Canna's on the move

I like to get my Cannas in before bad weather sets in .. I usually divide mine as I lift, cut back old foliage then repot into six inch pots and keep just moist in the greenhouse over winter ..
Most of mine are un-named but I do have a large grower called Canna Muscafolia 'grande', this usually reaches 7/8ft but never flowers .as the name suggests it has large banana like leaves which are bronzy red .

Dave .

 

Hi Sal, if you look at Wiki for Canna tuerckheimii, altensteinii is listed as a synonym so it's either the same or very similar to the point it's hard to tell the two apart...

Personally, although the leaves look the same I feel the difference comes in the flower, altensteinii has a tighter light orange flower where as tuerckheimii seems looser and darker orange, almost red..

Either way I grew altensteinii to 10-11ft from seed this year and it is described as being able to reach 15-16ft in prime conditions, which I can easily believe especially if coming from an over wintered rhizome...:thumb:

If I manage to successfully overwinter mine I'll have about 20 rhizomes of various sizes as the plants had already divided when I lifted them so will have some spare in the spring to donate if anyone's interested, fingers crossed I get it right this time :thumb:

 

Thank you all , usually this kind of canna will not flower easy , so I will go for the foliage and that looking really good to me. Many of my cannas have failed to flowering due of a cold summer , so I`m looking for a striking foliage , possibly for seeds (better in large number ) .
already got Muscafolia 'grande' , bengal tiger, edilus , some dark leaves and got few wild indica red collected from a carabbian holiday.

 

The 'altensteinii' that I have grown this year has flowered prolifically from early August right up to when I lifted them last week, I managed to get seed from the first batch of flowers but the later ones didn't have time to produce mature seed :thumb:

 

Hi Bilbo
both tuerckheimii and altensteinii are original from Belize , I rekon they are almost the same , I will try tuerckheimii , seen some seeds at jungle seed for £1.99 , can I ask you when did you start your first batch? did you chip the seeds?

 

Hi Sal, yes I chipped my seed, well filed them; I held them with a small pair of pliers and then used a metal file to take some of the coating off, being careful not to damage the white inner. I found this a very easy and quick technique; they were then soaked for 24-48 hours and then sown.

I started them in late Feb in a heated propergater, just with gentle heat (I have previously germinated them on a warm windowsill with no problems too), I've always managed to get near 100% germination doing this.

This year I had 10-12" plants in the cold greenhouse outside by April and then they were planted out by late May.

:thumb:

 

I used exactly the same method as Bilbo Sal . I placed the seed on a small pillar of Blue-Tak and then lightly gripped them in the round portion of the pliers , so half of the seed was exposed. Then as Bilbo did , I used a small round file to just break the coat and expose 3- 5 mm of the white inner . Note Canna seeds are just a touch softer than diamond !:D So it does take a bit to get thru the coat . A soak in water for a day or so then into compost with a cover of vermiculite . They germinated in 5 - 6 days. I started them late January and had flowers by the end of june.
Pic shows them after 7 days just before they came off the propagator. 5 out of the 6 germinated

 

Armandii you must sow on january 28th , by the light of the moon , before the cock crows three times

I think late January to mid Feb is OK .

 

Hi Armandii, a little googling came up with this;

C.Durban and C.Pretoria are essentially the same plant, they have the same flower but different leaves.

C.Richard Wallace is possibly hardier than most and; according to some, "survived several very hard winters for us under a minimal of cover".

C.Musifolia is grown for its leaves rather than flowers.

C.Ambassadour is possibly the best white flowered canna, rare until recently.

Germination wise I believe they all should be treated the same way to get them going in the new year (late January-mid Feb), just make sure you'll have the space for numerous good sized plants to be kept undercover until until all risk of frost has passed. Some varieties potentially may be a good 24-36" tall by the time they're planted out; this is dependant of course on their ultimate height.

Not that early either to be ordering seed (if they are seed opposed to rhizomes), I've already got some seed too, in the fridge ready and waiting; to be honest I buy seed at any time of the year and if it's not the right time to sow I pop it in the fridge until it is :D

Hope this helps a little :thumb:

 

Bilbo has summed up the growing times very well Armandi , if any problems refer to this GC post..........!!!
http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/general-gardening-discussion/38817-moon-gardening-what-heck.html