Re: Cannas
- To: perennials@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: Cannas
- From: D* S*
- Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2000 08:20:41 -0400
Dee Ann --
Putting out glass windows to warm the soil sounds like a GREAT idea!
Soil warmth has a lot to do with Cannas sprouting and growing. If
dormant tubers are put out too early into the cold, wet soil they will
sometimes rot.
What I do to give them a jump start is to take the tubers out of storage
about mid-April and plant them in a planting tray full of standard soil
mix (whatever's around, doesn't really matter), then place the tray under
lights anywhere from 6" to 12" above the soil. I just barely water the
mix to keep it from being bone dry. The dormant tubers don't really need
any water until they start forming roots and growing in earnest. The
leaf sprouts always come out before any roots start growing. I don't
want to start them too early because artificial lighting isn't enough for
cannas to form outdoor-strength leaves -- the real point of this process
is to break the dormancy of the tubers. I usually plant them out in
mid-May just because I get impatient, but they really don't do very much
until the soil really gets warm later in May. Using glass panes to
pre-warm the soil would really help get them going, I'm sure.
Dean Sliger
Warren, Michigan, USA
Zone 6B
On Sat, 01 Jul 2000 21:23:43 EDT Dee Ann Scheller
<dee.ann.scheller@juno.com> writes:
> I recently returned home from a trip to the New Jersey shore
> (wonderful
> Italian wedding---the food was great) and certainly was happy to
> find my
> Canna garden had FINALLY started to bloom. Here in zone 6 we are
> required to dig and store tubers to get reliable results. I put the
> tubers back into the ground very early this year and still it seems
> to
> take forever to get blossoms. Do any of you know of a way to speed
> up
> the process? I have considered putting old glass storm windows over
> the
> bed in the early spring--it might not look so pretty but just might
> warm
> the soil a little sooner.
>
> also beginning to bloom now are:
> Black eye susan-Rudbeckia
> cone flower-Echenaacea
> pink and yellow coreopsis
> liatris
> obedient-virginiana
> phlox
> stokesia-cimpositae
>
> Dee Ann
> S.W. Indiana
>
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