Re: Hot water on Cannas [longish]
- To: propagation@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: Hot water on Cannas [longish]
- From: T* C* <t*@netscape.net>
- Date: 13 Mar 99 08:15:07 PST
Margaret,
I started using hot water on my Canna roots a few years ago. I had purchased
and planted them in early april, a month early at least. When they didn't even
try to sprout [I dug one up], I decided the problem was soil temp. So I warmed
the soil with water twice a day. They are buried so deep the water isn't hot
when it gets to the roots. I may do the same for a sleeping bunch of bulbs,
but for the most part its not a good idea to wake a sleeping root by fooling
it.
This year the soil never got as cold as usual and many perenials like
Anacyclus and Linum are still green. So the roots are active and in danger of
drying out. So I have been lightly watering since early Feb, deep watering
daffs, tulips, crocus and anemone, which are near done blooming.
Some plants like verbena can't take a late freeze when their roots are damp
and so there is some risk they will sprout, use up thier stores, get frostbit
and die. This happens every year no matter how carefully I keep it moist or
dry. They need some dampness for the roots to survive, but need to be fairly
dry when a freeze comes. Sounds like an alpine, dontchathink? The shallowest
roots ar the most finicky.
I put two small chunks of canna in the pot with my house-plant palm tree. It
is about 1.5 ft tall now. Last summer I raised some cannas in pots to stunt
them [it worked] but they never tried to bloom. I'd love to get some smallish
cannas to obloom in pots, but then they're so top heavy any wind blows them
over.
As a semi-disabled gardener, digging my cannas twice a year is the most
difficult thing I do, I would love to find a way around it, but I'm willing to
accept that it may not work. Has anyone tried burying them in sand for ease of
digging? They'd need a lot more water that way.
Margaret wrote;
I talked with a gardening friend yesterday, who said that she kept her
cannas in pots in an unheated room, and about a week ago she poured hot
water on them. More hot water a few days later, and they're now sprouted
to about 1 and 1/2 inches.
Does anyone else use hot water on dormant plants? Margaret
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