Canna lily ? Help please

blurose

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I have canna lilies planted in my front garden. I live in the PNW area and have had 2 nights of frost. What I want to know is, should I cut off the tops of the plants, down to the ground? Also, some of the tubers are really close to the surface and are actually above the soil. Should I put more dirt over these areas to protect from freezing? These plants were in my neighbor's garden for years, but he could never get them to bloom. He gave them to me after having dug them up and dumped them into 5 gl bucket with only water to keep them from drying out. They sat this way for nearly four months before he finally gave them to me. I planted them in August, with most of them having shouts measuring at least a foot or more. The biggest of the lilies was just getting ready to bloom when the frost hit the plants two days ago. My neighbor had them planted a lot deeper but the research I found when I transplanted them said to only put them about 4 inches deep. The soil has settled around the tubers allowing some to be above ground now. I don't want them to freeze. However, they seem very similar to my irises, which have survived years without me even watering them much, their tubers also peaking above ground some. Oh, by the way, nightly winter temps usually don't get below freezing, but we always get at least a few days of hard freeze in Nov and Dec. Otherwise, very wet with rainfall averaging 30+ inches between Nov and April each year. Just looked it up, I live in zone 8.
 

lesa

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I am in zone 4. I always dig mine and store them in the basement ( as I do with all tubers). My iris's survive fine in the winter and as you say are kind of sticking out of the ground...I think those canna lily are really tropical and I know they wouldn't survive my winter. Good luck!
 

Southern Gardener

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bluerose, I'm in zone 8 and I can't kill the cannas I have. They come back every year with much neglect - so do my iris. I wouldn't worry about them.
 

vfem

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Yeah, i can't kill a canna here even if I try! I dig up tubes just to throw them away because I get overwhelmed!!!!!! :rolleyes:
 

ninnymary

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Blurose, we live in a somewhat similar zone but with the diffrences in rain. I leave mine in the ground and they come up every year. We have a few nights of frost but not much. To be safe, I would leave some in and take some out. This way you can see if your come back and if not you will still have some to plant.

Mary
 
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