Masbustelo, if I plant peas too early here they just rot. Our soil tends to be both cold and waterlogged for weeks in early spring. I guess it's drier where you are stuffradio; WCS's mid-Feb recommendation usually doesn't work for me, and as for "as soon as the ground can be worked" .... baloney! Maybe in Victoria or the lower mainland but apparently local conditions trump all. I have been pre-sprouting successfully for a couple of years (have to plant them gently!) but I don't know for sure that I'm getting any benefit; maybe those years they'd have sprouted in the ground anyway. I suppose I could run some side-by-side week-by-week tests but a) I'm too lazy/disorganised and b) we eat too many fresh peas so there's no big surplus of seed left to play with. Thanks both for your input.

You probably could benefit from checking a hardiness zone map. Clink the link below and check out all the links on this site. Jan Here is a link that might be useful: hardiness zone map

According to the Takii PDF file the Canna Cannova Seed strain has taken over 10 years for development to meet the cooler and shorter growing climate of northern Europe. These cannas should fit well within large areas in the United States. Producing F1 hybrids such as this is expensive and time consuming undertakings. They more importantly offer the consumer virus free cultivars that are difficult to find available from most sources. One’s other option would to be purchasing tissue cultured and virus indexed plugs which are also more expensive and definitely not widely available. Therefore, depending on the source, the price may not be out of line for the product in my opinion. Here in the states, I did find a listing for some of the Cannove series available from Ball Seed Co. Given the time of the year and the fact that this is a new product, the availability may be limited or gone. Takii introduced the Tropical Series of canna several years ago and seed became readily available. Kent

If the grasses are hardy for your zone, it makes no difference to cut them while the soil is frozen or to wait until it thaws. It is the activity of the grass and when it starts to grow that will determine the timing. And cutting back or not cutting back has no impact on whether the grass will increase in size (spread). Grasses growing wild have no one to cut them back and they will develop properly. Cutting back just improves the appearance in the garden and reduces self seeding on those so inclined. The Calamagrostis (Karl Foerster, Avalanche) are cool season grasses and will start growing soon so cutting back now before they are in active growth is advised. The flame grass is a warm season grass and won't start growing until temperatures warm up in mid to late spring so you can wait longer for those if you like.