Each year I try to sprout a few thousand canna hybrid seeds from the year before. This year I was able to do a nice crop. I was a little late getting them started but by the end of the season they grew out to be very nice plants. I picked a few to further breed and work with.
more pics
Canna field in flower
Cannas
Plants being tagged for breeding
Looking for superior genetics..
Brian: Thanks for the pics, they are beautiful, now when I miss my canna babies, as they are dying back already, I can come look at yours, and here I thought I had lots with about 80 around the sides and fronts of my house; about how many you got? LOL
If I remember correctly you have a Stuttgart don't you?
joy112854
I have a lot of stuttgart. It has been a great grower for me over the years. I have two clumps of it that are around 5 to 8 feet around.
As for how many canna I have. I would say a few hundred forms I am working on improving that have potential.
For known forms or older hybrids I would say around 30.
I have hundreds maybe thousands of no name forms that are so so or not of much use to me. Most get tested for hardiness or are donated to a local zoo. Some are also trashed.
Brian, I have 2 questions
1 - Last spring I bought 2 stuttgard canna and when they grow they looks like Omega . How to know it's a real Omege or a Stuttgard who go back to Stuttgard .
2 - I see in the History of the Canna Forum that you have a realy hight quality of canna hybrid .The question is about the parents you use for crossing , do you have " self cleaning " canna line ? the problem with the canna bloom is sometime the old flowers .
Dany
Brian: What beautiful stuttgarts. I've been wanting one of those and hopefully, this Spring will get one. I'm going to grow mine strictly indoors though as you tell, I live in Florida.
joy112854
Dany it is believed that Omega and Stuttgart are the same plant. Stuttgart is a variegated form or possibly a odd seedling off of omega. It can at times revert back to what looks like omega and may be impossible to tell apart. I have not had much problem at all with mine reverting. I had some people tell me the first few new leaves were green but it quickly became variegated once more mature. I see this in the early spring the green areas are tougher and usually sprout first or can handle more sun heat and so forth. If it becomes to noticable I remove the green out of my clumps but I have not had to do so for the last 7 years.
I have been working on self cleaning hybrids for sometime. I have a few that I would consider extremely superiour to what I have seen on the market. Many of them are being trialed now for future breeding or to be released.
Joy you should be able to grow Stuttgart outdoors in Florida. Their are some problems to watch for. One is bugs mainly leaf rollers. Their are some chemicals that can be used to keep them off the plants some people have little to no problems with them others tell me stories of whole plants being destroyed in just a few days.
The other problem would be to much sun. I plant my stuttgart on the north or east side of the house. Usually morning sun will not burn as much as afternoon sun. Epson salt (Magneseum sulfate) can help strengthen your plants leaves and prevent some burning.
I recently started with some canna seeds but I am having some trouble with the seeds growing mold. What am I doing wrong? I am new to gardening so I am sorry if it sounds like a stupid question but I just dont want to keep loosing my seeds to mold.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am totally drooling with your pics. LOL!
Gardenia: My first suspicion would be too much water perhaps? I have a tendency to water too much and to overfertilize to much, my wanting to mother too much I think. LOL Cannas are strong plants and can go without water if you lay off that and the fertilizing for a while see if that helps. Just guessing though.
Brian: I am rolling it over in my head about planting a dogwood tree as unfortunately there is no shady spots in my yard whatsoever right now, and my cannas will only grow well along side the house and deck where they don't get direct sunlight all day long. I want a bed just for plants that need shade and need to find a way to improvise that idea in my yard before planting a Stuttgart outside.
joy112854
Hi Joy,
Thank you! I was looking into the WS thread and got a few great ideas from them. I started sowing the seeds in 2 liter clear soda bottles and I am having great results. I am trying not to mother them too much as you said. Hopefully this spring I will have a few dozen cannas to also plant along the foundation of my home. You answered 2 my questions. LOL!
BTW...you guess was correct!
Gardenia I the seeds are pretty easy to grow. I did notice one thing that stuck out in your comment and that is fertilizer. Many people over fertilize way to much. Seedlings should rarely if ever be fertilized. The new roots will burn if given fertilizer leading to rot. This usually kills or stunts the plants growth. I start my seeds in trays placing them in a humid greenhouse in winter they get bottom heat. Any sort of humidity dome will help but you should be sure they are not to hot and not to cold. I try to keep them between 60f and 90f. Once they produce 3 to 5 leaves the lids are removed for air flow.
Here is a picture of seedlings being grown out.
I use to grow cannas out in 3 to 4 inch pots and trays. I later moved to larger cell trays that can be reused over and over. These work great sense the plants once grown out to 5 inches or more are put out in fields.
I have to plant out a lot to get nice hybrids. I keep removing unwanted forms to improve my breeding lines. I hope to later have several fields growing each one devoted for breeding certain traits. At the moment I don't have enough room to do much larger scale breeding.
Brian,
I just love your canna fields. They are so pretty. I don't think I would ever get tired of strolling through them and looking over all those cannas and watching their progress. The little plants look so healthy. You've really got them figured out!
Pam
Thanks Pam I do enjoy walking the fields it is one of the highlights of my summers. It seems that each day a few new cannas will be flowering and it never does gets boring looking at new cannas.
It seems the more of them I look at the more pickier I become. Many of the hybrids have to preform very well or have some unique color pattern or size before they can move on to the next stages.
Here is one that I worked for sometime. This is out of my larger hybrid breeding. I have been trying to breed tall hybrids as well as super minitures. This reminds me a lot of a dark Canna Musafolia type. I believe it got to over 9 to 10 feet tall. Not for everyone but useful in my landscapes as a back drop plant.
Hi BW,
I am using MG Spaghnum Peat Moss to sow the seeds. I don't add additonal fertilizer to the seeds. Do you think that might be the problem -MG Moss?
OMG...I wish I could have several trays that would have the same results. Even one tray would make me soooo happy.
Oh yeah! I really like that one. It sure makes a statement. So, in order to get more going of the same, you divide the rhizome?
Gardenia spaghnum peat moss is a bit more acidic than most plants would like. I add perlite for drainage and lime to bring down the acidity. I use 5 lb of lime for 15 bales of 3 cubic peat moss.
Pam I divide the rhizomes of the hybrids I want to futher grow or breed with. They will be identical to each other. If it is a seedling they are not identical even if it was self crossed they have some slight differences.
The 5 canna seeds I just planted I put in these 2 1/2 inch peat pellets. I started some from seed and then when they got bigger planted them in the bed. I don't really like to fertilize mine with anything until they get bigger, then I just use the Miracle Grow liquid plant food that goes into the sprayer nozzle I have.
This next Spring, they will need dividing, so what I'm going to do then is to dig them all up, put mushroom compost and coconut coir in with some of the soil already there and then replant them.
joy112854
Brian , great this large brown leaf canna . he is coming from Musifolia or it's another line?
Canna Purpurea is smaller I suppose !
Another large plant is Skyhawk who can be growing from seeds . Your is bigger ?
Dany
The MG spaghnum peat moss I purchased already has the perlite. I will get some lime and mix it in on my next batch. How much would you think appropiate for a 8 Qt bag?Thanks BW!
Ok all you guys can do it the hard way, I got 30 rhizomes coming from Easy to Grow and a few from Jungs also. I'll do it the easy way> LOL
joy
Brian, I would kill for those no name cannas!! If you don't want to toss them, let me know and I'll send you the $$ for the postage, as long as they bloom, I'm thrilled!!! I do not know enough about them for the named ones anyway, I just know if they are tall/dwarf and what colors. What do they say, one mans trash?? Just send me a Dmail if you don't mind packaging them up. Laura H
Wow! Brian, your canna fileds are EDEN!!! I love that tall dark-leaved one too!
I have a lot of trouble with leafrollers. How do you deal with them?
The work has really grown I have many unusual hybrids coming along and a lot of interesting new forms. I will be taking more mass photos of the fields this year as well. As for leaf rollers seven dust will work for a small group of plants but will wash off after a rain and would need to be reapplied. Their are a lot of new synthetic type chemicals some will soak into the plant and stay in the plants system and it keeps the leaf rollers off for a lot time. I would be careful how it is used though. I have not used any in sometime I will see about some product names in that group.
Thanks!
Wow! I love it. I let my stalks with the seeds lay on the ground and figured I would collect them later but it seemed to have rotted them. Gosh dang it. I was wondering how long they take to germinate from seed?
Pyrethrins sounds like a deadly chemical but it is a extract from a daisy that is non toxic to mammals but toxic to insects and fish. It is not systemic so it will not endanger nectaring insects once it dries. It is safe for food crops too. That is a good choice for the organic gardener.
Bwilliams, when do you sleep? You must be the energizer bunny between growing ariods and cannas.
Barbara
Barbara my sleep has been a bit deprived I am sure. This year was particularly rough on me. I have tons of new things growing and am being pulled 10 different ways at once. I can usually deal with all of this easily as I am a very active person but just recently I lost my dog Mr Spock whom I have had for 14 years. It has taken some of the joy out of my work. I hope I can comp I would have never known I would become so close to a pet. He was like no other.
Brian, You have my sympathy. Loosing ones dog is very painful and leaves a hole in the heart. I lost my Airedale, Snickers, two years ago and I still tear up when I talk about her. Like you said-she was like no other. I didn't realize how much I missed having a dog until I got my Havanese, Ipie. Not a replacement but a different kind of companionship. Good luck.
Barbara
I've been a lurker here for some time (BTW, love your cannas, bw, especially that huge red seedling), but just wanted to comment on losing a pet.
I have heard it said that losing a pet is no different than losing a family member and, in fact, it is the loss of a family member.
Pets do so much good for us by relieving stress and providing companionship and unconditional love. People with pets tend to have lower blood pressure and just better general health than folks that do not have pets.
I am so sorry for your loss and I hope that you will keep your memories of Mr. Spock close to your heart. All pets are unique and no other pet will ever take the place of Mr. Spock, but going through the grieving period and then getting another pet is one of the best things you can do for yourself.
Mike
Sorry to hear of your loss Brian. I've had dogs in the past but the dog I have now I love more than I ever thought I would love a dog and I hope he's here for as long as you had Mr. Spock, but when he does go I know it is going to be very difficult on me, so I can imagine how hard this is for you to lose your friend.
I'm facing it too, there are few things that I dread more. I am so sorry.
Hi I was wondering if it is at all possible to cross polinate a canna with either a heliconia or a ginger??? and are their exceptions to the rule??? How nice it would be if someone could get purple in the color pallet of cannas!!!
