Canna's on the move

My Cannas have just had their second watering today which contained plenty of liquid feed :thumb:

Here is the first flower of this year's 'altensteinni' just opening (it's not as showy as some, a much more delicate flower, but I like it); it was quite amusing watching hoverflies earlier queing up to get at it :D

 

Thats a lovely flower Bilbo. Having heard that it wasn't that showy I wasn't expecting anything half as good as that.

I am glad you mentioned hoverflies. I have seen virtually no butterflies this year, only a few bees, but thousands of hoverflies.

 

Hi Peter, we've also had many thousands of different species of hoverfly in the garden over the last week or so; I've never seen so many.

We've also had a big influx of ladybirds and bees, along with a lot of butterflies; which is encouraging :thumb:

 

Well over the last week or so my cannas have been racing away; encouraged by daily watering and feeding.

About 3 weeks ago they seemed to have been stalling around 4ft+, but now the ones in pots especially are just passing the 6ft mark and the leaves are getting bigger too. The ones in the ground aren't that far behind either :thumb:

I've a feeling the extra water, feed and this humid weather (with night time temperatures well in to double figures) have all played their part

 

I think I mentioned on another thread, that the Hart's Canna site said that you can't really overfeed Cannas. Mine are doing well but still no sign of any flowers.

Curiously the only Canna with flower buds, are some very small Tropicana series from seed this year. I overlooked them, leaving them in tiny pots for a long time. And even though I have now put three in a good big pot, they are still very small plants - but about to flower. There is probably a moral in there somewhere - but I can't see it. :D.

 

The moral is Peter, starve a plant and it will flower earlier.
Feed it and it will flower later.

But in most cases the later flower will be much better than the starved one.
Getting the balance between overfeeding and getting very lush soft plants, and under feeding and getting hard grown, but poor flowering plants is a fine line.

We should just aim for the middle, I think, as with tender plants such as cannas we dont get a long growing season, so loads of nitrogen early and potassium later, and into Autumn.

 

Thanks Pete - very logical. I have only just come across the principle, via Brugmansias, of force feeding. Next year I will start earlier - and as you say with nitrogen.

Incidentally, I don't buy that expensive (high potassium) liquid tomato feed. I now just use Miracle grow, which is pretty cheap in a supermarket, and has all the other trace elements as well. And I then add pure potash salts to make it a high potassium mix. Salts of potash is even cheaper and very concentrated - about 50% potassium.

The other trick I have picked up is to water all my pots as normal with a hose - which is very quick. Then I make up a watering can with about 4 heaped scoops of Miraclegrow and 2 or 3 heaped scoops of potash. With 5 to 7 heaped (ie double) scoops the can is at about 10 to 14 times recommended strength. I then just put a small bit into the pots I want to feed. Its so much quicker than making up 14 watering cans of normal strength to water with.

Saves loads of time - but costs loads of money, as I give my Brugmansias a hefty dose - up to 5 times normal strength every day. I really go through the packets. What the heck - its an experiment. Some of my Brugmansias from seed this year are already over 7 feet high, with inch thick stems. :D

 

Sounds like you are really going for it this year Peter.

A 7ft high Brug from seed sounds amazing, I bet you have some really nice leaves.:D

Only joking mate.

Would be good if you could get flowers first year.


I like the idea of the super concentrated plant feed followed by a normal watering, must admit doing something similar on a smaller scale, mixing the stuff up is a real pain if you need a lot.

I was thinking along the lines of mixing a water butt, at a time during the summer, and see how long it lasts.

Probably about two days in hot weather.

 

Pete - I have just had a flower fully open today on one of my Brugs from seed, and it has another 10 flower buds of differing sizes. About 14 or more of my 22 Brugs from seed now have flower buds.

Using concentrated feed has speeded things up a lot. I always used to dread feeding, because it took so long. Its so quick now that its a pleasure.

 

Evening Peter and Pete .

I give my Brugs masses of feed and boy do they grow ..Interested to see flower colours on your Brug seedlings Peter

Dave

 

So your'e getting flowers first year Peter, that's amazing.

As Dave says, we look forward to the pics:D

 

I will stick some pics on a Brugs thread - rather than hijack Cannas.

 

Here's a picture of the first "baby" seed pods that will hopefully provide with me a new batch of seed for future sowings, I'm planning on hopefully getting some of the plants (rhizomes) themselves throught the winter this time; lost them last year even though they were wrapped up better than we were in the house and placed in the shed which is normally frost free!!!

 

Lovely Bilbo - you are way ahead of me. My altensteinni isn't even showing any signs of a flower let alone seeds. But it is getting big.