The best method I've found so far is to go to the bench grinder and just hold them between your fingers and buzz against the stone for a second. It gets through the shell in a flash and you don't have to file your finger tips off with a file. I get through about 100-150 in ten minutes that way. Then I soak them in water for a day or three and stick them in starting soil. I'm getting about 90-95% starts. If you use the peat pellet starters the roots will stick out the bottom within days of germination and you'll be potting them up within the second week. I'm currently starting about 3,000 seeds and expect flowers just before frost, or more likely next season.

If you soak your canna seeds for 48 hrs. in a solution of half apple-cider vinegar, and half very hot water for 48 hrs., you will find that it is extremely easy to nick your canna seeds. What happens is that the natural acidic reaction of the vinegar wears off the hard outer coating so that if you just firmly rub the canna seed against any hard rough surface, like a brick, it can easily be removed. Also, it weakens the hard outer coating of the canna seed, making it easier for the embryo within to emerge. This is further discussed in a new group of people who are interested in learning how to hybridize new types of cannas from seeds. I can't post the link, but it's a new yaho group called Cannahybridizers. If you do a search, you can find it and join. There are lots of generous canna growers in the group who frequently give away seeds for the asking or for SASE.

I'm a newbie to gardening and this forum has been so helpful! Especially the canna info as I have been collecting canna seeds over the past few weeks. I visit with clients daily about gardening stuff and I cant wait to send them here for info!!! Thanks people!

Canna seeds are tough. For best germination, they should be nicked. To nick them, you can use a file, a grinder, or even a drill to drill into the seed a little. You just want to break the hard surface of the seed just enough to see a little bit of the creamy white interior of the seed. After nicking, soak the seed in water for a day or two. You should see the seeds swell as they soak up the water. Then plant in moist soil. Keep the soil moist and warm and your seeds will sprout. If started early, like during winter in a greenhouse, cannas grown from seeds can bloom the first year. However, the seeds from the hybrid cannas do not produce plants like the parent plant. They usually revert back to the small flowered type with traits of both the wild canna and the parent. Once in a great while, you may get lucky and a viable canna will grow from one of those seeds, but it doesnt happen often.