what is the best way to recuperate the bulbs from my callas and my pineapple lilies so I can plant them again next year. They were given to me by a friend who never told me what to do in the fall . She moved out of country ....Help
Eucomis and Calla's
There is a bulb forum, maybe they would know??? I would assume you treat as you would any other tropical bulb.
Found this for you on a canadain thread...
RELATED ARTICLE: STORING THE ROOTS
Storing canna roots can be a little tricky, because if they are kept too moist they will rot, and If too warm, they may either desiccate or sprout prematurely. The plants should be cut down, leaving about four inches of old stem. They should be dug as entire "stools," the gardener's word for a connected mass of roots or rhizomes. Though loose soil may be shaken or teased away, the stools should not be washed, and certainly not separated, as that will create tissue that will not cure sufficiently to prevent rot. Stools should be set in a warm, dry place for a few days, until the dirt that surrounds them is moderately dry. They should then be placed in large pots or plastic nursery tails and covered with barely moist peat, to sleep out winter. Sand is sometimes recommended, though it often remains too damp And unless you have just the right kind of moist root cellar, with temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Fahrenheit, ignore the advice to put the roots in paper bags and forget them for come spring, you will find little more than withered, woody lumps, long since dead. Cannas store best at temperatures cold enough to prevent new growth, but never so cold as to freeze the roots. Temperatures between 40 and 50 degrees are ideal, and the peat should be checked from time to time, and lightly moistened if it is dry. - W.W.
STARTING CANNAS INDOORS: Cannas should be started into growth about six to eight weeks before the last anticipated spring frost. It is better to be tardy than to rush, since they are plants of such rapid growth in warm weather that they will quickly make up for a week or two of starting late. Each stool should be lifted from its peaty bed and freed of the remaining earth so divisions can be made. The strongest plants will result from one or more ivory-colored shoots attached to as much brown, woody tissue as possible. Each division should then be potted up in a container just large enough to hold it comfortably, in fast-draining soil, preferably made of half soilless potting mix and half coarse builder's sand. Newly potted rhizomes quicken best at about 70 degrees, and bottom heat is a help. Because they will not need light until they are well sprouted, the top of the furnace, if it is comfortably warm but not too hot (place your hand on it when it is operating to see), is a good place to start up. Keep the soil only moderately moist - never soaking - until strong shoots appear, when they can then be watered abundantly, and of course, moved to bright, sunny conditions. When growth is well advanced, soluble fertilizer, at half the strength recommended on the package but twice as often, is an encouragement to strong growth. - W.W.
thanks Jen!!