Very pretty... :) I'm also going to try from seeds this year, hopefully I'll be able to show-case my stuff as well :)

No pro here, but I think of all your plants only Intrigue and C. Musafolia should grow true from seed. Did you have any surprise plants?

Thanks for the kind words, Ptt24evr!

Quicksilver I didn't have any blooms that were completely different than the name that came on the seed packet, but not all of them bloomed so it could still happen next year. My biggest surprise was how much I really enjoyed them (I grew them for my hubby) and how large the flowers were. I'm used to seeing Cannas from far away and I guess I just thought they all had little flowers like musifolia. Far from it, every new flower was (to my amateur eye) a real stunner!

Jeanne

Well you are an inspiration for us, and your success is a bit of a mystery for me. I go by the Karchesky website to determine whether canna varieties will grow true from seed. Perhaps there are other factors determining why Karchesky offers seeds vs. rhizomes for particular plants. I hope Marek weighs in on this thread because I for one could use some education on this subject. Beautiful blooms!

Well you piqued my curiosity, I had to go by the Karchesky website and look at their seeds. Their Intrigue is described as a species type but the blooms and leaves are completely different than mine. I'm pretty sure these are mislabeled. I need a dark leaved Canna like that!

And what's worse - I turned down an offer to trade for Intrigue last week because I "already have it". Darn!

Jeanne

We are all in the same boat. We have plants that are prolific and lovely, and we are not quite sure of their names. I have gone through Marek's and the Karchesky list at least five times to ID my cannas. I narrowed down the possiblities, but in most cases I'm still not sure of the variety. The great thing about your plants is that the blooms appear to be hybrids. Many of the cannas that grow true from seed look like canna indica, which for me is a little boring. (Although the hummingbirds love them.)

Jeanne,
Cannas grown from seed are all hybrids. The ones you see at karchesky are also hybrids that are propagated by bulbs (thats why they can sell you the exact plant you see online because you are actually getting a bulb of the plant as opposed to a seed of the plant). If they take seeds from those, they will have similar traits, but there will be differences in flower color, leaf color and flower composition. Intruige is also a hybrid, that explains why you have two colored "intruige" hybrids.

A couple of years ago i traded for random canna seeds from several members, knowing that none of the seeds would come out as the parent plant they were collected from. I ended up with many interesting different new hybrids. I have many dark leaved cannas and green leaved cannas, with flowers ranging from peach, orange, pink, magenta, red, yellow with red tips, and yellow with LOTS of red spots. It's fun to grow cannas from seed not knowing what you will get. congrats.

This year, my big-flowered cannas were growing near canna indica (small plant with small yellow flower with red tips) and i wouldn't doubt that they cross pollenized. I never collected the seeds so they fell all over the ground and now i have dozens of canna seedling growing all over the place. I'll see what surprises i get when they bloom this summer. Cool thing about seed grown hybrids is that there are no two alike, so you don't have to call them by their 'parent' name, you can make your own name.

This is the canna with lots of red spots. The pic is blurry but if you look closely, you can see the spots. The shorter ones on the left have flowers that look almost completeley red and other yellow
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And another one of the hybrids i grew from seed
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And to the right of the Brugmasnia you can see the multi colored cannas (peach, red, and an orange on the far right)
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I have to disagree with your first two sentences. If you go to the Karchesky site you will find that they sell mostly rhizomes, but for some cannas they sell seeds. I believe they offer seeds for some plants because those varieties bloom true from seed.

Wrong word choice by my part, sorry. They sell seeds of primary and species-type cannas. They dont sell seeds of the hybridized cannas because those won't come true from seed. your musaefolia is a species-type canna and that one does come true from seed.

By the way, the spotted canna pictured above was grown from seeds collected from canna "ambassadour" which is a white flowered canna. The plants i grew look nothing like the parent plant.

Your yard looks like paradise!

thanks quicksilver,

This is the first year i got such of flush of brugmansia blooms. That brug started as a tiny cutting 3 years ago. The first year (2005), it grew to about 3 feet, but had no blooms. The second year(206), it doubled in size to about 6 feet and had a dozen or so blooms. Then we had a severe arcic blast in the winter(06/07) and the whole thing died to the ground. I thought it was dead, but it surprised me and came back in just one season. What is pictured above, is only the growth that occured from Feb 07 through Nov 07. And this year, it finally had a spectacular show going on. And the smell was entoxicating. Right now the brug is only bare twigs (It loses its leaves in the winter).

You can view more pictures of my yard at my website. I've just began to post picture since last november, so there are only a few pictures, but feel free to look through them.
http://centralcal.tripod.com/

Or you can browse through my photobucket album for more pics.
http://s178.photobucket.com/albums/w245/jdiaz31089/

Thank you. I live in MA but I love those exotic warmer zone plants!

From growing my orange species canna seeds MOST have been orange like the parent,but had other varietions pop up I've had 2 different yellows a different orange which I liked better. It has a small yelow spot with orange dots,just one lil stripe. I grow the red species,but had accidently gave SIL the whole clump so had to get some of that back.I grow the russian red with purple cast foliage.it blooms later and grows about 7-10 ft so I get less seed off it and alot of last years seeds did not bloom.I got mostly same as parent and one orangeish flower.last year 2 bloomed in GH in winter. I got 2 Robert Kemp tubers last year.I still have my 'no seed setters.I really like the species flowered types.but have a tall orange flowered one that really rocks.I got it in the canna tuber swap a few years ago here.

I think its worth growing from seed. I traded my seeds off for about 4 years then decided to try some of them.I still collect lots of seeds for tradeing though.

mis-marked trade...not lucifer

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orange species close up shot

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side shot seedling bed I grow,then relocate by color

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Canna seedling in GH bloom
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That red and white colored canna is a STUNNER! Shouldn't the rhizomes that develop on this canna produce the same flowers next year?