Kell, You have made a good effort to get your canna seeds to germinate and I would like to make a few points for consideration. Your germinations rate might be somewhat lower than you wish but germination rates can vary considerably often due to the seed parent variety; the fertilization process; growing environment; pathogens; etc. We attempt to control as many as possible. Keep in mind that many pathogens are air borne as well as soil borne. In other words, we typically do not grow in a sterile environment. The most critical criteria are adequate seed scarfing. Disease can often occur after germination due to excessive humidity or soggy soils; moderate air flow and abundant light will be beneficial. In your earlier thread you described scarfing your canna seed by shaking in a sandpaper lined jar and then notching with a knife. The sandpaper jar is one I have never heard of and though it might work for some kinds of seed I believe there are much simpler solutions for cannas. I do believe you certainly polished the seed well. Doing one seed at a time, hold it with your pliers and vigorously scratch it on a piece of course sandpaper until you see a small section of the white inner core of the seed. No need to knick, clip or whatever. The job is complete: move on to soaking your seed. All we are trying to do is allow water to penetrate the hard outer shell. A healthy seed will do the rest. By the way, the emergence of the root from the seed makes for completed germination as the canna plant will grow up toward the light from the root portion as it grows down. It was not stuck as you suggested. Do not detach the remaining seed from the seedling as it provides initial nutrients for your seedling. Once your seedling has established a decent number of feeder roots (7 to 10 days) you can gently transplant to individual containers. I would suggest you never use sterilized soil for growing as most fertilizers or nutrients need to be broken down by the soil bacteria to become readily available for the plant to utilize. Place in a good sunny location and keep the soil moist. Remember that mother nature works to eliminate the weak to ensure the survival of the fit; you should always be willing to accept this fact when dealing with plant seedlings. Some of your seedlings will likely not survive. Best, Kent

Not too late, not too hot. For best results, here are a few suggestions. Before taking the cannas out of their present location, dig the holes where they will go in the new location so you can minimize the time they will spend out of the ground. Dig the cannas out with a wide enough ball of soil around the rhizomes so as to damage the roots as little as possible. It may be hard to move them without some of that falling away, but it's still better than digging too close and cutting roots off or exposing them to the air. When filling in with the soil in the new hole, it works best if you use loose, dry soil around the roots or root ball and then water it thoroughly and wait for it to drain through before filling the hole further. This ensures that the soil fills air pockets and covers the roots well without hurting them. Filling the hole by packing in chunks of hard soil or clumps of wet clay is less effective and can cause damage. The middle of a hot, sunny day would not be the best time to do this. A cool, overcast day would be better, or late in the day, shortly before sunset. In any case, give the cannas plenty of water. At best, they will not be affected at all. At worst, they will be set back a little, but will recover quickly.

I am no expert so take this advice for what it is worth. Canna should be hardy in your zone. Transplantation does place stress on the plant. If you experience heavy frost and/or frozen soil keep the rhizomes in the pots under cover/indoors until danger of frost is past.

I can't tell what zone you are in, but if you get frozen ground, you don't want to plant your cannas in the Fall. They need to be stored for the winter in a cold, but not freezing environment (like a garage without heat) packed in peat moss or the like. Take them out in the Spring and plant them and enjoy!