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petpalikali

Growing Canna from seed

petpalikali
16 years ago

Hey there garden friends! I read in the FAQ sections on Cannas that they will revert to a partially wild plant from seed. Has anyone ever gathered and grown canna seeds? If so, were the plants nice? I don't know what a wild canna looks like. Thanks, Deborah.

Comments (2)

  • bearstate
    16 years ago

    I have some young Canna that were grown from seed this year. You can see photos in the thread I started in this forum on 'Leaf Rolling in Canna is NOT a Problem!'.

    These are about six months old.

    The answer to your question is a difficult one as different varieties of Canna look different. I have no idea how 'wild' my Canna from seed look. I can only tell you that they seem to have longer canes and big narrow leaves compared to other Canna I have. They actually look a lot like Corn plants to a degree.

    You should know that there are Canna that are sterile hybrids and you can only reproduce them asexually by division. Otherwise, the natural agents of pollination may not exist in your environment and you get sterile flowers that produce no seed. Fertile Canna that produce seeds might be difficult to find unless you obtain seed and grow them yourself. Reversion occuring in generations of seed grown Canna might be possible as seeds do not produce clones, but varying genetic permutations and mutations. Some permutations may result in reversions. You no doubt, might get a spread of traits that are characteristic of any number of respresentatives of the parent plants' genetic lineage. I wouldn't call that reversion, but instead a chance expression of previous lineal parental characterics.

    It is possible also to get something other than a pure clone from asexual propogatin, ie. division. These are called sports; and I apologize as I do not know much about sports or how to create them. I can only assume that you 'wait' on them to occur and single them out for further propogation if you find a preference for some trait that the sport exhibits. Leaf variagation is a common sport trait that breeders favor and derive new cultivars based upon.

    Perhaps, another member can clarify these points or even correct some error in my own perceptions.

  • west_texas_peg
    16 years ago

    I grew canna from seeds for the first time this year.

    Have one from Dawn Pink; foliage looks like Dawn Pink and thus far it is short like the parent, the bloom color is dark pink, very lovely.

    Also grew one labeled Tropical Sunrise but appears it probably is from Tropical Sunset...it looks to be another nice plant for my garden.

    Another has bloomed that was suppose to be Dawn Pink but suspect it was an accident since it has green foliage and a indica bloom that is rosy colored.

    Also have one that was labeled City of Portland that is dark rose pink.

    I collected seeds this summer for the first time (we had a lot of rain which helped my cannas reproduce like crazy).
    Have Conestoga, Red Stripe, and 3 indica type.

    Good luck!
    Peggy

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