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.

Frosts destroyed our plants again!

For the second year running we, at Claines Canna, have lost 1,000+ Canna rhizomes that I had patiently cleaned, divided and packaged ready for distribution in trades and sales. I spent many days of my life, that I will never have back again, creating these packages.

The losses were caused again by failure of our electric thermostatically controlled heaters. Last year the losses were caused by a failure in the electric supply on the coldest day of the year.

To see the labeled plastic bags full of black rotting rubbish is soul destroying, and I have had enough for this year. Sorry if we had organized trades or sales, but all we have left is the collection, and a few spares that Margaret is selling on eBay.

Right now I feel totally deflated and I I just want to concentrate on getting our collection outside growing in the soil again, intact and ready for a great year of growing.