The Great Canna Lily Experiment

 In which I attempt the "simple" (that was extremely difficult), give up, and inadvertently succeed.

It all began something like this:

The barn where Camaro lives, and I work 5 mornings a week, has some canna lilies replanted annually in a small flower bed near the front door of the barn.  In the Fall, those canna lilies drop little black seeds, almost the size of small marbles, on the ground.  Some end up in the barn aisle, where I typically sweep them up and toss them in a manure bucket to go out with the rest of the organic matter from the barn.

One day, in 2021, I was sweeping those seeds along with the hay chaff, sawdust, and other detritus that accumulates in a barn aisle daily, and I wondered if I might be able to take some of those seeds home and grow my own canna lilies for this little place here. So I stuck about a dozen and a half of those little black balls into my pocket and took them home with the intent to read up on canna lily propagation over the winter, and start them indoors when I sowed my tomato and pepper seeds for the 2022 season.

I did read up, and found that apparently propagating cannas from seed is 'possible'. Some sites even said it was "simple".  They had to be scarified though, which I haven't had a lot of success at with other seeds requiring this treatment.

 Not letting that stop me, I planted them anyway, one seed per little pot filled with seed starting soil.  I slid the tray of pots into a giant ziploc baggie (I have several of these really big baggies and use them year after year to make pseudo greenhouses when starting seed trays).  And then I watched and waited.

Supposedly it can take up to two weeks for canna lily seeds to germinate after you scratch them, soak them in water for a day or two and then plant them.  Well, I must not have scratched those seeds deeply enough--it wasn't easy to grip them.  Because after I scratched, soaked, and planted, I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  

After literally a month with no signs of a sprout, I removed their tray from the baggie, and set it out in the garage with the other trays (which were now empty because I'd transplanted their 3-4" seedlings into slightly larger pots).  

I left it there for a good month--OK, I forgot about it--until I went to clean the other trays and return them to the garden shed until mid-winter when I'll start my 2023 tomatoes and peppers.  It was while moving the trays that I noticed a few pale green sprouts coming out of the canna lily pots.  The tray I'd abandoned, left for dead, written off as a failed experiment. There was actually something (finally) growing in there!

So I put the tray outside, where it would get more sunlight.

And proceeded, in the busyness of Spring, to again forget about it.  I didn't water it, I didn't check to see if the nighttime temperatures were warm enough, I didn't do nothing with it.

Those canna sprouts grew anyway.  Not only did the few I'd first noticed in the garage grow, but almost every one of the seeds I'd originally planted, sent up a shoot.

With a little more neglect, they continued to grow.  No thanks to me, all kudos to Mother Nature.

Eventually, in mid June after the rest of the garden was planted, I transplanted my little canna plants into a row in the garden.  I did take care of them there, keeping them watered and weeded, at least I did until tomatoes started coming on hot and heavy in August and I got busy canning.  

But you know what?  Those dang canna lilies kept living. Not only did they live, despite the weeds that grew up around them, but they actually flowered in September!

A few of the plants did die over the course of the summer.  And a few grew but didn't flower.

In late October, I dug up the plants, cut off the stalks, let the bulbs dry, and stuck them in the basement for storage over the winter.  When Spring comes, I'll separate the bulbs--some plants had produced as many as 5 or 6 bulbs!--and plant them outside after the soil is warm and the danger of frost is over.

It was an interesting experiment and I'm glad I had the idea to bring home seeds and see if they would grow.  Because now I have probably about two dozen canna bulbs that cost me nothing but a few cents in seed starter soil.  And, unless I manage to kill them off, these bulbs will grow into plants and produce even more bulbs for years to come.

I can't wait to see how well they will grow (and flower) when I actually take proper care of them!