How to Replant Canna Lily Rhizomes
Canna lilies are tall-growing plants with big, tropical-looking leaves that are burgundy or patterned with showy colors. Its flowers can be shades of bright yellow, orange, scarlet, soft white, apricot or pink. Canna lilies can grow up to six or seven feet in height or just a few feet for dwarf varieties. They are tough plants willing to live in wet or dry climates, rich soil or lean soil, full sun or partial shade. Canna lilies grow from elongated, fattened roots known as rhizomes. You can divide up these rhizomes to replant canna lilies in other areas or even in pots. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Spade
- Sharp knife
- Hand trowel
- Optional pots, newspaper and potting soil
Instructions
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Dig canna lily rhizomes when the plants die back in the cooler months. In warm climates they may not die back much, but growth will slow down. You can dig and divide or transplant them during active growth in the spring or summer, but you will have fewer plant injuries and more success if you wait until the plants die back or slow growth in semi-dormancy.
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Place the shovel a few inches from the newest growing sprouts. If you can’t see the new sprouting shoots because they are still underground, leave a few inches in front of the youngest growth stem from the past season, dig down and pry up. You should be safely in front of the rhizome’s growth tip as you lift.
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Expect to dig down at least a few inches. Canna lily rhizomes usually grow only an inch or two under the soil surface but the roots can be more than an inch thick. You will want to lift up the roots without damaging them. This rhizome is simply a swollen root that stores energy like a bulb, corm or tuber, ready to burst forth with new canna growth when conditions are right.
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Trim off any dry, dead or rotting areas you may find on the swollen root. Use a sharp, clean knife to cut away any suspicious parts. If you plan to store roots over the winter before replanting them, you can dust any open cut pieces with a fungicide to keep them healthy.
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Wrap canna lily rhizomes in newspaper. If you live in a climate with hard frosts in the winter, pack them in peat moss and store in a cool but frost-free area in the dark. It is best to wait for warmer weather before replanting.
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Replant the roots you’ve dug right away if you live in a warmer climate. You can either plant these rhizomes in individual pots or transplant them to another part of the garden.
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Set rhizomes for container growing so the sprouting ends of the rhizome are in the center of a pot and have room to grow forward.
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When setting them directly in the ground, position replanted canna rhizomes where there is room for them to grow. Canna rhizomes can sometimes have sprouts at more than one end. Rhizomes will grow forward from all these sprouting tips.
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It is not difficult to dig and replant canna lily rhizomes. It is a good way to keep cannas from becoming overcrowded, to pot up cannas for gifts and to propagate more plants to use in your garden.
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Tips & Warnings
Some cannas are planted in pots for décor around the garden or used as bog plants in ponds or other water gardens. Make sure all canna rhizomes being potted to use with their feet submerged in water are planted in pots without holes. If not,the soil will melt out those holes, leaving an empty pot in the water with a stranded canna inside.
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