My cannas shriveled up sitting in plastic bags sitting in a proper root cellar over the winter. I grabbed them all filled up the laundry tub with semi warm cold water and threw them in the tub for a week to saok( I think this is good especially for the water loving cannas). After that I pulled them out and threw them on a piece of cardboard on the basement floor - They are still sitting there waiting for me to pot them up. After the soak the tubers came to life again showing nice healthy white eyes - I do recommend this to anyone thinking their Canna may have bit the dust. I will probably pot them up in the coming week as we are having a bit of a cold spell this week and have no place to put them. Next year I will try to find large paper bags - I think plastic bags hold to much moisture with the possibility of rotting the tuber especially with the dampness of the cellar. I may try the bark mulch idea. Cheers Jeff

With the information provided there are several possibilities. Last years decreased vigor might be due to a change in the soil ph. Pine needles are great for the acid loving plants but over time will likely lower the soil ph that would result in poor growing conditions for cannas. Have you thinned to canna bed over the past couple of years? If not, the cannas likely became too thick for the available resources. Did your rhizomes freeze or was the winter ground saturated with water? Any of a number of things could contribute to the total loss of the rhizomes. Kent

Oh, you lucky you, Pat! Thanks for sharing the beautiful canna. This is also my first year experience with canna. I put in 5 cannas end of July. I tried to take good care of them. They were in full sun almost the whole day. They grew big but only one managed to bloom. There was another which grew a stalk with buds. I hung on to them for as long as I could, hoping this second one will bloom, but they finally got hit by frost yesterday and I had to dig them all up. I've now got huge rhizomes in two boxes inside my garage drying. How nice it is to have your canna blooming in November! But of course, you are in warmer Chicago and I am in Toronto, plus we didn't have a proper summer this year. Thanks for the beautiful picture again!

Mid March to early April. Outdoors after chance of last frost. They like warm temps and warm soil. Do you plant in garden or in pots?