Re: Overwintering Cannas and Hedychium



Small piece of evidence of the smallness of the horticultural world: early
this summer I was having coffee with the collecting partner of Dan Hinckley,
whose display beds you admired. Bleddyn Wynne-Jones sang extensive and
extravagant praises of St. Dan - and I'd add brief but equally extravagant
praises of the Wynne-Jones's own garden, at Crug Farm, near Caernarfon in N.
Wales. Definitely not to be missed by any visitor to the U.K., even though
it is rather out on a geographic limb - as I'm sure Einion, almost permanent
resident in that garden and of course in the associated nursery..., will
confirm.
Tim, you make it sound as though I pay ground rent there! But yes, one of the relatively few nurseries in Britain worth making a major detour to see, a detour I don't need to make since not only do I live just 37 miles from it, but my mother, whom I visit on at least a monthly basis, lives just a mile from Crug. What a happy coincidence!

I'll more or less confirm what Tim & Dave say about cannas and gingers in these sceptred isles (I'm about half-way between the two of them on a North-South axis). Hh.densiflorum, forrestii, spicatum & yunnanense (or at least, what's going around as H.y.) are all hardy here & produce flowers as expected. H.greenii, although hardy as a plant, has never managed to reach flowering before winter sets in, so I suppose I should treat it as a canna & give it a winter/spring kick-start under glass. H.gardnerianum I've never tried outside, although if it multiplies as much as I suspect it will, I'll experiment in due course.

Cannas are a mixed bag. Certainly hardy in most winters, a coolish wet year such as last year meant that not a single one of them flowered. I potted them up under glass last autumn, & I also potted up a new batch of cannas at the beginning of this year. I decided to plant them out only when there were flowerheads developing on them. Result: Pallag Szepe started flowering on July 7th, followed soon after by Picasso, Florence Vaughan and King Midas (syn. Richard Wallace). However, some varieties have *still* not flowered, despite being under glass. Wyoming & Intrigue I can understand, since they are tall varieties, but I'm very disappointed with Louis Cottin, which is a short-growing variety. A lovely crop of leaves at the three-foot level & that's it.

Einion Hughes,
Rhyl, North Wales
Zone 8 or thereabouts        
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