Around local nurseries I have only found the plain green variety. They grow well, but I don't overwinter them because they are just too plain and too readily available. ALso, I have had trouble overwintering dahlia's so I may have just (unjustly?) probably lumped these into the same category as "easier to treat as annuals". But just yesterday I got my Brent&Beckys summer bulb catalog and I think I am going to get a couple of interesting varieties for a change. illustris looks great. Prices were good. (haven't looked at shipping costs yet, but bulbs and tubers should be better than potted plants) THen the Canna pictures caught my eye, then the dahlias... HELP!!!

;-) ok. shoot me an email with your address. and let me know when its safe to ship. I think Kylie is too busy over on the world of brugmansia website to pay attention to us here ;-)

Yes they are slow growers and they need to be started in February or March. That is part of the problem here in Canada, IF you can find a place to order them from they won't ship them until the weather warms up. By then, you only have a few small leaves and it's frost again. So this is a two year endevour, and yes, save the tuber to start early enough the next year. I have read good things about Flora Exotica in Quebec, if he has Alocasia come spring I will give him a try. Thank you for the responses, i appreciate them.

Nice sandy, is Muncie in southern Indiana? Are you sure you're not zone 6? I always hear about mulching even in zone 6 Pa here, or they will not come back. I guess you know your zone. I think I'll add some sand to my raised bed soil, just a bit. I'll be trying Cannas in the same bed, I just bought a bag with 3 roots in it, and the foliage is starting to come up. You know those bags of dried up plant roots/corms you can get at Wal-mart or anywhere in early spring, well, I just grabbed up a bag today, and as said the plants are starting to grow in the dark bag of dried (likely) peat, so I know their good. I will be putting soil in my raised bed tomorrow if the weather permits, you know, no rain. The temps here are warm as hell, 86 today, what happened to spring, it feels like summer. I have the bed, but need to put it together, then put the soil in it. I will put more sandy soil in 1 half of it, (it's got a divider in the middle) for my Cannas and a Eucomis or Pineapple lilly. They like drier soil. I have 3 Yuccas in a biggish pot. They are Yucca Gloriosa Varagieta, yucca Rostrata and yucca Recurvifolia. I'll just put the pot on the soil in the bed, they will need more sun than the site will have in the future. With the plants Musa included wanting dry soil, I should make a cover for the bed for winter. And put it on only after everything has dried out a bit in fall, just to keep rain out of the bed. Not to enclose it all on the sides too, that would encourage rot, just to keep rain out. Later.