Hi Mark,

I'm new to the forum too, and was also hoping to get some info on the cannas as well. I'm sure someone will respond soon. My wife was hoping for some in the spring as well.

Good Luck !
Brian

I have an info page about canna. Please remember that I live in Canada (our zones are different to the USA). I have tried growing canna from seed, it does work but is a bit slower process. I find it easier to grow from the root. Hope that some of my info helps you.

Here is a link that might be useful: craftygardener.ca - canna info

I just grew some canna from seeds. They are the easiest seeds I've ever tried. I purchased seeds from ebay. I used a fingernail file to scar seed a little then soaked overnight in warm water. I potted them in their individual peat pots and in 3 days all 5 seeds germinated and are about 6 inches tall. This was about 2 weeks ago. I live in the Louisiana Gulf Coast Region. Too easy!

Hello Mark and Brian

give me please your mail addresses !
I will send you some canna seeds !
Marek from Poland

Here is a link that might be useful: Canna Gallery

I will do Conestoga canna seeds for postage.

Peggy

Cannas can definitely be raised from seed, flowering in their first season. If trying this for the first time, I'd experiment with some of the dwarf varieties available in the seed catalogues.

I only tried this for the first time this year, and wound up with 7-foot flowering Canna altensteinii (if anyone is interested in seed and has unusual Canna or other tropical plant seed to trade, e-mail me).

i am currently trying to start canna seeds. The first batch i planted germinated but then rotted before popping up. I then just planted one seed, kind of as a winter expiriment, and i have it over bottom heat. It has germinated, so hopefully this one wont rot if i keep the bottom heat and dont keep the soil so wet. fingers crossed! :)

Planting canna seeds produces different cannas from the original seed bearing plant. Only planting a rhizome from a plant guarantees a duplicate canna.

Not true! Most of the varieties we grow are hybrids and will not grow true from seed. There are however many varieties that you can grow from seed. You can find them if you dig around this link.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.karcheskycanna.com/alphabetical.htm

I hope I can jump in here and ask a question about growing cannas from seed.
Three days ago, in order to satisfy my urge to grow something, I decided that I would plant three seeds that I had collected from a neighbour's canna (my cannas hadn't flowered last year). I nicked them and soaked them and then planted them in the same pot. This morning I have six sprouts. The one sprout has signs that little leaves are forming, but the other "sprouts" are just bare shoots.
My question is: are these shoots actually roots that seem to be going in the wrong direction? I didn't plant the seeds very deep.
Any help is greatly appreciated!

I stand corrected! I also grow hybrids and have recently duplicated from seed. Several times I have planted seeds from giant red Ambassador canna and always get: Miss Oklahoma, Ellen Gallow, and a muted, pale yellow with faint orange spots.

They are extremely easy. I have germinated them in water, in wet paper towels and i currently have many seedling poping up all over my flower beds all by themselves which grew from canna seeds i never collected. You will never get the same canna from seed as the parent canna, but thats the fun part, you will always get some variation. Here are a couple of cannas i grew from seed this past year, these are all first year bloomers.

This one has a yellow flower with LOTS of red spots. Some of the flowers on the shorter plants to the left actually look completely red while others look yellow or orange. No two flowers are alike even on the same plant.
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This is the pink/red one. notice it has an orange-ish throat.
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To the right of the brugmansia, there are peach, red/pink, and an orange canna. Notice some cannas have green leaves, others have darker leaves and there is even one with a red vein down the center of the leaf) These were all grown from the same batch of seeds.
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I've grown some of mine out the last 2 years(where b4 I had always traded them)most do seem to be like parent,BUT I do get other varieations.some which are shown in my member/trade page. I grow mine in a large container which has potting soil & keep it in a sunny spot on the deck.

I also have canna seeds.From orange species type.

Hi all! If anyone has any canna seeds they would like to pass on please let me know. I only have canna compacta, Robert Kemp and I am looking to expand my canna collection :)I will send you a SASE and a big THANK YOU! My email is janine.poggioli@sanofi-aventis.com

Thanks!
Janine