Canna help

Hi - I live near Manchester and I bought some Cannas from a local independent nursery last summer as plants. They flourished in our garden, grew huge and had beautiful flowers all the way through to October. I cut them back before the first frosts and covered them in mulch and left them in situ all winter. However they’ve not started growing at all yet. I’ve even covered them with a cloche to help warm them up as the weather has been terrible and cold up here. I’ve dug down a bit and they don’t seem to have rotted. Am I just being impatient or should they have started to shoot by now? For into 2 are in sunny borders and 2 in large pots. We have a south facing garden. Any advice greatly appreciated

 

Hi and welcome to the forum,

We keep ours in large tubs and move them into a frost free greenhouse for the winter, have never risked them outdoors, though cold, think you are less likely to get the frosts your side of the hills.

Would just keep on doing what you have done so far as many of the perennial plants like your Cannas are still waiting to break up out of the soil due to the recent cold weather.

Perhaps add some slug protection like copper tape or egg shells etc as they will love the new Canna shoots.

 

It's not too late for them to shoot, but as Ricky101 says its been a cold winter and a cold spring.
I don't over winter outside because they are always late shooting and that means late flowering, and that way I can divide and bring on earlier potted up with some heat.

 

I would give it more time as they may well start shooting. I am in the South West and leave ours outside all year but do cover them with a cloche in the winter. Cloche was removed about a month ago and new leaves growing. Hope they come back for you as they are lovely plants.

 

Thank you so much everyone for your advice - wondering whether I should leave the cloches on for a bit longer (were not getting much sun/warm weather up north for a few weeks yet)

 

Any extra warmth you can give them will only help, I'd clear the mulch back a bit as its probably keeping the ground cold now at this time of year, you can put the mulch back once the shoots start to grow, in order to preserve moisture.

 

Thank you I will give that a try and hope for the best

 

That’s great thank you

 

Thank you I will give that a try and hope for the best