Other Years

2022
April 1: I bought 8 Angel Martin bulbs from Costco, $16, and set them soaking in water.
15: I transferred them to a mixture of vermiculite and their packing medium, shoots pointing up. Six of the eight have small shoots.
May 7: Four plants now have shoots above the vermiculite.
~June 1: Ben planted them in the raised bed.
18: Alive but still short.
August 20: Still somewhat short and not flowering yet.
 
2021
~May 5: I watered the bulbs from the basement.
~ 25: No sign of growth so I discarded them.
 
2020
March 21: I found 2 plants in the basement that were saved from last year, and took 4 bulbs from them and started them in styrofoam cups in soil.
~April 16: I removed 2 from their pots and saw one thin new root in each.
23: First sprout.
May 26: The first sprout continues to grow. A second one died. I bought 3 bulbs of Angel Martin from Walmart and a bag of dwarf mixed colours from Costco.
June 18: They have come through today, after rain yesterday.
 
2016
April 25: I bought some Picasso bulbs and put them into soil under the lights. Two of them have long thin shoots, and don't show any growth.
December 31: They did nothing.
 
2014
April 5: I started my bulbs. There is one tub of small tubers with dark leaves in perlite, one pot of Red King Humbert, and one pot of 2 Australis and 1 green-leaved variety.
June 3: I set out my sprouts. The 3 reasonably large ones look like 1 Australis, 1 Phasion, 1 Red King Humbert, and there are 3 small plants also.
June 19: Coming along.
 
2013
May 3: I added water to the stored tubers. They are stored in open plastic bags with all their soil around them.
26: I planted them all. They was almost no new growth and one of the Red King Humberts had rotted. I don't think there is any value to storing them with so much soil, and the plastic bags are probably a bad idea too.
June 22: I see only one small shoot.
September 23: They all grew eventually, but not very tall.
 
2012
February 15: I kept the Phasion going inside. It had only 2 pale leaves a month ago, but I started putting it in full afternoon sun sometimes and now those leaves are a good colour.
March 31: I started all my tubers, in vermiculite. They seem to be in good shape. The green-leaved bulbs had shoots, and the Australis had many maroon shoots.
September: The Australis, Red King Humbert, and Phasions did very well. I watered them daily. The green-leaved plant mysteriously died!
 
2011
March 20: I watered 2 Phasions, that were in pots, and brought them up.
June 1: The Phasions did not start. In recent days I bought an Australis, a Red King Humbert, and another Phasion. A while ago I put my green leaved tubers in vermiculite and started them. Now they are well up. They have suffered a bit of bleaching from being put into the sun too quickly but they seem to be doing OK now.
June 5: I planted the Phasion, Australis, Red King Humbert, and one green-leaved plant near the pond.
September 27: They did well. Yesterday I lifted them and today put plastic bags around the bulbs and put them, stems and all, against a basement wall.
 
2010
March 31: I put the tubers into containers with vermiculite, mostly, around them, and started them.
May 30: I set out 5 green leaved plants and one that I think is a Phasion.
 
2009
April 9: I cleaned my canna bulbs and started them in peat moss and vermiculite. I'm not sure the Phasion tubers will come back, but the tubers from the green-leaved red-flowered variety look fine, and those from the Red King Humberts look ok. Memo to self: the Red King Humberts are in the square pots.
May 24: There is one Red King Humbert sprout, which looks like a Phasion, and there are many green-leaved red-flowered shoots.
June 6: I set out 2 green-leaved red-flowered plants.
July 4: They are all out and coming along.
August 3: Doing fine. There don’t seem to be any Red King Humberts, but the Phasions are fine though short, and one green-leaved plant is flowering. Gardeneer friend Jens has started leaving his cannas in pots above ground for the extra warmth. Perhaps I should try that.
 

Red King Humbert, 2008

2008
March 22: I bought 6 bulbs of Red King Humbert at Schreimer's today, $7.99. They looked very good in the English Garden at Assiniboine Park last year.
April 3: I started my bulbs, in peat and vermiculite. There is a small pot that contains 3 small Phasion bulbs, a tub that contains 1 large Black Tropicanna clump, a tub that contains 5 red-flowered tubers, and a large tub that holds one large red-flowered clump.
24: The Red King Humberts and the red-flowered tubers are doing well. I think the Phasions are coming along, but slower.
May 13: I planted the large clump of red-flowered tubers into a pot at Gio's downtown. It is early in the season, and I am partly trusting in downtown's being warmer than elsewhere to protect them from frosts.
18: I set 3 red-flowered plants outside the fence.
22: I finished setting my plants out. There is a Phasion, a Tropicanna Black, 2 Red King Humberts, and a red-flowered plant in the garden, plus 3 Red King Humberts along the fence.
October 25: I brought in my tubers, except for the Black Tropicanna which I will leave to freeze. The green-flowered plants did well enough and produced many large tubers. The Red King Humberts did not grow much, especially outside the fence. The Phasion was pretty, but never grew very tall.
 
2007
April 10: I have started my bulbs in buckets in the basement. There is 1 bucket of Phasions, 2 buckets of the red-flowered variety, and one bucket of what I believe is also Phasions. I also started one bulb of Black Tropicanna that I bought at T&T Seeds 2 days ago.
May 1: Some of the regular red-flowered plants have one leaf but the Phasions have, at most, a small shoot. The Black Tropicanna has a leaf and a second shoot.
May 27: Ben set out all the plants. I put Phasions and regulars along the fence. 3 Phasions went inyo the garden as well as the Black Tropicanna. I put 8 Phasions into the front planters at Gio's club yesterday.
 
2006
April 16: I divided my bulbs from the basement and started the divisions in vermiculite. I put 8 red-flowered divisions in a bucket for myself and about 7 in tubs for the garage sale. I put 5 Phasion divisions in a bucket for myself, with vermiculite and perlite. I still have 2 Phasion plants growing in the house. One is doing ok, the other has become floppy with only 2 live stems.
30: Most of the red-flowered divisions have produced new stems.
May : I donated the bulbs to the garage sale. They were generally a good size, showing one new leaf.
22: I set out 10 red-flowered plants.
May 24: I set out my Phasions. There were 2 in pots and 5 root divisions, all showing slight new growth.
August 1: The Phasions are doing nicely. They are short but have many colourful leaves. The red-flowered plants are medium height with relatively few leaves. July was very dry. I am hoping that the irrigation system makes a difference, especially for the Phasions.
 

Phasion Canna, 2005

2005
April 23:  I inspected my cannas today. I now have 3 Phasions in pots. They languished all winter but once spring began they started to sprout healthy new growth. Now they have several stalks each. As for the others, they survived the winter well, wrapped in newspaper, and mostly have green sprouts. I split 2 clumps up and put 8 splits in vermiculite to start.
May 7:  I donated the extra clumps to the garage sale, and I believe they sold.
24:  I planted 8 outside the fence.
25:  I sprayed the Phasions with Safer's Soap. They have small black bugs that have done a lot of damage.
31:  I drenched their soil with Cygon, 1 tsp per litre. The soap seems to have killed many of the bugs, but I think there are more small ones. The Cygon will take care of them.
June 1:  I set the Phasions out.
June 2:  Sprouts.
July 11:  All doing fine. The Phasions began to develop new leaves as soon as the cool weather changed to hot.
August 8:  One Phasion had a flower yesterday but it's faded today. There is 1 bud opening on the others outside the fence.
October 2:  Two Phasions flowered, one twice. I potted 1 about a week ago and brought it in. I did the same with another today, and dug the third and wrapped its roots with newspaper and put in in the basement. I found partially developed seeds in an immature pod on the third one about 10 days ago. It has a more mature pod, so there may be viable seeds in there. They all have well-developed tuberous roots.
4:  I brought in the tubers from 5 regular cannas, with the stems cut off. They did ok this year, but were short. They should have been started a little sooner.
December 26:  I crushed the pods to obtain the seeds, but there were none.

 
2004
April 15:  I cleaned up the bulbs, divided them, and put them in damp peat moss, all in one bucket.
April 26:  Some had sprouted so I moved them all into individual cups or tubs.
May 7:  I took 5 plants to the garage sale and kept 11.
15:  I bought a potted plant of the Phasion variety from Walmart.   It had been in their outside garden area and its leaves had frozen in the past few days.   I thought it might recover, and got it for $5 off, $4.97.   This name Phasion is a corruption of and pronounced as passion.   It is trademarked in the United States under the mark Tropicanna, and is patented there.   The patents once issued in South Africa and in Europe have been disallowed because the plant was only promoted by its purported discoverer, not discovered or developed by him.   It has been grown in South Africa and England for many years.
16:  I removed the plant from the pot and found that the roots appeared ok.   It had 2 stalks so I divided it in 2 and planted each separately.   The growing medium was apparently just wood chips.   I put soil mix in with the chips.   Later in the day I went and bought 3 more.
18:  I divided 2 more of them in 2.
24:  I took the undivided plant to Joan.
29:  I set out 8 of the green-leaved plants.
June 3:  The Phasions are growing leaves and recovering in the house.
17:  I set out 4 Phasions.   The others have died back, a late setback due to the frost.   I think one will recover and one won't.
July 15:  One of the green-leaved plants is in flower.
July 31:  The 4 phasions are all growing in the garden with 1 or 2 new leaves each.
September 18:  I brought in the bulbs a few weeks ago, but I kept 3 of the phasions as whole plants in pots.
 
2003
May 2:  I put 9 bulbs in damp peat moss to start them growing.
14:  I planted 7.
24:  I admired the Tropicana variety at LaCoste Garden Centre.
July 5:  Doing well enough.   They seemed to start rather slowly.
August 14:  First flower.
October 5:  Ben dug the bulbs.   The plants never got very tall or had many flowers.
 
2002
May 6: I removed the old leaves from the bulbs but left the soil on, and watered them in a bucket.
22: I planted the bulbs.   I broke them into pieces and planted 9 pieces.
28: The leaves that were developed when I planted them froze that night and are now gone.
August 1:  The plants developed new growth just fine, and today the first flower opened.
September 7:  Doing well.
 
2001
May 3: I cleaned the bulbs, and put them in dirt in buckets and watered them.
May 18: I planted the bulbs. Almost all showed a shoot, long or just beginning.
June 18, July 20: Coming along fine.
August 7: First flower.
October 4: I dug the bulbs, saving about half and leaving the rest to freeze.
December 2: A nice display this year.
 

Red-Flowered Canna, 2000

2000
May 19: I set out 5 bulbs, buried shallowly. Four of them are sprouting, and the 5th is partly rotted and not sprouting.
20: Mulched with grass clippings.
27: One is coming through the mulch.
July 14: There are 4 now. Their leaves are solid green.
August 23: The first flower is open; it is red.
~September 22: A light frost last night browned the leaves.
~September 28: William dug the bulbs.
 
1999
Autumn: I obtained some bulbs from Wayne Barley.