Pam,
"When", I dig them or am planting new ones.
I just put all of mine into some buckets with some slightly damp soil. not wet or anything like that. just a very little bit of water. I let them sit in the garage until may before I put them into the ground. I move them out onto the carport when it is sunny an warm but bring back in at night until it will be at least 40 out.
It helps give them a little bit of a head start. But if you don't want to do that I would wait until the soil is quite warm. Also when you put them in, keep them raised up, like in a mound. So the water drains very well. Then when it starts to be very warm say end of May first of June. I put more soil/compost around them and mulch to hold in some of the moisture. Just don't do it before then or they will rot.
Any way that is what I do but everyone is different.
Bonnie

Hi Bonnie. Sounds like excellent advise. I like the idea of giving them a chance to "warm up" a bit in the garage before they will go to the ground. I'll get them out of the basement this weekend and put them in some buckets.

Thanks!
Pam

Pam - I leave my cannas in the ground here but I've lost a few. I used to dig mine and had the best blooms when I started them early by putting them in moist peat and putting them in a south window to sprout, then transplanting them. They flowered earlier that way. It was several years ago. I hope I'm remembering right. The canna forum would have lots of info. I quit digging mine because I had trouble storing them. I had some that molded and some that got too dry.

It always seems to take forever for elephant ears to emerge after I plant them. I haven't tried giving those a head start like Bonnie but it sounds like a good idea.

The reason I like to give mine a head start is b/c they won't grow until the soil warms up. This way with a slight jump in starting in the garage they get to start getting accumulated to soil again.
I suppose you could always cover the soil w/something to warm it up to speed up development. ?
right now I have my cannas, EE's & dahlias in the garage sitting in soil. Waiting for the flower beds to warm up.
I only dug up my EE's last fall b/c they needed to be divided. That is most definitely not a every year job for me.
Bonnie

I leave my cannas in the ground. I dig deeper, plant them deeper than normal, and mulch with about three inches of shredded leaves or a large pile of whole leaves. They've been re-emerging out of the ground for a week and a half now. No cold damage.