canna lily seeds

do all these seed not produce true to type or does it vary by cultivar ?

I think that they don't produce true to the plant. That's why some gardeners like to cross pollinate to get a new creation going. If I'm wrong someone will let us know for sure.
:) Donna

Canna Lillies are self-pollinated, usually before the flower even opens. That said, depending on how familiar you are with genetics (punnet squares http://www.borg.com/~lubehawk/psquare.htm) you will see that unless your parent was exhibiting all dominant traits, in which case you have a 75% chance of true to parent and 25% chance of something new, then it is just safer to assume that your seeds will not grow true to the parent.

As PerennialGirl said, some people, Canna breeders in particular, go through the painstaking process or collecting pollen and pollinating different canna in order to create new hybrids. These new hybrids are, more often than not, sterile and will produce empty seed pods.

The rule of thumb is that any canna that produces seed has produced viable seed, you just won't know what it will grow into.

True Canna indica, and heirloom cannas will grow true to seed, as will OPs that have returned to "wild type" (green leaves, tiny flowers, tall stems).

If you have a short, crimson leaved, large flowered canna and you plant the seeds, chances are that you are going to see several of the wild type traits.

I hope this didn't confuse you. If you really, really want another canna that looks like its parent, then grab a rhizome division. That's the only way to be absolutely sure. If you are up for an experiment, pop the seeds in the ground. You may find out that you have a OP or an heirloom and didn't even realize it. If you are looking on eBay and see beautiful hybrids that are pictured, and then see that they have seeds for sale from them, don't do it. No guarantees. The sellers don't really emphasize that, but they should.

Edited to Add: There are three common latin names for cannas: Canna indica (true to seed), Canna generalis (not a hybrid, possibly either an OP or an heirloom) and Canna X generalis (the X means hybrid; NOT NOT NOT guaranteed to be true to seed, if it even produces them).

This message was edited Oct 22, 2005 11:05 PM

thanks....it seems that most of our popular plants to do not produce true...

This message was edited Oct 23, 2005 9:42 AM