Canna, also known as Indian cane, is a beautiful ornamental plant for the garden. Unfortunately, it is also very sensitive to frost and must therefore be overwintered indoors. However, even when cultivating in a pot or tub, it is not enough to simply bring the plant indoors - because the rhizomes are extremely susceptible to rot during the hibernation. In the following instructions we will show you how to overwinter the Canna.

Overwinter Canna

The Canna or the flower cane comes from South America and is therefore rarely confronted with temperatures below 10 °C. In Central Europe this is different from autumn at the latest. Frost also occurs during the winter.
If the canna is placed outdoors or in a pot or tub outdoors, it will suffer damage. If the temperatures fall below -10 °C, the plant even dies. So that the plant does not only give pleasure for one year, you should overwinter it accordingly and protect it from frost.

preparation

When temperatures drop, the aerial part of the canna withers. Leaves and shoots die off. This is not a cause for concern, but rather preparing the plant for winter. The energy from the upper parts of the plant is transferred to the rhizome, i.e. the root. This fills the reservoirs in the rhizome and provides the necessary energy for budding in spring.
The plant should therefore only be brought indoors and prepared when the leaves and stems have died. Preparation then includes removing the withered sections. Only five to ten centimeters of the aerial parts should be left on the plant.

Hibernating Canna: Instructions

A few steps are required to ensure that the flower cane survives the winter well. The guide below shows what these are:

  1. After removing the withered parts of the plant, the rhizome is carefully dug out or lifted out of the substrate.
  2. Thoroughly remove the soil from the rhizome with a brush or water.
  3. Soft or discolored areas on the rhizome are cut off. You should use scissors or a knife with sharp blades for this. It is also important that the blades are disinfected. Otherwise, germs or parasites could be transferred from the cutting tool to the root and cut surfaces.
  4. To prevent rot and mold, all cuts and wounds on the rhizome are sprinkled with charcoal ash and the root is left in a dry place to dry for a few hours or days. Laying on a grid or wire mesh is ideal, as the rhizome is ventilated from all sides and can dry well.
  5. After this preparation and drying, the rhizome is optionally wrapped in several layers of newspaper or placed on sand, sawdust or straw and lightly covered with it.
  6. The canna hibernates in a dry, dark room and at temperatures around 10 °C. If the temperature is significantly higher, premature budding can occur and the plant can literally consume itself because it lacks the nutrients. If the temperature in the winter quarters is significantly lower, the root can be damaged.

Extra tip: The agent quinosol can prevent the formation of rot and mold on the rhizome. For this, one gram of quinosol is added to one liter of lime-free water and the roots are sprayed with it. The drug is available in pharmacies.

Care during the winter

If the flower tube is overwintered as described, no care is required per se. However, you should check the rhizome regularly. It is ideal if the checks are carried out once a week. If rot or mold does develop, you can remove the affected areas at an early stage and prevent them from spreading.

Again, you should make sure that the cutting tool is clean and, if possible, disinfected when removing it. It also makes sense to sprinkle the cut surfaces with charcoal ash or to spray the entire rhizome with the quinosol solution described.

Preferring the canna

An advantage of overwintering indoors is that the canna can be brought forward and therefore flower faster. Our guide shows step by step what is required for this:

  1. Get the rhizomes of the flower cane from the winter quarters and check them again completely
  2. The roots are placed in a pot filled with four parts sand and one part leaf compost or potting soil. You should only just cover the rhizome with the substrate.
  3. The planters are placed in a warm and bright place.
  4. In the first few weeks until budding, watering is done very carefully and sparingly. Water that is low in lime, such as stagnant tap water, rainwater or pond water, is ideal. As soon as the first shoots appear, you can also increase the watering.
  5. In addition to watering, you should also fertilize the canna when the shoots have reached a height of about two inches.

notice: We recommend a place where there is at least 15 °C and the planter receives as much sunlight as possible. Even in areas with a very mild climate, the time of bringing it forward should not be before March. When the plant has reached a height of ten centimeters and night or late frosts are no longer to be expected, you can place them in nutrient-rich substrate and take them outdoors.

Overwinter outdoors

Canna can also overwinter outdoors in regions with a very mild winter climate, provided appropriate precautions are taken. The Lower Rhine and wine-growing regions, for example, are potentially suitable. Temperatures should not fall below -10 °C.

Only two steps are required for hibernation. First, you should remove dead parts of the plant. Because these pose a risk of rot and mold forming. On the other hand, you must cover the plant well so that penetrating frost cannot damage the rhizome.
A good cover is necessary, which should be at least 15 to 20 centimeters thick. Suitable materials are:

  • straw
  • Needle twigs or pine fronds
  • leaves

In order to achieve the necessary layer thickness and to provide separate protection, you can also apply garden fleece. However, it is important that this fleece is permeable to moisture, liquid and oxygen. Otherwise, the spread of mold and rot could be promoted.
If the temperatures drop below -10 °C, you should still move the rhizome indoors to avoid frost damage.

Category:

Garden plants