I hope I am posting in the right forum as I didn't see one for Canna.

I was wondering if anyone else on this forum grows cannas. I have just a few varieties that I grow in my garden . I have to lift them each year and store them in the basement as they can't winter over here. I don't get any blooms till August and then they continue until we have a hard frost.

KING CITY GOLD


THE PRESIDENT



TROPICAL SUNRISE


MAUDIE MALCOLM

Hi Julia, This is my 1st year getting any bloom. I really like the bright yellow of the KCGold. Here's a pic of Tropicanna with 3 bloom stalks that won't make it. O well.


My favorite bloom was Picasso

Hi Evan:
You may see them bloom. The leaf color is great. Mine are still going here and I thought they would have died back by now.

I love the Picasso one. Really nice color on it.

I've had mine for about 4 years now and it gets overwhelming with the amount of rhizomes I have. 3 plantings of each one and they
all bloomed this year in the ground. I've planted them in pots in previous years but decided this year to try growing them in
the ground to see what the growth difference would be. I did get more bloom stalks with them in the ground but I noticed THE PRESIDENT,
didn't grow very tall this year.

Julia

When do you lift yours Julia?

I typically have done it by the end of October when they were in the pots. So maybe this weekend or next , I'll start digging them out. All depends on the weather forecast which right now, looks to be very cold but no rain. They still look so green and blooms are still opening.
I keep thinking I should wait till all the foliage dies back .

When have you dug yours up?

Julia

I always wait until the first frost, the foliage is severely damaged or dies back. Then I don't feel at all guilty wacking back beautiful foliage. It takes awhile for ground temperatures to drop so you have a few days to dig them up if you are not expecting severe weather.

We may get a hard frost before the week is done. Night time temps are suppose to go down into the high 20's F and snow flurries in the forecast for Thursday. I guess they'll die back with those temps and I won't feel guilty cutting down the stalks.

Julia

I've dug them after first or second frost, when the foliage was knocked down on the Callas. That's usually mid October and I'd dig everything at the same time. This year, with what you all have said, foliage looking O.K. and bloom still in the offing, I'm waiting. Colder temps and hard freeze expected in a few days though.

After our rain,sleet and snow of yesterday and temps in the 20's overnight,they are finally dying back. Today I started digging them out but what a muddy mess. I got all of The President and Tropical Sunrise out but they are so heavy with mud I have to let them sit for a couple days so I can get most of the dirt/mud off of them.

I have harvested over 50 seeds from Tropical Sunrise and still have more to take out of the pods tomorrow. I noticed alot have fallen out already. No seeds on any of The President that I could tell. Lots on King City Gold which I hope to tackle and dig out tomorrow. Maudie Malcolm still is very green and I think it is because it sits closest to the house on the south side. Hopefully some of the seed pods will ripen before I have to dig it out.

It sounds like you have lots of Canna Julia. Just a few here and last nights temps. in the 20's did them in. With 4-6" of snow expected tomorrow I've got everything dug and in the basement.

Julia I am so glad you posted, I definitely don't want to deal with a muddy mess like that so I decided to start digging up Tropicanna. Hope to finish up tomorrow. If it weren't for you I would have probably waited and once I got my hands in the muddy mess I would have just said forget it. So thank you, I can expect a beautiful bed of canna next year☺

I only wish I had done mine sooner. I was about ready to give up but decided it was worth the aggravation.

I got The President and Tropical Sunrise cleaned as much as I could, bagged and boxed them for storage. I'm still working on King City Gold. This one is the largest amount of rhizomes that I have. I read somewhere that you should leave some soil around the rhizomes but it can't be too wet. Unfortunately mine were soaking wet with mud when I lifted them. Tomorrow I hope to go at it again and see if I can remove more of the dirt/mud before I bag and box them and get them stored away. I was tempted to take a garden hose to them but decided again it.

Last ones to come out will be Maudie Malcolm. Smaller clump so it shouldn't take too long to clean....I hope.

I'll worry about dividing all the rhizomes next year.

Julia

Rains are coming Thursay thru Sunday. Mine are in, divided, and drying on a rack in the basement.

Finally done with mine. I think as the canna increase, the job gets bigger each year. Next year I'll have to think about lifting these earlier.

After finishing King City Gold, I thought I would get alot of seeds off of it but most of them were shriveled up, pods were already open and empty and several pods had not turned brown. I only harvested 12 viable seeds.

I'm wondering if you cut the stalks and place them in water, will the pods continue to ripen (turn brown)? Has anyone tried that? I know with daylilies I can do that but never thought to try it on the canna. I guess I can experiment next year.

OK..OK.. I got the picture... I guess it was time to dig them up... which I did today...and as I was writting now I remembered another I'd forgotten... tucked way in the back... I'll get it another day...
Stuttugart did wonderfully this year... although not much for flowering ... it made piles of great varaigated leaves... and the biggest tubors were found underneath... I'll have a hedge of them next year..
into a paper bag with a small amount of moist sawdust.. my tiny one with the red/yellow flowers.. I must have received it as a trade.. as I don't recall ever getting a dwarf one.. but real cute.. at only 18" tall..
I dug up the horseraddish today also... as the leaves had been beat down by the snows.. likely enough for 335 blooddy marys... that should make the winter bules a bit more blurry..
happy 11-11-11 everyione

Hi Gordon, It's nice to get these reminders isn't it? I looked up Stuttgart, nice plant for next year. Might try some horseradish too. So what's the ratio of planted horseradish to Bloody Mary?

Both you and Julia have mentioned storing the Cannas in a moist medium. How critical is this? Would moist peat moss do? I rinsed off all the dirt before re-reading your post Julia.

Evan: If they dry them out they die. I haven't ever dried them out so I don't know if that is true or not. Each time I've planted and stored mine, they were always left with some dirt on them that was slightly moist. I've done this for 4 years and so far, I haven't lost a rhizome. I do check them around January/February to see how they are doing. Most times I've seen sprouting already.

Check out YouTube and search on Canna or Canna Storage. Some good videos on how others have stored their canna. Most I've seen do leave the dirt on or use a substitute like Gordon to keep them moist but not wet.

Julia

Thanks Julia. I'll check out YT now.

I checked out some of the videos. Some seemed very useful, some not so much. The general theme of not letting the rhizomes dry out was clear. I've laid mine out in flats with damp soil. I'll wager i have much better luck than past years. Thanks for saving my Cannas!!

Next year I'll just shake off the loose dirt and put in pots.

Glad you found the information helpful. Just be sure the soil doesn't dry out too much and they should be good to go next year.


Julia