Okay. But it's not going to be easy. They are hard for me to grow. They have problems. Do you hybridize?

John

It would be wonderful to see the canna forum become very active. I fell in love with them last year during my first season of gardening, and still have a lot to learn about their care. I would eventually like to have a collection of the different large flowered ones- especially the multi-colored flowers. I have not seen "Lucifer" in person yet, but I drool over the pictures in the net- lol!! My potted noid yellow, and noid orange cannas are starting to peak out :-)

Here in the land of ice and snow, I have several seedlings beginning to unfurl their second leaves. Those are open pollinated. I have a dozen or so C. helliconifolia seedlings sprouting. Red Bird, Altensteinii, Red Stripe, Intrigue, Kress and a few others are soon to poke through the seed mix. Russian, Torchlight, Robt Kemp and some trades in rhizomes are waiting for warm soil temps.

I'm not having much luck getting Glauca to germinate though.

Hey everyone,

Its great to see you all commenting.

John, yesi do hybridize. its alot of work but alot of fun.

hey daffodillady, canna luficer is nice, but its not one of my favourites.

fatbaldguy, lovely seedling you have. For me canna glauca is one of the easiest to germinate. It is aquatic, so it likes alot of water to germinate.

Hello everyone,

Fatbaldguy - (I wish I had thought of that name first)
I do not see the canna seedling. Tell me where to look.

I do not have many cannas. I kept a few that I grew from seed last year (seed was given to me by a very nice lady). Using those, and a couple of cannas I was given, I tried to make controlled crosses. Unfortunately, I had other things to keep me busy, so I only am certain of the pod parent. I will do better this year, I hope.

I have enough seed to experiment with, and I am trying different approaches to germination. Most involve nicking the seed (using nail clippers that my wife thinks she has hidden), and soaking in water. I have noticed that some seeds just do not germinate in water. This year, I will keep those separate, and put them in another pot unless one of you can tell me whether or not they will EVER germinate.

Another thing I will try is leaf roller control. I am not a stickler about using chemicals, but I would like to try a more organic approach. I am not a tree hugger.

John

Well, Billy, I didn't post any photo's. I don't know how. I usually attempt to scarify the seed along the body/side of the seed. The embryo pokes through the hymen on one end or the other. Rotenone/Pyrethrum mix is, for now, an organic pesticide. I'm sure the granola munching tree huggers will do their best to have that changed.

FBG,

If you are able to post your pictures to Photobucket (or any server that will host them), it is not difficult to show your photos here.

I am going to try the Pyrethrum. Also, Neem Oil and something called Dipel-Dust. One of those had better work.

Last year was the first time I tried growing cannas from seed. You can see the ones I kept, by clicking on the link. I was happy just to get something to bloom. I saved seed from some of these. That is what I will try to grow this year.

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Seedlings

Hello Billy,

Sometimes to control the leaf rollers I just try inspecting the leaves everyday and remove the leaf rollers while they are small, before they do alot of damage. But most times i use pesticides, which works great.