okay... I researched this... It looks like the best way to preserve it IS by drying... if it's completely dried, keep it in an airtight storage container. No tincturing or anything else required. Sprouting, soaking and genuine sourdough leavening "pre-digests" grains, allowing the nutrients to be more easily assimilated and metabolized. This is an age-old approach practiced in most traditional cultures. Sprouting begins germination, which increases the enzymatic activity in foods and inactivates substances called enzyme inhibitors.1 These enzyme inhibitors prevent the activation of the enzymes present in the food and, therefore, may hinder optimal digestion and absorption. Soaking neutralizes phytic acid, a component of plant fiber found in the bran and hulls of grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds that reduces mineral absorption.32 All of these benefits may explain why sprouted foods are less likely to produce allergic reactions in those who are sensitive.1 Sprouting also causes a beneficial modification of various nutritional elements. According to research undertaken at the University of Minnesota, sprouting increases the total nutrient density of a food. For example, sprouted whole wheat was found to have 28 percent more thiamine (B1), 315 percent more riboflavin (B2), 66 percent more niacin (B3), 65 percent more pantothenic acid (B5), 111 percent more biotin, 278 percent more folic acid, and 300 percent more vitamin C than non-sprouted whole wheat. This phenomenon is not restricted to wheat. All grains undergo this type of quantitative and qualitative transformation. These studies also confirmed a significant increase in enzymes, which means the nutrients are easier to digest and absorb.33

You can probably get 2 good divisions by chopping the whole thing in half, but if you only have 12 culms on it, it would probably be much better if you let it put on some more culms before you mess with it because I've had a neighbor that did the same thing to a rufa that is similar to that in size. The result is although both divisions survived, the divisions were however set back quite a bit in culm proliferation and size so after 1 year, they are both under 1ft tall, the same height as the original before it got divided. I believe that without division, it would have probably been over 2ft and much more established enough to take many more divisions. If your rufa is similar to mine, it should be able to shoot all season long and a 12 culm plant could possible end up being over 100 culms along with increased size if potted up in very good soil and pampered.

Cannas have become one of my favorite plants, due in large part because they can be tinkered with so easily. Their rhizomes spread like a carpet under the soil surface and throw up new shoots often. I personally, like to have them grow thickly and endeavor to encourage clustering, dividing only to spread them around. Your photo of your Canna looks great as is, but I know you'll want to spread them around. To spread them, I just dig in with a shovel and break away pieces, preferably with shoots and transplant. I've only had one case where the new transplant suffered any ill effects, the shoots all falling over, wilted. But within two weeks, it perked back up. This is my first year playing with Canna and I can't wait to harvest the seeds so I can trade for other 'WILD' varieties. I have Canna Flacida ( See Bloom'n Canna thread ). I have obtained seeds for a red flowered Canna x Generalis and have 6 healty and 1 not so healthy sapplings which I'll unpot and put out in Spring, 2008, after they overwinter indoors. Why not put them out now? The hired help sometimes doesn't hold back on the weed wacker when it comes to small sapplings! I had to rescue a whole cluster of White Bird of Paradise Sapplings that started comming up out of nowhere, just 20 feet away from the main plant which must have shed the seeds. While checking on their progress, one Monday, I found they had been brutally wacked off. I dug up the spot and planted the whole chuck of earth in a pot and hail this ... The Moral to the story ... "Learn to know thy Hired Help and their rash habits." Bird of Paradise is another very hardy plant and they and Canna are related. But back to Canna. If ever there was a plant that I felt I could start playing with concepts of cross pollinating, this is the one. Canna are extremely hardy. I only wish they kept their blooms for a longer duration - 2 to 3 weeks and the blooms fall away. That's another reason to allow clustering ... the blooms may fall away on one, while other blooms start up on yet others in the cluster. Solitary Canna go back to being just leaves with seed pods far too quickly.

Those are individual plants. Palm growers plant several seedlings in a pot to get a clump like that. I can only tell you how I've seen it done at nurseries I've worked at. The pot will be pretty rootbound. If there is a mass of roots around the sides and you can't "tease" the plants apart, just slice about 1/4 inch off the sides and about 1/2 inch off the bottom to free up the root ball. Then bang the root ball on the ground hard until the root ball loosens up. Then try to tease the plants apart. You can use a turning fork or pitchfork to work in between the plants and separate them. You're going to damage some roots, but that's o.k. Once you get them separated (this may take awhile, so be patient), cut off all but the top three fronds, in other words, "rooster tail" each plant. Prune the bottom half off of the largest bottom frond. Put them into individual pots or where you want them to be, and water well. If you just want to make two separate clumps, slice the ball in two, tease the bottom roots out and plant each clump individually.