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Are there any zone 5 hardy, or tricks?
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Posted by sandy0225 z5 Indiana (sandy02256@yahoo.com) on Sat, Aug 4, 07 at 22:20
I love cannas and I grow them, starting them early in the greenhouse, digging in the fall. My customers are too lazy to dig cannas, though. They want hardy ones. I've done a lot of research and found that there's no such animal. Am I right and doomed to a lifetime of digging or does anyone know any tricks?
I grow musa basjoo "hardy banana" and get them to overwinter with several bags of leaves (still in the bag) piled on top over winter. Would that possibly work with cannas too?
Thanks for any info you can give me, living in zone 5 sucks sometimes! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Are there any zone 5 hardy, or tricks?
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| Sandy, I know a man in zone 6 that keeps one coming back. southern exposure,right next to the foundation.I tried with a foot of mulch (no cover) and lost them all.I think the trick is the same as bananas,keep 'em dry.Mine rotted.P.S, i got a small basjoo from you and it arrived totally flat.The bamboo stick saved it and it is now thriving.I have a much bigger basjoo that is pupping, but about 8 inches from the mother.they are all sword pups.How do you seperate that far from the corm? Sorry to be off topic,but now that i have your ear LOL.... |
RE: Are there any zone 5 hardy, or tricks?
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| Sandy, you could try that with a couple of cannas for a test, as long as you don't mind losing them. I have not ever been able to keep them out over a winter, even tho they were planted right beside my musa basjoo and treated the same way. We even had a mild winter that year. I plant my cannas in pots, come fall the foliage dies back and I take them into the garage for winter storage. I pull them out in early spring, divide them and start them in the house, they get moved outside Memorial Day weekend. |
RE: Are there any zone 5 hardy, or tricks?
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| My next door neighbor has some that come back every year for the last 7 years. We do not know which one it is but it looks like President to me. It is planted next to the foundation and no other protection is done. |
RE: Are there any zone 5 hardy, or tricks?
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| I'm in zone 6 and there is a little bank branch near me that has a whole mass of Canna indica that come back every year among their landscaping, with nothing more than a layer of commercial bark mulch. But the other gardeners I've talked to here say we have to dig them up to overwinter them. |
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