Canna 2012

Aphids carrying the disease can have a range of hundreds of miles when sucked up by a thermal and carried on high level winds. So even the Continent can be regarded as a source for infections.[/quote]



I`ve got my Thai canna planted at 6 yard from the infected plants and so far they are healty ,can you explain that?

same situation , my pretoriona is touching the bronze cannas , they are next to each other but the bronze still look fine .

I didn`t had any problem last year and bought some canna from shop as well .
all the trouble as start this year with a canna both from jungleplants .

if the aphids are the cause , that is the end of cannas then?

 

I think you need a repeat of the "New buckets for Old" trick ...

... trot round to your neighbours and tell them that if they want Cannas in their gardens they have to agree to only get them from you, for free, and under "the terms of the arrangement" they aren't to buy any of their own - it will become a virus-free zone that the rest of the world will come to admire

Worth growing some from seed John (I know you have done, not sure how extensive your self-sown range though?)

Musafolia, altenstinii, limbata, tuerckheimii

Jungle Seeds(*) sell Canna Tropicana Series Red which makes a tall, red flowering, chap (there's a White one too, and one with Bronze leaves). No fancy leaves, but it ticks the boxes for big-leaves and bright-flowers (but it doesn't really fill your garden, first year, at £X for half-a-dozen-seeds only). If this Summer had been hotter I would have had more seeds to harvest ... touch and go how many are going to ripen "in time" ... but if we get lucky I will have plenty of share-spares.

Over-and-above the seed-sown ones there are a few that I would want to re-buy if my lot got wiped out:

One or two of the stripy leaved ones - Durban / Phasion / Australia / Striata
Cleopatra
Mystique (very tall)
Stuttgart (tall, variegated)
General Eisenhower (Tall, Red)
Roi Humbert / Wyoming (purple leaves)

(*) Moles have them too, but still not particularly cheap - 40p/seed :( - Chiltern about the same, Nickys Nursery 50p-per-seed

 

I agree with you about Aphids, but surely you would agree there is no excuse for Sheds / Dutch Nurseries to be, knowingly, selling virus-infected Cannas?

The more they sell the more widespread the problem becomes, of course.

 

I need to say that this year I bought about 8 ducth cannas all grown by seeds , no virus at all at the moment , the problem comes with tropicannas ...or plants not able to be grown by seeds .
Can`t belive that my pretoriana was the only canna who survived 2010 outdoor (used to leave the rizhoma in the soil) and that I have to bin it this year because of the virus.

Kristen if you find a decent supplier let me know I don`t mind to buy some seeds of tall cannas and share them.

 

Although I have obviously heard of the Canna virus I have little knowledge of it and count myself lucky not to have had any plants affected by it.

I have over the years found aphids (always blackfly ) occasionally gathering on some of my Cannas; usually the more lush vigorous types, but I've always removed them asap, so far I've never had a hint of anything wrong with my plants.

Most of mine are seed grown, although I did buy two plants this year that I did inspect as best I could for signs of anything nasty before handing over the money and so far they too have thrived since buying them

 

Sal, my thoughts are that you can never be 100% sure, but the best you can do is always buy plants in the green, (Harts maybe OK), and dump anything looking a bit dodgy.
If you do buy rhizomes, keep them in quarantine until they get some decent sized leaves, and spray at the first sign of aphids.
You might even think about sterilizing knives etc. used for division and dead heading as an extra precaution.

 

Hi pete , thank you for the advise.

buy some new rizhomes at about £10 each and then keep them in quarantine !!!
It would be really hardy to bin them later
at the moment the cannas are going straigh in the bag and then bin ,try not to use any tools or even the soil or eventually pot ....
what I`m not sure is if I want to bin even the healthy ones , just in case they are infected.

 

You may have saved me there sal. Spotted 3 Pretoria rhizomes on harts for £9
May have to think twice now and wait till next year and buy the plants.

 

Mowgley , done the same last year , got lots of rizhomas from different sale and what i got today is just a black bag with £70 pounds worth of infected cannas .

 

Its got more constants in than that John

warscewiczii

but you only missed one vowel!!

I have NO idea how it is pronounced. I've nicknamed it "Lech Walesa", which I think is close enough!

 

What has been said here has really just confirmed my feeling - that its not worth the risk of buying plants or rhizomes. Seed is much safer - though it does reduce the palette.