Canna seeds absolutely need scarification. You just sand the seed until the colour goes from black to a shade of brown. Once you soak them they should only take a few days to root and subsequent growth is amazingly fast

Canadianplant - Thank you for responding.

I definitely scored them. First, I put them in a jar lined with sand paper & shook it like crazy. Then, I put them between pliers and made a good notch with a serrated knife from top to bottom. Soaked them for a couple days in wet paper towels before planting.

This is the third year I start Canna seeds and it is not going as smooth as the previous years...out of 24 seeds I've only got 5 plants and 1 of them died shortly after germination

...the previous years most seeds made it into healthy plants

I didn't do anything different so perhaps the seeds weren't healthy to begin with

Maria - Have you been finding any fungus? I've been finding some in mine, although I followed all the protocol to keep this from happening. Those have no growth at all.

My new dilemma is how to safely transplant the 63 survivors into larger containers.

Hi kelli08,

I didn't see any fungus on mine, not even the white mold that I have seen in the passed (which did not harm the seed)

Here you can see the procedure I follow, and 3 of last year seedlings in bloom
http://dragonscave.yuku.com/topic/1274/Growing-Canna-from-Seed#.U0uAZZGa8co
I use small pots (from when I bought annuals) and plant one single seed in each one....makes it easier to re pot the plants.

"63 survivors" WoW!!
I can talk cannas all day long, too bad this forum has gone so quiet

63 canna babies! Wow! I would never have the time but I'd love to see the variety that you get!

My recent experience with two seed sources showed a difference in germination, with and without the scarification. The first three(from a 'Lucifer' plant) I just soaked several days, then planted in seed starting mix. One seed sprouted in 40 days. The better result was with a seed from a white flowering canna; I used a serrated knife -- from garden tools area, not kitchen -- and ran the blade across the top, holding the seed with other hand fingers. Soaked the seed several days, then planted in a pot with two coleus plants. Three days later(yesterday), I noticed a sprouting! Was really surprised at the quicker results. Could be different seed sources or lines of breeding take different times to germinate, but I'd like to think that the knife scraping method speeded the process. The wonders of nature and research, eh?

I found that using the emory board nail files work well. Place the emory board on a firm surface (tabletop). Hold the seed firmly in your fingers and rub it back and forth until you see white. Then put in water, changing the water regularly. Eventually, they will sprout, and then you can put them in a soilless mix. I put mine in tiny individual peat pots, and then put like 4-5 peat pots in a regular pot with more mix, and put them in a zip bag. As you see growth/sprouts, begin to open the bag slowly over a couple of days/week (like african violet leaves) and then they can sit in the window sill.

my success rate seeing seeds sprout is about 60 percent (three out of five), but i plant the non-sprouted ones too, just in case. Usually another emerges.

On March 4, I was given a few dozen canna seeds (very common old fashioned variety) that a friend picked last year. I delicately scarified a dozen, going only so deep as to show a tiny bit of white, using a VERY fine-toothed hack saw blade, then put into pre-boiled (and cooled, of course) water in clean glass tubes, capped. Stood the tubes up in a few cups on top of a radiator and they ALL started to sprout rootlets in 2 or 3 days.

Then on March 8, I potted them up in moist sterile soilless mix in 6 oz solo cups, slashed for drainage on bottom. I might have broken off one rootlet when potting up, dunno. Back on the radiator for bottom heat. By March 12 there were 5 green sprouts; by March 13 eleven had sprouted. On March 22, I potted up to 16 oz solo cups, same soilless mix. The surviving eleven (92% success) are each about 8 inches tall with at least 4 leaves apiece. Not bad for a newbie at cannas.

I attribute this success to: (a) reading this forum like mad before starting out -- thank you all! (b) not scarifying too aggressively nor going too deep -- just enough to break the shell and let a teensy bit of white show, (c) using punctilious hygiene and pre-boiled water to eliminate chlorine from my municipal tapwater, and (d) bottom heat on the radiator.

Thank you, everyone! I ended up with about 25 healthy, but (for lack of a better description) 'premature' canna. They only grew to about 2', and didn't flower before the end-of-season, but their rhizomes were huge by fall. Then I came across yellow canna rhizomes that a park was throwing away. With what I've stored, I'm hoping it'll be a pretty summer.

Some varieties of cannas, e.g., South Pacific Scarlet, were developed to be used as seed grown annuals and, as such, have close to a 100% germination rate without scarification. See http://all-americaselections.org/winners/details.cfm?WinID=497 .

What would be different about "South Pacific Scarlet" canna seeds that they don't need scarification (the outer seed coat seems plenty tough to me)?

I used sharp-edged scissors to shave off a bit of the outer coat, placed the seeds in very warm water and soaked for 24 hours, then planted...germination after a week is close to 80%, about average for seed growing in my experience. I use clean pots and soilless mix.

If what you are doing is working, rejoice and be glad in it. It is a joy when it works, to be sure. Now the fun is watching them grow and bloom, and adding diversity to the collection.

"What would be different about "South Pacific Scarlet" canna seeds that they don't need scarification (the outer seed coat seems plenty tough to me)?"

I don't know. I was just trying to relay an empirical fact. Possibly the hull is made of a material that is more permeable to water. I have some planted for the first time right now and I will let you know how it turns out. But, I have grown a similar variety, 'Tropical', before and that is my memory, possibly faulty, of the experience. See http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1789967/canna-tropical-seed-available-from-park .

I planted 12 South Pacific Scarlet canna seeds without scarification or soaking on 3/30/15 and this is the result on 4/20/15:

hello...i hope you can help me! Im soaking my canna seeds for 3 days ..changing water to try and keep it warm...they are still like rocks. I tried using a knife, emory board and cheese grater to score them. NOTHING PENETRATES the shell on them!! What should i do? Does this normally happend??

Nancy, it is tough even with a file. I use a cheap electric nail grinder you can get cheap on Amazon. Hold with pliers and it files it down very easily.

I did a study for myself as to do we need to nick a seed or not. I was using an heirloom Red Lipstick that I grow in my yard and have for years. I collect the seeds to keep this canna in check. I had seeds anywhere from 5 years ago to fresh. My seed starter trays have 50 possible plants so I divided up the seeds, well mixed, into 2 groups. One set I nicked and soaked 24 hours the others just soaked for 24 hrs too. Into the trays we went. Germination was 48 NON nicked and 46 nicked. That was 3 years ago. I have finally located homes for all the plants.