This past summer was quite different from the summer before. We had a very short growing season. Spring came very late, with freezing temperatures in May. We did have beautiful canna weather through the summer, with ample rain and sunny, hot weather. But unlike the previous summer, where we did not get a killing frost until close to Thanksgiving, the frost hit during September, and the weather was generally cool, after that.
A cool fall immediately after a killing frost presents a couple of problems. First, it can be a motivational challenge to dig your canna lily rhizomes in the cold weather. Washing the cannas in cold water on a cold day is not fun. Second, after washing the rhizomes, the lack of warm weather is detrimental to drying and hardening of the canna rhizomes. This increases the likelihood that you will develop mold on your rhizomes. This happened to us, and we needed to throw out a few large clumps of rhizomes before we could even store them. We needed to dust the rhizomes with sulfur dust and hope for the best.
The Winter Canna Rescue
Having lost several rhizome bunches, we proceeded to gradually dig up the rhizomes well into the winter, with the final lift occurring in January. We stored the canna in the garage and we really have no idea if any of these would survive. I recorded the rescue and will be posting it on youtube.com/MyBackyardScience If you are interested in the dig and the results, please check out the channel, and subscribe with notifications in order to get notified of the updates.
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