Yes you should do the canna now. since the freeze/warm up cycle will help break the tough outter coat of the seed. Unless you wanna wait and file down a bity part of the seed to help it germinate. I have already started my canna seeds,

Paula

I WS canna seeds last year. Waited a L-O-N-G time for them to germinate but by the end of the season they were as tall as I am.

Wow. I'm amazed such a tropical plant would do so well.

I can remember walking through one of my favorite nurseries last year, admiring all they had for sale. Big tall, massively expensive. I thought, I don't want to dig up those tubers and overwinter them....

Cannas appear to be tropical but they are temperate, much like ginger which they are related to.

Oh I am so glad I saw this post, I was going to wait till things warmed up more. I have a lot of canna seed to do though and this will help me out a lot. Does anyone have suggestions as to depth? I usually just put stuff on top and let it sink down on it's own but if they are as tough as all that maybe I should poke them down farther.

Flood I just push it in a bit not too far just barely enough to cover the seed. I am unsure if when I water if they are more covered or less covered. But it works for me.

Paula

Flood - same here as what Paula does. I don't treat them any different than any other seed when I WS. Just give them good contact with the growing medium and you're done. I WS the seeds Feb. 27 and they sprouted end of May or early June. By then I was pretty busy planting out all the others that sprouted earlier and didn't catch the exact date the canna seeds sprouted. They grew tall and gorgeous but didn't bloom first year from seed.

Floodie - did you know that some of your canna seeds are grandbabies of Paulan70's cannas? :)

Yep, do what she says - Paula is the canna queen as far as I'm concerned!

I had no idea. How lovely. Well I got them all out so we should be good. Glad you all got me revved up.

Thanks guys!! For some reason post replies aren't coming to my e-mail so I didn't see these until now. :-( I started them by soaking them overnight and then nicking them with a dremel. Then I put them back in to soak until they started to sprout. However, I have only gotten about 4 sprouts out of 18 or so seeds. Thinking about going ahead and planting the un-sprouted ones and hoping for the best.

I have grown canna from seed before, several years ago, and some bloomed the first year and some didn't. The only rhizomes I dug last year was the Tropicana, as it doesn't produce seed.

Flood if I remember correctly most of mine grown from seed did flower the first year. But the ones in full sun did alot better than the ones in the shade.

And thank you Lynda for the laugh. Good soil does help.

And I am sure I will have tons of seeds this fall as well.

Paula

Paula - any idea how long the seeds are viable? I have seeds from a red one I harvested late in 2009 that I just hate to throw out if they'd be viable to WS at this late date. The tubers are fine as long as I get them out of the soil, dried and stored somewhere cool and dry for the winter. Sure wish I knew how the ones growing in a garden about 8 miles northwest of me can survive our winters. The circular bed of them is about 6-8 ft. around and must have close to a hundred that grow and bloom every year.

Eileen- I read somewhere that canna seeds can be viable for hundreds of years. Your seeds, which you sent me in November I think, I decided to try one nick and soak method and WS the rest. The one I did in the house is growing just fine. It did take 1 week of soaking to show signs of life.

Now, I don't know how they would survive in the ground unless they are planted below the freeze line and there is a constant snow cover from the time the ground freezes. If I had left mine in the ground this year, I would have lost them all. Our snow was spotty at best and it was colder than it has been for years.