It is too bad that you hadn't planted this canna in the ground because it does seem to be quite vigorous. However that aside there are several places to get this cultivar from. The companies that I am aware that sell this cultivar in the US are Karchesky Cannas, Old House Gardens, Deer Spring Daylillies, and Brent & Becky's Bulbs. I would suggest forgetting about the tissue culture for cannas as they multiply fairly readily and perhaps just try a small number rhizomes (keeping in mind that their numbers will at least double by the following year) to see if you really like the effect they create. Good luck and happy shopping!

Grant

I have 3 bags of it in the basement. I traded quite a bit out already.
It was very cheap-I purchased 6 seeds in April for $3.00 or so from Karchesky canna.

It won't break the bank:)
Karen

Thanks for the suggestions. How easy is a canna to grow from seed? How big do they get in one season? Thanks again

I know certain canna are faster than others but in my time trials from '03 and '04 seeds started in april in my warm house bloomed before full sized tubers planted outside in april or may. I know you are going 'what?' but it's happened both years so it can't be a fluke.

I don't know if you can start them outside where you live? I tried wintersowing several types here and it was a failure.

You will have bloomers either way seed or tuber- unless you don't give them full sun. If not given enough sun you can make a 6 ft canna be instead a dwarf that doesn't bloom.

Now here's something I wasn't wise to until last year. Certain canna (species canna) can be grown from seed and will look right. Other canna will either be sterile or produce a wild canna (ugly native) instead of the lovely cultivar its parent was.
I mentioned I did the banana canna from seed- 6 seeds = 4 normal canna and 2 rogues. One too green and one too dark.
Even so I ended up with all that extra from the normal ones and the others I just gave away as no- name -canna since it wouldn't be right to call it banana canna when it's a rogue.

Here's an easy way to know.
go to karcheskycanna.com
look at the seed list vs the tuber list
if they sell it as a seed then it's ok. If they sell it as tuber only that take that to mean- you can't grow it from seed and get what you want.

To grow from seed they recommend (and it's worked best for me) to knick seed until you see white stuff and then soak for a day and then plant. Some poeple will tell you to soak until sprouts appear but I find increased loss due to rot with prolonged soaking.

I think they are fun to grow in the window while I impateintly wait for spring! and by early june they go outside (frost free date here is mid may)
You can see some canna I grew from seed on my webshots
I think it's community.webshots/user/cheerpeople banana?,
intrigue+ red stripe are there. the others did not grow from seed.

If that web addy is incorrect just go to webshots.com click 'community' type 'cheerpeople' down at hte bottom where it asks member name

hope this helps!
Karen

let's see if it works this time

Here is a link that might be useful: banana canna started from seed in april

I just discover this beautiful Canna! I wanted to plant some Musa but i'm in Montréal and it's a headake for winter, so I think this plant will be a good choice for me. You gave name to get them, but I don't want the seeds, I want the bulb, How large those it grow, how close to each other should I plant them? Thank's

Billy, that's funny. That's the same reason I got it too- because you can't do real banana well here without a green house.
These are big by then end of the season. 1/3 size of rolling pin. 3-5 in a 3 ft diam circle will do fine.
Amend well with cow poop and don't put them too far from hte garden hose. Tell alice I SENT YAH, I owe her one she donated a canna to the library garden I installed.

Karen

I tried 12 canna musafolia seeds from Karcheskey canna and a couple other colored leaf cannas. The coloring of the leaves was very random, some were nice and some were plain. At the small stage they are at now it's hard to tell if the nice ones got the LARGE gene or not. That's what's so cool about hybrids. If you see a trait you want just cross breed, discard undisireables, cross breed, etc. Then before you know it you got a one of a kind monster that has pink pokka dots(just joking), there are hardly any limits to the possibilities.

I planted two banana cannas last spring in different parts of my yard. This year I had so many bulbs (rhizomes??) that they wee on top of each other 4" out of the soil and 12" square (all from one orig plant!). Does anybody know if these bulbs are seperable?

Go ahead and separate them! I try to chop them into 6 inch sections, although some people chop them smaller. Let the cut surfaces dry out for a few days before storing or planting. Some folks sprinkle a bit of fungicide on them. However, it sounds like you have more than enough to sustain a few mortalities!

Banana canna (canna musafolia) is a hybrid and will not come true from seeds. If you want the true hybrid you will have to get some rhizomes.

angelfairy- interestingly that very statement was just addressed on a canna yahoo group.
According to the the canna hybridizers there- that is not true. Hybrids can come true from seed. (IMHO that must be why they are commercially available;) Canna as a species tho are prone to rogues- so variation is to be expected frequently.
Karen

Karen, I do not recall the hybrid post (true from seed) you referenced above but typically, hybrid cannas never come true from seed. Hybrid cannas are heterozygous plants and if self-pollinated they tend to segregate. Specie cannas are considered homozygous plants and when selfed, they do breed true (pure breed). BUT there are a few hybrid canna varieties that have been carefully bred over several generations and they breed reasonably true if selfed. They are often referred to as Âseed strains or Âinbred linesÂ. Unfortunately the term Âbanana canna is often used to represent a rather loose group of cannas that likely found origin in the line breed strains of cannas grown for the starch production over many years. The cultivars sold in this group will only breed reasonably true if the grower maintains the pollination controls necessary and if it is indeed a member of that inbred line. Some cultivars in this particular group do not meet this requirement although they usually have dominant characteristics such as growing tall and producing small flowers. Another seed strain series of cannas were produced in the early 1990Âs by American Takii and sold a ÂTropical RoseÂ, ÂTropical Red and etc. Regards Kent.

Kent,
I'm in a couple different canna groups.
I agree with you and came back here to clarify my mistake on the previous post.
But I see you've done that! Thx.

I'm going to put it in simpler English tho as it's kind of a tough concept for me and no I'm not an expert so LMK if
you'd disagree with what I'm learning about this.

Canna tubers = clone of parent . Identical USUALLY that's where freaky varients can start like 'cleopatra' with two colors on the rhizome- break off one part and get only yellow, break off the other and get only red-or so I hear.

Canna seeds- some canna produce no viable seed USUALLY. Like one hybridizer says he got a viable tropicanna seed after his like 900th try. Good grief!
For every canna rule their seems to be no absolutes.

Canna seeds- some usually produce viable seeds.
Canna's sexual parts vary in placement- some are more lined up than others therefore some self pollinate and the seed would be as true as the tuber. Others are more likely to be open pollinated and if crossed can produce something unlike the either parent.

People in the canna business have to get up before the bees and do their hand pollinating at the crack of dawn as the pollen is released at night. So the truest seed come from folks who are really putting some effort into it and have minimal cross pollinating from wind-not likely your average gardenweber. (IMHO)

As I said before - out of 6 banana canna seeds 4 were normal and 2 were not. The seeds are from a hybridizer who get's up very early in the a.m. to pollinate them.

So angelfairy is right and I am right- it just depends on which seed you get! They are not ALL true from seed but then MOST- in my case- were.

If you want to talk about not true from seed let's talk gaillardia- that's the most freakaziod plant in my garden.

Karen

Karen
The forums are a great opportunity for all of us to learn, share and help others develop interest in or solutions to a specific group of plants. Unfortunately we are limited in time and space to thoroughly explore technical information and the general information given or received becomes tilted or misunderstood. Because this particular thread dealt with the so-called ÂBanana Canna it ultimately became a discussion of the possibility of growing a ÂBanana Canna from seed. It is my understanding that this term can actually refer to any of several tall growing canna cultivars that gives a particular landscape effect. I am not aware of any of these ÂBanana Canna Cultivars being classified as a specie canna. If one is purchasing seed of these cultivars one will get a plant that may or may not greatly resemble the seed parent even if self-pollinated. They will not have a true clone of the parent. There are at least two cultivars in the group that I have both grown and done some limited hybridizing work with. The important issue is I also know the individual who hybridized these cultivars and introduced both several years ago. I therefore have some source-history of the cultivar. The cultivars ÂGrande and ÂIntrigue are Âhybrid cultivars that came from breeding work by Herb Kelly at KellyÂs Plant World and might represent the typical physical forms of the ÂBanana Canna term. Hybrid cannas do not breed true, and it does not matter how careful the hybridizer is in preventing cross-pollination. You still will only be starting or continuing down the road to producing a "line breed" of cannas that will ultimately produce a Âseed strain capable of producing Ânear identical offspring.
The above statement is not meant to detract from ÂBanana CannasÂ. Only to illustrate that when discussing cannas it is necessary to first achieve a line-breed of cannas before the selfed parent will produce a reasonably pure offspring sometimes labeled a seed-strain. Some of the ÂBanana Canna cultivars may have achieved this status but some are not yet at this stage where they have basically homozygous traits as opposed to still retaining some heterozygous traits. . If you choose to grow a clone of the parent, you had best buy a rhizome. If you choose to try seed, the care of the seed producer is of great importance and buyer must use particular care to only call it "SEEDLING OF" (seed-parent name) unless you are absolutely sure it is a product of a true Âseed lineÂ. Regards, Kent

That is interesting. I'm still confused with why a self pollination is not pure but not expecting you to explain further. You have clearly spent a lot of time on your response. Thank you Kent

Angelfairy, I stand corrected. Banana canna aren't true from seed.

To the person who started this thread- hope you can cough up cash for 100 rhizomes if you want it TRUE. ((Let's see at $10 ea- that's only 1000$ Mere pocket change.))

If you are budget minded....there not-true seeds of banana canna that produce canna that look the same 66 percent of the time --in my case and IMHO. Hope that info helps- either way I'm outta here.

outta here
Karen-

Canna 'Musifolia' is extremely vigorous and if you give it enough sun, water and fertilizer you can easily get enough rhizomes for 20 or 30 new plants next year from a single rhizome planted this year.

I agree that Canna cultivars should NOT be grown from seed; they should only be propagated from rhizomes or tissue culture, which will produce genetically identical clones of the parent plant. Most (all?) canna cultivars are hybrids involving two or more species and as such will not come true from seed (except in the case of certain kinds of polyploids, and I don't know if this applies to any cannas).

It's unfortunate that many people don't understand this and are distributing seeds with cultivar names--not just cannas, but all different kinds of plants. Even if the seedlings resemble the parent, they may differ in less tangible characteristics like vigor, disease resistance, floriferousness, etc.

I wish I hadn't planted this canna, it is very vigorous & grows as fast as if not faster than the orange. And it's growing in the shade. Even our freak snow didn't slow it down, been blooming all winter & multiplying like crazy. I'll have to dig it up soon or it will take over the front yard.

Mine has been very prolific.Always extras to share.

Hi Kent (o:
I was asked to check out this thread ..and so I am.
Good to see you here (o:
I much appreciate your efforts to put seed sowing straight. Correct information is needed.
For those who don't know, Kent has produced many fine cannas. Many of the lovely hybrids we grow in our gardens and talk names easily are his.
I learned much about canna growing from Kent (o:

If I may humbly add ..
In my personal experiences with seed sowing .. most of the species cannas will grow true from seed. There will be some rogues, but most will grow true.
The line bred cannas will grow a good percentage "like" the parent (as Karen's did) ..but are not the parent and should not be called same. They are seedlings of the parent. Though they may look like the parent, they are not genetically the same.
Except for the species cannas ..when a choice is asked, I always recommend rhizomes over seeds. Rhizomes are the only true clones of the parent.
Clones increase easily enough. Plant one canna this year ..and shortly you will have many!
kbmholly ..plant a half dozen musafolia now, and thru summer you can have your 100 cannas! All clones of the parent. All same canna.

To me seeds are not to grow a hundred cannas like asked above. They are to experience the fun of growing a big canna from a little bitty seed. They are for sending economically and easily to far away places where cannas do not normally grow .. so those who have seen cannas only in pictures can experience growing a canna over the legalities and costs that rhizomes often entail to receive.
They are for growing specie cannas that might other wise be lost. Or to just experience for your own pleasure.
The hybrid seeds especially should be grown only by those who want to experiement what they will get only for themselves ..not calling those seedlings the name of the parent. And by those who have a discerning enough eye to select really good cannas to propagate further and name.
Alice