Overwintering Cannas

Its the first year I have grown Cannas and they are currently still nice and green and flowering and are bedded out in the garden

The area where they are is soil, covered with fleece, and has pebbles on top, I cut a hole through to plant the roots in spring and with the growth over the year I think it would be a bit of a problem to dig them back out, so I intend to leave them be, with a bark chippings mulch over the top once they die down...this will mark where they are and add protection against frost...anyone else left them in the ground over winter?

 

I've left them over winter Steve, tend to put a mound of leaves etc. over the top, trouble is it does look unsightly.
I think its like all over wintering, you only really need it if we get a bad spell, but it needs to go on before the bad spell, no good applying it on top of frosted soil.
One other thing I find is that growth is a bit slow in spring, can be late May before they show, which means late flowering.
Personally I think its better to lift them and divide them, but I have done that in march, in order to save storage space.
One other thing is that they tend to move, they come up in a slightly different place next year which could be a problem in your situation

[ 13. November 2005, 03:10 PM: Message edited by: pete2255 ]

 

Never thought of that Pete, overwintering them in the ground as storage then digging them up to start them off early in spring...sounds a good idea

 

To save me posting a new picture, just imagine the one above that I posted yesterday only with brown leaves instead of green! and thats how they look today

Jack frost stopped a while overnight sround here :D