Canna Selection Advice

I've got some to do shortly, and I read that nail clippers are the easiest tool to use - but I haven't tried it yet.

My adventures last time with a scalpel nearly resulting in my losing all my fingers

Otherwise I'll be using the saw's file :thumb:

 

My Canna Tropicanas are now 2 months old . I potted them up a week ago into 4" pots and they are looking great. Looks like they will be a very impressive plant . But ( there is always a but ! ) , do Cannas have cotyloid leaves The leaves are forming from the centre , emerging in a trumpet form, then spreading out into a very large leaf . The first 2 leaves of the plant are now looking a little wilted . Are these the cotyloid leaves? - They do look exactly the same as the main leaves - or is the life cycle of the canna set to losing its older leaves as it grows ?

TIA

 

Hi all

Mine all had a virus and I had to get rid of them



Spruce

 

I think you'll find cannas are monocots, (I'm not very well up on this), that is they dont actually have the two seed leaves, like dicots do.

The lower leaves do die off and as long as the seedlings are growing strongly, I would worry.

 

I found a really easy way of scarifying canna seed; hold the seed with a pair of pliers and use a metal file to scrape some of the coating off, I managed to do approx 20 seeds in next to no time, no knives or nail clippers involved; so still got all my fingers :WINK1: and I got almost 100% germination after soaking them too....

 

Pete I hope you mean " I would not worry " ! :WINK1:

Bilbo675 - the file and soak is the method I used , following the advice on another Canna thread . It does seem to be the best method . Them seed coatings are blooming hard though !

Spruce -sorry you lost your cannas . It seems , again following the Canna threads , that it is better to grow them from seed to avoid the virus.

 

I'm pretty sure two leaves dessicated and died on my Cannas - i.e. Dicots.

 

Sorry Harry, yes I meant dont worry.

Just looked it up, monocots.

 

I now have my Canna Tropicana in the greenhouse with occasional days outside to harden off. They are an incredible plant to grow from seed , they were planted in the last week of January and are now a picture of health Next weekend May 21 - late May the day temp is around 20°c and night 11°c , would it be safe to plant them out in a sheltered very sunny spot ? They are coming up to 16 weeks old , when would I expect flowers?

TIA

 

Harry, how big are they.

I know its tempting to get them planted but if you can hold on a bit they will flower earlier.
The pot soil will always be warmer than the ground, and once planted you want them to just carry on.

I've got a couple of seed grown plants, but they have been a bit slow up till now, I might just keep them containerised this summer.

Took a risk and bought a "Wyoming" the other day, it looked virus free.
I hope.

 

My Canna Tropicanas are now touching 3 feet tall which I think is getting on for the max height for Tropicanas ,and they are showing lots of side shoot growth. On further viewing the long range weather forecast it is pretty miserable up to the bank holiday . So I'll take your advice and err on the side of caution and plant them up in June. What distance apart should I plant them ? I always plant things to close together !
Hope your wyoming does well , they can touch 6 feet !

 

They are quite large then Harry, thought they were smaller for some reason.
Thats a good size for this time of the year

I'd go for atleast 2ft apart I think, depending on how much new growth is forming at the base.

 

Cheers Pete , so they will go out first week in June - if the weather bucks up a tad - at the spacing above
Armandii you seem to have six varieties on the go :yess:- I would appreciate a review on these at the end of the season as ideas for next year :D

 

You have got quite a selection there Armandii, I look forward to seeing some pictures later on.

I'd be inclined to either knock the ones that appear not to be growing, out of their pots to check for roots, or better still have a scratch around and see if you can find a shoot, they mostly shoot before growing new roots