Canna from basal cutting
Liquidambar1987
Posts: 6
I'm just wondering if anybody has had any success with rooting such a cutting of a Canna? It was about 6 weeks ago I put my Cannas out and the wind caught one of the larger ones sending it crashing on top of the one pictured causing an almost clean severation. Horrified upon finding it I gave the leek like remainder a chance potted up with RHP dip and left on a warm, bright windowsill. It showed deterioration for about two weeks, leaves curling up and then overnight the leaves looked healthy and growth commenced. The donor plant is still growing from the secondary eye, yet slowly. The photo was taken today which is when the 2nd and 3rd shoots have emerged! I am new to Cannas and gardening in general and would much appreciate any advise in general! I also have some seed grown cannas which seem to be doing alright, all throwing on 1 or 2 extra shoots. Cheers
Posts
I was given 1 canna plant 4 years ago, it lives in a pot and it is left out all year round, they are quite hardy and easily propagated. I use a serrated knife to cut through the fleshy growth and plant them in new pots all the time,it grows to about 5' with orange flowers, I'm unsure as to which variety it is.
Yours sounds as if it is going to be fine.
How long did it take you to grow them from seed? I would like go have a few varieties.
Last edited: 08 June 2017 19:26:15
I started them from seed around mid Jan having collected a ripe seed pod from college last year not knowing what the plants were at the time! Upon ident and bit of homework read they need to be scarified and soaking helps speed things up. 4days - 1 week all 6 had emerged and grew at a vast pace. The pod came from something like Canna red knight (4-6ft bronze/black foliage and pure red flower)??? The variation so far in foliage is wide with one pure green up through the spectrum to almost pure dark, however the heights are much the same. Cheers
Not sure where you live Mary - but they certainly aren't hardy here! They need winter protection in most of the UK. Do you have a very sheltered garden in the south? I love them, but I no longer have anywhere to keep them over winter except in the house, which makes it trickier.
Well done on achieving that result Liquidamber - they need plenty of rich soil and water once they're outside and growing on , in a pot or in the ground. You'll find you need to pot that on quite soon! They all make quite big plants, and make a great statement in a border or as a specimen plant with other contrasting or toning foliage and flowers.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Unless it's a species form, they won't come "true" from seed.
I was thinking the same and i'm south central UK and we consistently hit winter temps of -5 to -7 so I certainly won't be chancing any of mine left out even sheltered and heavily mulched! I read Cannas are vigorous feeders and brought the seed ones up on a mix of dried manure, multi purpose and no3 mix from small and seemed to enjoy it but need potting on or planting out! However i'm not sure the likelihood of them flowering this yr and as bedding space is limited i'll have to decided to keep in pots or not! Photo of canna
s from seed (Jan 17)
I read that they wouldn't come true upon ident bar a few select types, my question is, will they all flower??? Cheers
you'll get flowers from them, they might be as nice as the parent, but they might be nicer, or not as nice. That's the fun of growing from seed. You might uncover a real treasure.
As long as they flower its a result and the newest shoots are looking even more promising colour wise so and they've been such easy pleasant plants to bring up unlike many other seedlings! Cheers
if YOU think they're nice, that's all that counts.
Can you post photos of the flowers, and their mothers? I'd love to see the variation.
The parent plant was at Merrist Wood college which I was only attending on a 9 week tree surgery course so am no longer there nor have photos of it in flower but would assume its black knight or something similar? They were all identical both foliage and flower. The variations from seed of foliage is vast and will be interesting to see what sort of a flower they produce however they are only 18"-24" tall and quite slender leaves, hoping new shoots will be more filled out?