I have been known to plant a Canna or two on occasion. I've always had good results with what ever variety I've planted IF I've started them indoors about the mid to end of March and then planted them outside mid to late May. Canna's really like lots of water and so they make a good pond plant, but, they also did well as a foundation planting in front of my sunporch.

You can direct plant Canna's in the ground at the end of April or the beginning of May. I did it that way one year but those didn't do nearly as well for me as the ones I potted up and started inside.

The biggest drawback for me in planting Canna's is that I have to dig them in the fall and store them over winter if I want to keep them for the next year. But sometimes, that is worth it. :)

Diann
IA Z5a

I plant canna's also. I can't tell you the name, but I put the tall red one's in every year. You always dig up 3 times what you plant. They start blooming about the last week in July. The Hummers love them and they look nice as a back round in the garden. I put one here and there in my perennial bed also. It never fails, I always have a visiter asking me about them. I also have a varigated, smaller canna. I keep it in it's pot. I put it in my garden pond every year. It's beautiful.It works great as a marsh plant. I do have to divide it this spring. You have to have a good place to store the roots in the winter. I live on a farm and have a root cellar-well room going right off my basement. I keep all my bulbs and pond plants in there. I have patio plants that most people let the frost get. I just put them in there. I bring them out and start watering them about March and I have some great looking plants. I like to start a few canna's about than too. I just plant them in a pot. I love watching them grow.

On the topic of cannas...I know this is a tropical plant, but I would swear there has been one growing in an abandoned lot near my home for the past couple of years. There used to be a rental house in this lot, but burnt down a couple of years ago. For the past two summers I've seen what looks like canna growing around the stump of a dead tree. I went over this fall and collected some seed pods and they look like the pics of canna seeds and seed pods I found online. I suppose it's possible that someone is still digging these up and planting them each spring, but it seems unlikely. I'm going to keep a close eye on the stop this spring to see if anything actually sprouts. Any thoughts? I know it's highly, highly unlikely they are surviving this far north, but...??

We should have time trials and see what blooms first in zone 5. :)

GREZKY canna aren't even hardy in zone 6 and that's 10 degrees warmer. Maybe you have something special there.
Save the seed and send to me or test this theory out and plant them yourself. If you don't know how to grow canna from seed LMK

DIAN- I'm going to go with potted as i hear it is quicker to bloom than in the ground this year.

SANFAN_ I didn't even know we had hummers here until I planted canna!

Karen

Karen, take pictures of your Canna's in all their glory and then post them, ok?

Gretzky, Depending on the winter, depending on where they are planted and depending on how lucky you are, sometimes Cannas will survive an Iowa winter. Case in point, my late sister had a seriously brown thumb, this was a woman that was thrilled that she kept a little plant she received while in the hospital alive for six months after she got home from said hospital. It was not easy to tell her that she had been watering a silk plant, but I digress... Anyway, I kind of got my sis hooked on planting perennials. I got her a perennial hibiscus, some oriental lily (which she managed to mow off each year it came up) and some other perennials. Well, she got adventurous and proceed to branch out on her own and she ordered from a mail order catalog, the notorious Michigan Bulb. Well, thank heavens she only ordered tulips, and with her order of tulips that came that SPRING, she got some Canna. My dear sister planted her tulips (which never did come up) and her Canna that spring of 1999. Well, the Canna grew and thrived that summer. My sister died February of 2000, and eventho those tulips never came up her Cannas came up again in the summer of 2000. Guess, she didn't have such a brown thumb after all. :)

Diann
IA Z5a

Now it doesn't work every winter, but as some of you mentioned cannas are rapid multipliers and tough. One year I had way more roots than needed so my husband hauled them out in the spreader with a load to dump. That spring when I was cultivating corn____ that was in the days before spraying the entire field___ there were some of the canna roots, coming right up and thinking of doing their thing. Course this was supposed to be a cornfield, so I almost closed my eyes and did them in. Showed hubby first so he'd know I wasn't dreaming. I am on the line between zone 4 and 5 and have put them in the ground in early April. They will sit there until the soil is warm enough to bring them up.
An elderly man who always went to Florida left his in shallow boxes of peat and always informed the family to bring those dudes to a warmer spot and soak them down so they would be ready to plant when he arrived home.

I went and bought two flowers (Bulbs). One is a Dahlia and the other is a Canna. I was wondering if I could start them inside and if so how would I got about that? watering, light, ect. I didnt know if it was best for me to plant them out or inside. It says the ground has to reach 50 before you plant them outside. Where I live it has reached 50 to 70 the last couple of days. But they are calling for cooler weather this weekend . They are saying 40s day and 20 to 30 evenings. I didnt know witch would be better.

You could pot them up now and put them in a sunny warm window. You could even leave them in the pots all summer since you only have the pair of tubers.

I always wait until Mother's day to plant anything outside. And, I plant my canna around Memorial Day.

I agree - plant them in pots now and wait for the soil temperature to warm up. Air temperature isn't the same, and it takes (a lot) longer for the soil to warm up.

I posted a link to some Iowa soil temperature maps a few days ago - check it out. Current temps today in eastern Iowa are between 40 at Nashua and 50º at Chariton. Overall, it looks like it's about 47º statewide. And in the case of soil temperature, err on the side of caution.

Mary

I live in Texas and have moved in with my mother who has an overload of the orange canna with purple leaves. She has never thinned her's out, so that is my project for this fall. I planted red ones and yellow ones for a variety and have gotten quite a few of the seeds from the red ones. I saw some hummers on mine and am going to plant some of the seeds in the ground as I have pretty good luck with other seeds. I hope that I will have a lot come up for next year.

Try Horn Canna Farm. com. You can buy bulbs for $1.00. Why bother to store them? SDF

I bought my cannas in Wal-Mart and they were cheap. Looked up Horn Canna Farm and they want $1.25 a piece and then have $7.00 shipping for 12 and under. I think I'll dig mine up as I have a good root celler in my basement. I had people notice my cannas from the road(long driveway) and this time of year it's nice to have something showy.

Gosh, hear it is 2 years later and I reread my old post!

I've trimmed my collection of 18 varieties back to my fav. 3. The leaves of tropicanna, Bengal tiger, and the bloominess if Louis Cottin ( first and most)
make them real keepers.

I have been smitten by other tropicals that work for me here.
You might also like to try or... are already loving!-

calla lily, ornithogalum saundersai which flowers at 5 ft tall., papyrus now 6+ ft tall. Walmart's 'Odora ( upright) elephant ear 5 ft tall, and amorphophallus 'konjac' which grows a 8# bulb and flowers in March a bloom the size of my head!

Karen

This is crazy, but I saw some Cannas at Lowe's over the weekend, and I swear to God they claim to be zone 4-10 hearty! The label makes no mention of digging for winter. I even asked the guy, and he claimed they in no way needed to be dug up for winter. Is that bizarre?

sarabell - Not to diminish your trust in the Lowes guy, but he probably doesn't know squat! Unless Lowes was lucky enough to snag a true gardener or nursery person, the clerks read the backs of the packages just like anyone else and probably have far less knowledge (or interest)than yourself. I would be shocked if the canna is safe to 4.

I have had one survive the winter here, and I was astounded. I am a transplant from zone 8 myself. The good news is the canna survived in a protected spot directly beside the foundation of my house by a basement window. The bad news is I now know just about how much heat loss I must have had at that locatioan from my basement! We have been renovating and have since fixed that "problem" (as hubby would view it).

My experience in having lived in some borderline zones is that a key factor if the ground usually doesn't freeze is that the cannas not sit in a really wet area during winter because that area may then freeze. I lost some even in a zone 7 that way!

Last year I planted directly to the ground in April and to my shock and surprise I had blooms by July 4. I wish I remember what I did. I do like to push the envelope on putting them in the ground. I do put mulch quite heavily over them, and they are in very sunny locations. I am suspecting it has to do with sun reflection on the hillside, plus off some adjacent items (electrical box, etc) in addition to the mulch that helped them along (making that area slightly warmer than the rest of the garden). Rock or plant proximity to rock can really heat up the area also - though keep in mind that digging anything into or out of rock would be a nightmare!

I dig up basket loads every fall. My very favorite is the President. The one that I have the most of is the tall red variety I see across Iowa with the tiny flowers. This was a gift to me that I do not know the name of. I am limiting how many of these that I dig up now and will concentrate on other shorter varieties with larger blooms like the President. My President doesn't put out the volume of roots to store that the other does, but I suspect that is simply because the roots are smaller.

Last year I had a red/yellow garden by the house and flag. This year I'm working on pink through red tones with an occasional yellow highlight as an addition to my drive. I'm putting out some Lady Di's (pale salmon maybe? hints of yellow throat? not sure but I can hope) that I found in Wal-Mart in Ohio on my way back from TN. Also, another short yellow variety to use elsewhere.

I like to dig mine up in the fall once the leaves have wilted some from cold. I hose them off and dry them outside on the ground. Once really dry, I purchased laundry net bags from Dollar General and hang them from nails on the floor joists so that air circulates well.

I think canna growing is the best thing on earth. However, I must admit that being new to zone 5, it is quite the pain to have so much work in the fall. That is why I will concentrate only on the babies that I truly love!

OH! One question to all you canna lovers. I had my President in a raised bed around my flag pole and had an interesting problem. I know you've seen leaves that don't quite unfurl properly or rip when unfurling. This entire bed had that problem. I would say 65-70% had the problem and the leaves looked rather ragged. Fortunately this was not visible from the drive or the road, but only to me when I walked the garden. There was no bad effect on the flowers, which were absolutely great. Any ideas out there?

Late last summer I was given several Canna bulbs and didn't get them planted. In fact I forgot them and left in the garage all winter. Do you think they are still okay to plant or should I just throw away.?
Lois

I love canna's-----have grown them for years and they do really good here--even better than they did when I loved up north of Sioux Falls......(Sioux City now) if anyone wants to do a swap, let me know--love to get more varieties.

d

Canna can definitely come back,a spot next to a brick wall that gets east,west or south sun keeps the ground warmer for a foot or so out,also if leaves pile up over where the cannas are growing they can be a natural mulch for them keeping the ground warmer.I am going to try a volcano mulching technique over my canna australia to get them to come back,this also helps shed water to keep them drier ,another canna I'm trying next year is canna"stuttgart"a white and green canna(leaves)with peach colored flowers. Heres a shot of the C.australia-
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