Cannas: Canna Musafolia, 1 by bwilliams

bwilliams wrote:
I find that with the right substance to mulch with and a good thickness you can get 1 and possibly 3 zone differences in your regular temperatures. So if I am zone6 and I mulch a plant up nice with lets say very fine chopped up leaves the temps for that plant that winter will be a zone 8 and if thicker and possibly a piece of black plastic added over the mount a zone9. Once temps are back to a safe range removing the protective mulch is a must or the plant will in many cases die also from being suffocated. I usually go out in early spring with a pitchfork and remove all the piles of mulch and spread it out for the plants to resurface. I have been able to over winter some very odd plants by doing this it is not much trouble considering building a greenhouse and heating it all winter rather then just mulching the plants up. I find that in spring I am usually remulching anyways and having the material already in mounds in the beds is a blessing and all my plants seems to grow by leaps and bounds. Each year I lose more space for the really tropical plants due to the fact the ones that over wintered are producing much larger patches. This display infront of my place has been out for 5 years now. It is made up of 4 different bananas 15 different cannas and 8 different Colocasias all of which are mulched each season and have returned the following years.

I am not sure exactly how long this landscape bed it its only about 2 to 3 feet wide and runs down about 300 feet maybe more. I have been given permission by the people below us to extend it another 100 feet if I am interested. I may work on it this spring If I can find the extra time to do so.