And then the Heavens opened...

I had just finished planting the last of the Claines Canna collection in their specially prepared beds, when a storm of Biblical proportions arrived. There was thunder and lightning and there was rain in gallon drops, and I am still trying to work out what it means, other than not having to water them in! Was it a warning of things to come or approval of all the effort I had expended?

The hard winter that we experienced meant that about 40 of the varieties making up the collection were not ready to be planted out, and they will now be nursed along in the polytunnel, while the other 200+ cultivars and species are growing in soil that has had much compost worked in and had a good fertilizing with chicken manure pellets. About 40 stock plants were lost to the freezing conditions, a small disaster. Porous hose has been laid in a network all around the beds and each plant will be assured of good watering this summer.

With a good summer promised us by the met office, we are really looking forward to seeing the collection in a healthy, blooming state again after the disappointments of the last two years of flooding and non-stop rain.

Ready to go?

Empty Canna beds waiting for the starting pistol.

At Claines Canna, England, the Canna beds are dug, fertilized and ready to go. The collection is growing away quite happily and contented in the polytunnels, enjoying daytime temperatures of 45°C (110°F), watered daily and spoiled weekly with fungicide sprays and liquid seaweed feed.

This morning I looked at the 10 day weather forecast, and the coldest overnight temperature predicted is 5°C (41°F) on the 17th and 18th of May. The temptation is there to start lifting the plants from the ground in the polytunnel and start planting them outdoors. However, the winds on the 24th are from the North East, and I only have to see the words "north" & "wind" to get cautious. Our prevailing winds are from the south west, bringing warm air from the gulf steam. To the north-east lies Norway, Russia and other cold places, brrr!

We have had frosts at the end of May in the past, so, reluctantly we will go on the side of caution, and give it another day or two before deciding.

I must comment that I have never seen the collection looking so healthy at this time of the year, and we are hoping for a great year of Canna growing after the bad years we have had.

Getting ready for the spring

175 different cultivars huddled together in a polytunnel and starting to sprout new growth

At Claines Canna we are struggling a little to stay ahead of the weather. The collection is still happily growing in the ground protected by a polytunnel, and the beds in which they will grow have been cultivated, manured and not a weed in sight. That will soon change!

Meanwhile, the breeding programme has really suffered from last summers torrential rain storms, and months without sunshine. As a result of that we had so many of our new seedlings failing to flower last year. We normally expect to carry forward about fifty seedlings through into the next year, destroying those that are not up to standard. However, this year we have had to improvise, and we have 200+ large pots containing last years seedlings stacked three high in a 7 metre (21'9") long polytunnel. They are separated by wooden lathes to keep air circulating, but new growth is going to find it difficult! They have been protected from the winter by thermostatically controlled electric heaters and I dread to think what our electric bill will be for the winter months!

200+ seedlings from last year, stacked high and deep and starting to sprout new growth!

Some of the plants in the stacked pots are now starting to sprout new growth and it is obvious that while this strategy will get them through the winter, we are still in deep problems as they need space, and we dare not leave them outdoors until mid-May, when we can be comfortable that we will have no more frosts.

Luckily, we partner with Keith and Christine Hayward at Hart Canna, and they are coming to our rescue next weekend with their giant white van. Keith has offered to grow at their nursery as many of last years seedlings as we can load in the van and we can, of course, visit them to see how they progress, and Keith has also offered to send us photographs and his opinions as well. So, our year has been rescued, and we can now also look forward to starting some new seedlings from previous years, plus seeds sent to us from several other of our Canna friends. Thanks to all of you, you know who you are.

Gardeners are always optimistic, and we are looking forward to a superb year, where all the travails of last year will be eclipsed by superb growing conditions and our Cannas will amaze us with superb growth!

Claines Canna Sales

At Claines Canna (Margaret and Malcolm Dalebö, relatives and friends) we have been forced to come to the conclusion that this year we are going to have to take a sabbatical from rhizome sales. The weather last summer was so bad that we are no longer certain of the the state of health of our Canna collection. So many plants produced bad foliage, much of which could be virus, but we hope it was just weather stress, and we believe we have to grow them all again this season before we can be confident of what we have.

We will never knowingly sell Canna rhizomes with virus. We cannot be sure of the health of more than a handful of plants, after last years flooding and desperate lack of sunlight. We are one of the most northerly of Canna growers and we believe that we suffered more than most.

So, we have to say sorry to everybody who has approached us about Canna sales this year. We hope that you understand that we are doing this for the right reasons, and hope to be able to present everyone with a virus-free catalogue next year.

We have published a catalogue on the Claines Canna web site, but it is for academic reasons rather than sales. It records our new cultivars for this year and the new accessions to our collection made or confirmed last year. We hope that it is of interest.

We are determined to achieve our goal of offering a virus-free catalogue next year, and this is the only way that we can achieve that goal.