Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
marozeckinj

Are they DEAD?

marozeckinj
19 years ago

Hope you all can help. This is my first time with cannas. I got them at the end of last season as rhisomes. I was instructed to put them in paper bags and forget about them in the basement. I just brought them out today and they are all brownish/black, dry and shrivelled. How do I know if they are dead or alive? I guess I should stick to daylilies!

Thanks for any help

MELISSA

Comments (6)

  • Boca_Joe(zone 7b) southern Delaware
    19 years ago

    check them- they are kinda like onions- if they are hard and heavy for their size- then still good. If lightweight, dry and crispy , unfortunately they are dead.

    good luck

    Boca Joe

  • dianne1957
    19 years ago

    Melissa,
    I dug up many canna tubers in the Fall after the frost when I lived in PA. Trash bags full! Everyone I knew would take some. I would store mine in the unheated garage all winter. In the spring I would lay them out and look them over. Only the "mushy and soft" ones would get discarded. Even if they are dry looking they still have some life in them. Unless they are totally shrivled. Someone told me it is a good idea to store them in peat moss and mist occaisionally. But I never did and every year after I planted them in mid to late April, covered them with heavy mulch, watered them in........they would grow and bloom till frost. Then after the Fall frost I would again dig them up, shake off the soil and store over the winter. I would plant what you have ....at least in a flower pot to see if they survived. Full sun is best..........Happy Gardening........Dianne

  • prairie_love
    19 years ago

    I sure hope yours aren't dead, cause that's what mine look like too! This is my second year doing this, and I can't remember what they looked like last year (duh). I planted them anyways, and am crossing my fingers and toes and anything else I can cross.

  • txyellowstang
    19 years ago

    I have a bucket full of them that my hubby brought home after the city garden divided theirs earlier this month. Some look shrivelled but I figure it doesn't hurt to plant them and see what happens! I wish I could remember what kinds he said they all were.

  • Peter60
    19 years ago

    Next autumn/fall lift and box or pot up in almost any medium - spent compost, vermiculite, perlite, bark, garden soil lightened with sharp sand. Keep just moist in a frost proof place. This will allow some air circulation and also maintain some turgidity to the rhizomes so they won't dehydrate.

    My Website

  • dmd2go
    19 years ago

    I forgot to bring mine in from the garage. They were in in peat moss in a bag. Am I out of luck?