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Cannas dividing and soil

sweet pea Sarahsweet pea Sarah Posts: 129
in Plants
Hi
can I divide my cannas in autumn? Some of my posts are quite congested.
Also what have people found is the best mix for pots, I use peat free and usually add horse compost which is quite fine and some bracken compost, anything else re soil mix? They flowered well this year but foliage wasn’t the best on some of them.

Posts

  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Better to divide in Spring. Any rich retentive compost is fine. They need lots of water and regular feeding.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I agree with @punkdoc 😊. Better left until the spring when things are warming up and they can grow in quickly. However careful you are the important fine rootlets get damaged during repotting and they won’t benefit from sitting in cold damp compost all winter when they can’t repair themselves. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • HumberBoyHumberBoy Posts: 27
    Last year I lifted, washed, dried my Canna Tubers and stored them away in dry compost in the shed. Much like Dahlia Tubers. When I came to plant them this spring every one of them was rotten. So I bought some more and this year I am going to leave them in the ground with a good mulch and see what happens.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    🤞 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    IMO the best thing to do, is lift them and pot them up in very slightly damp compost.
    Unless you are in a very mild part of the world, they are unlikely to survive Winter in the ground.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • amancalledgeorgeamancalledgeorge Posts: 2,736
    I've been overwintering mine in pots in the cold frame and 90% of them made it despite that awful cold snap last winter. Shielding them from the downpours makes sense to preserve the integrity of the rhizome. And easy enough to split with a knife or retractable pruning saw in early spring. They really respond well to liquid feeding like dahlias do when potted, so maybe feed them a bit more this way next year. It has been a great year for them, they're still in flower even now. 
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • sweet pea Sarahsweet pea Sarah Posts: 129
    Thank you for your replies. I live in the New Forest, I over winter a lot of mine wrapped in fleece in my greenhouse and very large pots under the house eaves, some get left in the ground and seem fine, we do mulch our beds quite heavily.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited October 2023
    Mine live in pots outside, uncovered, and they sailed through -10 in London last winter. They might be tougher than you think. I will repot mine in the spring with all their babies. A neighbour (who gave me the cannas) said she has lost hers in the ground before now, but the ones in smallish pots seem tougher - maybe because of a reduced propensity to rot in gritty potting soil. I don't lift dahlias either. They too live in pots over winter and I cover them with old plastic compost bags to reduce moisture. It generally seems to work pretty well.
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