also suckering well now too

 

It's hard to beat a canna in flower Gorgeous!

One of mine is coming to flower this morning, I'll take a pic when it stops raining

 

First canna, and my first canna flower