I doubt Canna rhizomes would survive the cold in the garage over winter and that too in a place like Wisconsin. You did everything right except leaving in the garage I guess. Let us know if the rhizome shows any growth for the rest of the season. If not.. dont loose your heart. We all do mistakes as first timers.
It was my first experience with Cannas last year too. I bought about 20 of them from Horn Canna. They all did excellent. I have dug all of them and left in my basement over winter. Some of them are already sprouting. Some of the other members told me not to worry. You can definetly try buying some rhizomes from Horn Canna. They are the cheapest ones I saw online and their rhizomes & service are fantastic. I bought few of them at Lowes couple of weeks back. Not sure how they would do though.

Hi, I live in northern Utah and the winters are pretty cold here too! I store my cannas in the garage which gets pretty cold but does not freeze. I think the lowest temp was about 38 degrees inside the garage this winter. I checked my rhizomes the other day and they all appear to be fine, some of them even starting to grow a bit. I keep mine in boxes with some peat moss added. I think if your rhizome did not appear to be rotted or soft, then it will probably be just fine. Might just take awhile to get going. Wouldn't water too much until you start to see some growth, otherwise you run the risk of rotting the rhizome. I would just give it some time. Good Luck!
Linda

I'm new in cannas too and still have tons of questions as well. However, I did a lot of readings last year about overwintering them. I read about garage as a canna storage but it's a NO here in my area since water freezes inside my garage badly even if my garage door is insulated as well as walls are insulated. And you're not far from me, so looks like it killed it. Hopefully not.

If you have some time today, please post a picture of the rhizome. This way, folks here can tell if it's gone or good. :)

I've been growing Canna for years and although I'm in Alabama, I can tell you this......

We leave our canna's in the ground over the winter. And they have survived some incredibly low temps. I mean down to about 18 for a few hours at a time. They always survive with heavy mulch.

I believe they survive for 2 reasons....One, the surrounding soil they are in stays relatively warm...and two, the added mulch I put on them adds to the insulation.

If I lived in an area like you do, I would probably just pot them up in a container in their regular growing medium, like potting soil and put them in the garage. Or, if I put them in a box, I would surround them with peat moss. The peat moss will keep the canna from drying out and provide extra insulation from the cold......Good luck with your canna....they can be slow to awaken, I'd just give it a little time....they are amazingly resilient!

I've grown cannas in northern Utah for over 30 years and have about 2500 to 3000 rhizomes at the end of each season. (I sell over 800 rhizomes to a local nursery each year.) If you lift them to store, I would suggest storing them in plastic garbage bags with a little peat moss sprinkled over them as you fill the bags. I put my bags inside wax covered produce boxes that I obtain free from the local grocery store before I fill them. The boxes help protect the bags and you can stack the boxes. They will winter over in milder climates in the soil even though the air temperatures gets low, but outside of the soil, make sure you store the rhizomes in 50-55 degree temperatures. Otherwise they can rot. I lost several hundred rhizomes one year in 38-40 degree storage.

Kevin

Hi Kerry,

I use to pack all my tubers into shavings or peat moss. One year, I was in a hurry and they ended up sitting on the basement floor and my kittens payed on the pile all winter long. The tubers ended up being fine. Now, I don't bother cleaning them up in the fall - use to flood the backyard.

I clean them up in Feb.

Here's some pics to show my tubers sleeping. They sit like this from the middle of October until now - by the time I get them all cleaned up.
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green_thumb_guy,

We can't see the large pics. It's failing when I click on it.

Crap! Sorry about that. I selected clickable images.

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Had to post them large. Clickable worked once and then wouldn't do it again.

Hey, green thumb guy, Thanks so much for posting. Those pics are the very best I have seen for how to overwinter that finally makes me 'get it'. I've killed all mine every winter in the past. I think I'll try again this fall, using your setup as my template. Or, should I curse you for providing the pictoral impetus for me to shell out mucho dinero yet again this year, when I thought I had just convinced myself that I wouldn't!