Cannas in Australian drought

Correspondance from Raelene of Canpelkni Blooms, Australia

Following fires threatening her parents’ home, Raelene at Canpelkni Blooms confirmed that their own Cannas are OK. She stated that “I’m constantly amazed at how drought tolerant they are; they just keep flowering although most aren’t as tall as in earlier years, and they just need more water. I’m still carting it outside from two showers, still collecting the water from the bowl under sink, table wiping and the kids half cups of drunk water etc., I salvage it all, and at least I’m getting good upper body strength, lol!”

“I now have a 90,000 gallon water tank set up and another 5,000 litre tank that’s full but has to be joined up to the big one, and we got 3 inches of rain about 2 months ago. It half filled the big tank and overflowed the smaller one. I’ve watered my cannas with it 3 times, they all got a quick overhead watering at the end of the three days in a row of 43+ degrees Celsius that we had about two weeks ago. It pepped them up. As part of our routine, plants on trial get the laundry grey water, these are taller and lush, how a Canna should be, with the 43 deg heat they didn’t even get a blade of leaf scorch. However other parts of my garden are only bucket watered, and these are still flowering and received about 30 percent leaf scorch. Plants that were on trial for identification that I've already got don’t get any water, unless it’s from the skies. Fence line cannas get nothing, and as a result they’re starting to look a bit tatty now, even though they are still flowering.”

“Some seedlings I planted about a month ago popped open its first flower today, the plant is just over a foot tall, another two are sending up the flower stem and these are even shorter at approx 20 cms, stress does wonderful things, these I water fairly regularly say a 10 litre bucket twice a week, still getting a few double stems etc, have a pic of a double header, this I haven’t seen here before, with those 3 hot days it never had chance to open its double head, as it as on the corner of a row and not high on the list for giving water too.”

“Yesterday we got about 20 drops of rain, seriously it was nothing, its gone before it lands-for these plants those 3 hot days we had sucked the moisture from them and left them dry and crispy, the only green you could see was a half foot of the lower stems, these have now recovered and are growing again and showing the odd flowers, I still haven’t watered them, but I do need to trim and tidy them up.”

“I don’t have enough water to grow them all to perfection, but they are thriving very well compared to last summer, and parts of my garden that are established would survive on natural rainfall alone, well certainly the fence line cannas do, these are all a minimum of 1.2 metres in height so they reach the top wire height. Some are that dry they only reach about 50 cms and of course they’re always flowering but the quality and size of the bloom is restricted. They are well mulched and when I dig them to post sales orders they are dry, yet have perfect white healthy roots and rhizomes. That recent 3 inches of rain didn’t even get down through the mulch.”

“About 4 years ago, before the water restrictions came in, you could stand tall and be hidden by the Cannas, but now I have to squat so my 3 kids don’t find me when I want some quiet time, lol.”

“I simply love all my cannas, I don’t know what else would give me so much colour and joy in our dry conditions; our cow paddocks are back to dust, once again even the weeds have turned yellow and gone to a better place. The drought that we have now has come much later compared to last summer, and that is probably why they have coped so well compared to then.”

“Betta go, empty some buckets out then shower. Things will improve but not this summer, for next summer I'll start watering early spring from the tank and re-mulch and they will be better off over the summer. The pictures above were all taken on 7th Jan this year, not the tallest for height, but they were perfect beautiful plants... take care.”

Raelene, Victoria State, Australia

Canpelkni Blooms

Canpelkni Blooms and the fires

Following anxious inquiries from Alice Harris and myself over the welfare of herself and family following the recent horrific fires in Victoria State, Australia, Raelene of Canpelkni Blooms responded stating that “We are about 1.5 hours from the Melbourne fires, and we are safe, with no fires in our area this season; hubby and I are both in the local fire brigade, 2 kms down the road. I always worry when the pager goes off, and always constantly reminded when I go to town as the fire trucks are often parked roadside ready for dispatch.”

“I went away at the weekend the Melbourne fires started to my home town of Horsham for a late Xmas gathering, it is about two and a half hours from Melbourne. Mum and dad reside in Haven on the outskirts of Horsham; my grandparents have passed away, grandpa in 2007 and nan in 08, their house was empty of residents but still full of love, joy, memories and happiness, and thankfully most of the mementos had been put into storage, the picture below I took the day after it was destroyed by fire.”

Dale McDonnell earlier commented that “Raelene was at her parent's home when the fires broke out and had been helping to save the house for most of the day. She said she never knew her parents owned so many garden hoses! Unfortunately, her grandparent's house has gone and the houses either side of her brother's home have both been burnt to the ground, as has the local shop just a few hundred metres from where Raelene is. In fact, she says it is still burning.”

“In typical Raelene fashion, she tells me she found some new/old cannas just before the fires started late this morning.”

Raelene went on to state that, “My nan was a devoted gardener, and I learnt so much from her. I can still see us in her front garden- behind the wire fence; she had stuff growing everywhere, even out the back in the chook yard and the wood yard to the right of the pic. A 30 metre stroll to the outside toilet would take 20 minutes, as there were 100’s of potted and hanging plants to admire on the way. Grandpa was a veggie grower and supplied the shops in Horsham by horse and cart, and as kids we used to run down the veggie rows and knock the fruits etc and get growled at! But I remember it was such fun running between those veggies and jumping those strawberry rows, lol, now all that can be seen is one of his rotary hoes burnt out, sorry if I'm rambling too much.”

“The day the big fires started it was 46 deg centigrade in Horsham (Haven), I think Melbourne weather was the same too. It was so windy, and we had dust storms in Horsham throwing twigs, leaves and dirt everywhere, and I presume Melbourne weather was the same. The heat and the speed of the wind had the upper hand, some of these Melbourne fires are in mountain country, trees everywhere, and they had no hope. Honestly, I think I've heard enough on the TV, I don't mean to be mean but its starting to depress me or something, I know life is so valuable and sometimes some of us forget, but this is too harsh for our minds to comprehend.”

“The Cannas are ok, I’m constantly amazed at how drought tolerant they are, they just keep flowering although most aren’t as tall as earlier years, and they just need more water.”

Typical of Raelene, she didn’t mention the fire fight that they had protecting her parents property. Raelene went on to describe in detail the effects on her Cannas, and that will be the subject of tomorrows blog.

Canpelkni Blooms

Split stem novelty

Raelene from Australia reports a unique canna incident, an old cultivar, Canna 'P.J. Berkman', that has grown a stem that then branched into two separate stems.

It is usual for the stem to start branching once it has reached the level where it stops growing leaves and starts growing inflorescence instead.
Raelene is growing it on, and we all hope that it repeats it's great trick, as we can do with more diversity.


[Ed. No canna authorities that we approached have experienced or heard of this phenomenon previously. However, we now understand that a breeder in England has raised a new cultivar that exhibits this behaviour]