OUT OF THE BASEMENT THEY CAME YESTERDAY, the cannas I’d stored after frost last fall. It’s easy to keep these prolific rhizomes year to year and even have plenty to give away. All they ask is a little trimming of the dead bits in early spring, and for a headstart, perhaps potting up now while you wait for the weather to settle. Here’s how it goes, in a slideshow of images from yesterday’s canna cleanup:
Required equipment: a tarp, potting soil (confession: I use leftover from last year for this, not fresh), and leftover nursery pots, plus a pruning shears and perhaps a sharp knife. (Click on the first thumbnail to get started, then toggle from slide to slide by clicking the arrows next to each caption.)
how trash helps me save on potting soil 
remember how to wake up tender bulbs? 
slideshow: bulbs in my garden 
A proceedure I now know well. I started my Cannas off indoors at the end of Feb.
I’m growing canna Phasion, aka Durban and will eventually put them into a stone planter at the front of the house.
Seeing those rhizomes come through winter in good nick is a beautiful thing.
Rob
I’ve been wondering recently, would it serve any purpose to do the same sort of thing with dahlias? I often can’t plant out my tubers until late May/early June, and I wonder if I might not get a longer bloom period out of them if they had a little head start in pots.
“Most bulbs take up little room” — one bulb, but I want huge clumps and clusters for a really big show. Byzantine glads are blooming here now and I can hardly wait for the single bulbs to form bigger clumps. It is happening!
Cannas here in zone 8b remain in the ground. They’re putting up first leaves now.
Hi, Sarah O, and yes, I definitely would pot up dahlias earlier to get a headstart. Plus, since they are more succulent, they can get iffy if they have to sit in storage any longer than is absolutely necessary.
Welcome, Nell Jean. My friends in the PNW leave theirs in the ground, as do other mid-Atlantic friends, but not here. That said, I have had a rhizome accidentally left in the ground when I took most of a clump but missed part, resprout the next year occasionally. I wouldn’t risk it here, but you can (jealous!).
A big show of cannas is one of the delights of summer!
Hmm. I tried to store some cannas. Left them in their pot, which is what the gardener who gave them to me does. I should check on them. I already know the dahlias didn’t make it. Must perfect my technique.
Wondering if you would do the same with alocasia/colocasia?
Margaret:
Please let me know if you have a 50×50 banner button. I’d like to add it as a link from my front page. Thanks!
-Jean
Welcome, Genatac. I do not know…I have tried overwintering the purple-leaf ‘Black Magic’ in a pot of water in my basement, and the jury is out on how it will do this spring…looks OK. As for the taro types with those giant tubers, I have never tried, and I have read various things (all of which says to first cure them before storage so they are dry on the surface, some of which says to dust with sulfur, others not). More homework for me. But as for potting them up early for a headstart: YES! Definitely.
I’ve been transplanting our cannas and mixing them with asiatic lillies in the center of new circular beds. Gold dust aucuba will be planted close around that center with the bed outlined with tall nandina bushs. The two circular beds are six feet in diameter and on both sides of the very symetrical 1893 farmhouse front.
If container plantings can include a variety of textures, colors, and shapes, why can’t that same approach be used in garden beds. I call them “mixed clump” beds.
My first “mixed clump” bed included a beech, a redbud, a mimosa, a maple, and nandina.
After a dismal dull winter, I have resolved to add winter green in our yard. Nandina is the least expensive way to do this. This new bed will be brightly colored in summer with the bright yellow cannas and orange asiatic lillies.
A great teaching slideshow. Thanks Margaret.
I did this a few weeks ago with my Phasion/Tropicana cannas. Excellent side show! I bought the one canna last spring and now looks like I’ll have about 7. I potted them and placed them in my garage to keep from freezing since I live in Michigan and we just got ANOTHER snow storm. Please bring on spring! I haven’t had cannas for over 10 years but can’t resist this colorful Phasion version I found.
Welcome, Eric. Yes, the canna varieties for sale lately are just too handsome to resist, aren’t they? Thanks for the good words, and do stop in soon again.
Thanks for ALL the advice Margaret. Today I was wondering if it was time to get the dahlias out of the basement and I came here. ;-) I love your blog, here I find answer for all my questions.
Elsa: Glad to help, as ever. Nice to see you again. :)
thanks for the great instructions on the cannas. I was fortunate to have a fellow gardener from my community garden share his cannas and each year after I have given away hundreds just from his generous gift 3 years ago. I can’t wait to take a peek in my basement to see how they fared over this long winter. I will start potting them up very shortly. thanks so much for all the inspiring ideas and guidance. Love your blog!!! and really enjoyed your presentation at the Spring Garden Day on March 13th.
Welcome, Barbara; glad the canna information helped. The weather’s is supposed to start turning a bit more favorable so I think I will water mine in the next day or two as well, and really get them going. Do come visit again, and thanks for the kind words.
I do not pamper cannas at all. In the fall I trim the bulbs, throw them in a garbage bag and put the bag in the basement. Come spring, I divide the bulbs, loosen the soil, lay the bulbs on top of the loosen soil, put decayed leaves and mulch on top, water and wait. It makes “digging” out in the fall very easy. And they all grow!
I always have extra to sell at our Master Gardener’s plant sale in the spring.
Welcome, Cathie. Yes, they need little TLC, considering how generous they are with giving us lots of free divisions. See you soon again, I hope. Thanks for your tips.
I was given a Pretoria canna a few years ago and so crossed over into dig and store. Frost in the NW Corner of CT nails them in September, barely into their blooming, as the sunniest spot I have for them still has morning shade. This year, they sprouted from their leaf mulch soon after they were put in the garage, and they sported foot high small leaves all winter in the filtered light from the garage door’s frosted windows. I’ve been leaving the door open so they get full light and air in this “July” weather. My hope is this year the head start will have them blooming earlier, maybe even August! Has anyone else had this sort of experience?