Anyone have any they would trade?
Canna Musafolia
Sorry MrEli, just gave it away on the secret trade. :(
thats ok, some other nice DG member has offered me some for postage :)
You will Love growing these. They are awesome and one of my very favorite.
I`m not surprised you already got some on the way. I`m very impressed with this forum and the generosity and kindness shown by all the folks here. :)
same here, i love this place.
Anyone have a picture of one so I can see what it is?
Thank you,
Tammie
Here is plant files.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/37145/index.html
Mine looks like the one Abutilon posted with the red flower.
how do you divide these monsters? my rhizome is huge and about 9" deep. should I wait 'till spring? they are a fantastic canna for foliage and worth the work.
better get those out of the ground
out of the ground and into my basement for the winter ;)
nucci, I would suggest a machette'! If you have any leftover pieces, you just can't figure what to do with, I have a big bed for them to lay in the sun!
it is out of the ground. are you serious about the machete? By next fall ,if the pieces grow to this size, there should be enough for the whole country! When it is in the ground for 6 months next year it will probably crack my house foundation.LOL
Canna musafolia is pretty darn hardy... Brian Williams (our resident EE and canna hybridizer) has overwintered his musafolia in the ground in Louisville, KY for the past 6 years with nothing more than about 6" of shredded leaf mulch... his are HUGE! Almost as big as his hardy bananas, as a matter of fact.... This plant is high on my "To Get" list for next spring.
hikaro, I amin zone 6, so I don't want to risk it. I have a couple of common cannas that are near my foundation, that I am going to "test" with mulching. musifolia is way too cool to lose. I have a couple of basjoo bananas that I am leaving in the ground and mulching, and a couple of palms.
Louisvile, KY is Zone 6a (-5F to -10F winter lows), on top of being mostly continentally influenced (meaning low temps last longer on average), so they should do fine in your coastal Zone 6 Massachusetts location.
I also have M. basjoo, M. acuminata "Rajapuri" and Musella lasiocarpa, as well as 4 types of palms I'm leaving out this year. So far, the palms are all doing great.
Nucci i am also from mass moved here a few years back no canna can survive our winters belive me i know ive been growing and hybridizering Cannas for close to 35years Regards Paul
Paul,
With all due respect, I'm telling you it depends on the canna.... There are even people here in PA that have overwintered cannas in the ground with some mulch (accidentaly for the most part, but still....), and Brian Williams (who has been hybridizing cannas for about half as long as you have) has been growing them outside in Louisville, KY for about 8 years now....
Some varieties are hardier, such as the Longwood aquatics (they have similar hardiness requirements to Thallia dealbata, so you can grow them any place where the muck under the water does not freeze solid), and the Futurity hybrids (rated to at least 0 degrees by EVERY major nursery) and, appearantly also musafolia. Brian told me that he's successfully overwintered just about every variety of cana he has outside in his display beds, and I believe him: It's hard to get the kind of huge clumps he has when moving plants in and out every year, not to mention that it would be a royal PIA....
I say to Nucci, go for it, but keep at least 1 "back up" rhizome of each variety (such as when you plant both divisions of your musafolia next spring, leave one out and take the other inside in the fall), so you can see what makes it and what doesn't.... Brian suggested a 6" thick layer of either leaf or hardwood mulch, since both of those provide good insulation and slowly break down over the winter, generating a slight bit of heat.
After all, about 10 years ago, everyone knew that "Palms Won't Grow Here" in zone 6, but Dr. David Francko and other adventurous souls have proven that they can. You never know for sure until you try....
Bull thats not true all Cannas are Trop or Sub Trop and where he lives is closer to zone 4 hes one town over from NH regards Paul
phicks, I am very close to the coast, which the hardiness map says zone6. When you said "close to zone 4" , my heart stopped! I act like I am in zone 9! I winter in Ft. laud., which is 10b, but it.s a condo and I can.t grow anything, just pester the landscape commitee.
I use to live in seabrooke and then Exeter i dont miss the winters
I work in Seabrook, which is also zone 6, although the only part of N. H. that is.
i tryed to keep cannas in the ground there i lost every one
Paul, I am sure your right. I am only trying one as an experiment. stuttgart, australia, wyoming, tropicana, striped beauty , maudie malcom and musifolia are all out of the ground and resting peacefully. thanks
In colder climates, if cannas left inground are kept dry under a heavy layer of leaf mulch (12-16") ..
they have a decent chance to survive winter.
I sometimes place tar paper on top to hold in place and extra warmth, also.
I'm in 5b, I have some orange no names in the ground. They would probably be thicker if I would throw some mulch over them. This will be their 4th winter.
I'd love to have one of these or an omega or Intrigue but there are several complications:
1) I live in an apartment
2) I plant on my patio
3) the patio has an overhang 8' from the bottom
4) most super tall cannas are over 8' in height
Cannas are some of the most beautiful plants I have ever seen and are some of my favorites. If I lived where I had land there would be hundreds of them :-)
There are several dwarf varieties that would be perfect for your patio. Some only grow to a max. 3' tall.
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.
Brian, I think everyone wants you to use their yards. Then it is garanteed to look great. Especially since you are doing all the work.:)
It does seem that way. I use areas like this to propagate and to breed new plants so it does help out. I run out of land fast.
LOL. You can never have enough for gardening. I am running out of places to plant too. Since I work at a botanical I am always given free plants. I have SUCKER on my forehead. LOL.
Pep , I thought you worked at a Church ?
Have you changed jobs ?
No. Never have worked at a church. You are thinking of the Chapel we have. It is a wedding chapel in a botanical garden. www.powellgardens.org
You can sucessfully winter musafolia in zone 6.
The trick is to keep it safe on the few days that drop to very low temps.
And especially to keep it from wet while cold.
I mulch mine heavily in shredded leaves with black tar paper at the top.
Alice
OK Pep , I`m with you now .
A botanical garden .
Sounds like a fun place to work .
Instead of dealing with 'Lost Souls'
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,You deal with 'Dirt Holes' ?
Pretty much.
Wow ...I found some of those in red...growing in a ditch and dug them up...at least I think it is the same thing...can someone tell me....here is a pic of the ones I have...must be 15 of them now.
That is probably Canna indica which grows easily from seed. The leaves would be more indicative of a particular type.
Ginger - We are missing you on the MSF badly-Please come back!!!
Does anybody else have some Canna Musafolia they can spare? I sure would love to have some for postage.
Brian - Your landscape beds are absolutely breathtaking!!!!- We are going to have to get a group of us Mid South forum members on a nursery crawl up your way and come and visit you next spring, if that is OK?
Sharon
I am only an amateur...so will someone explain to me...The leaves would be more indicative of a particular type. So it is not musafolia? I am so lost..
Now I have another kind same flower... red...large leaves...burgundy edged green leaves...burgundy stalk...and burgundy stripe up back of leaf. About 7 or 8 feet tall now. and I have not seen the tubers..my daughter planted them. no picture yet.