Hibernating Canna in a pot: Instructions

The canna, also known as the Indian flower tube, is a beautiful ornamental plant for the garden. But unfortunately it is also very sensitive to frost and therefore has to be overwintered indoors. However, even when cultivating in pots or tubs, it is not enough to simply bring the plant into the house - because the rhizomes are extremely prone to rot during hibernation. In the following instructions, we reveal how the canna can be hibernated over the winter.

Canna hibernate

The canna or the flower tube comes from South America and is therefore rarely confronted with temperatures below 10 ° C. In Central Europe, this will be different from autumn at the latest. Frost also occurs during winter.
If the canna was placed outdoors or in a pot or bucket outdoors, it will suffer damage. If the temperatures drop 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 the temperatures drop, the above-ground part of the Canna withers. Leaves and shoots die off. This is not a cause for concern, just preparing the plant for winter. The energy from the upper parts of the plant is shifted to the rhizome, i.e. the root. As a result, the stores in the rhizome are filled and the energy required for budding in spring is provided.
The plant should therefore only be moved inside and prepared when the leaves and stems have died. The preparation then involves removing the withered sections. Only five to ten centimeters of the above-ground parts should be left on the plant.

Hibernating canna: instructions

In order for the flower tube to survive the winter well, a few steps are required. The following guide shows what these are:

1. After removing the withered parts of the plant, the rhizome is carefully dug up or lifted out of the substrate.
2. Use a brush or water to thoroughly remove the soil from the rhizome.
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 the cut surfaces.
4. To prevent rot and mold, all cuts and wounds on the rhizome are included Charcoal ash is sprinkled and the root is left to dry for a few hours or days in a dry place Spent place. Placing it on a grid or wire mesh is ideal, as the rhizome is ventilated here from all sides and can dry off easily.
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 are overwintered 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 use itself up because it lacks nutrients. However, if the temperature in the winter quarters is significantly lower, the roots can be damaged.

Extra tip: Chinosol can prevent rot and mold from forming on the rhizome. To do this, one gram of Chinosol is added to one liter of lime-free water and the roots are sprayed with it. The remedy is available in pharmacies.

Care during the winter

If the flower tube as described overwintered no maintenance 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 really does develop, you can remove the affected areas early and prevent them from spreading.

Again, you should make sure that cutting tools are clean and, if possible, disinfected when removing them. In addition, it makes sense to sprinkle the cut surfaces with charcoal ash or to spray the entire rhizome with the described Chinosol solution.

Prefer the canna

One advantage of wintering in the house is that the canna can be brought forward so that it flowers faster. Our instructions show step by step what is required for this:

1. Get the rhizomes of the flower tube from the winter quarters and check them again completely
2. The roots are placed in a pot filled with four parts of sand and one part of leaf compost or potting soil. You should just cover the rhizome with the substrate.
3. The planters are placed in a warm and bright place.
4. In the first few weeks before budding, watering is very careful and sparing. Low-lime water, such as stale tap water, rainwater or pond water, is optimal. 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 five centimeters.

Note: We recommend a location where the temperature is at least 15 ° C and the planter receives as much sunlight as possible. The time to move forward should not be before March, even in areas with a very mild climate. When the plant has reached a height of ten centimeters and no longer with night or If late frosts are to be expected, you can put them in a nutrient-rich substrate and outdoors spend.

Hibernate outdoors

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

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

• straw
• Needles or Fir fronds
• leaves

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