I have a water garden and purchased a canna with large green and yellow variegated leaves. They didn't say it was a water plant, but I thought it was. It grew like crazy when placed in my pond. It had redish orange flowers and I collected the seeds after it bloomed. There were thousands of these short hair like seeds.
I put them in the frig over the winter.
My wife planted some of them this spring and we got plants. However, the plants are tall and spindley with plain leaves not stout with big variegated leaves like their parent.
Could someone help me understand what I have here.
Do I need to cut them back, or do I have weeds from these seeds. If I want more of them should I just break apart the roots of the parent plant to propagate them like water Iris or is there a better idea

Your canna variety is a hybrid, producing seeds that revert back to one of the parents used to create the cross in the first place.
The best way to propagate (make more cannas) is to lift and divide the root, like iris, and just as you figured out on your own.
I am guessing you are in a climate zone where you do not have to lift and store canna tubers for the winter like I must.

Hi Loamlump,
Thanks for the info.
I live in zone 5b, Cleveland Ohio. What I do with the Iris is cut off the leaves to water level and then put them to the bottom of the pond for the winter. This seems to work for Me. The Canna I just bring in doors and put by a window. Do you think I should cut off the foilage and put it in my 55 deg F. basement? The plant grew very weak stalks and leaves over the winter and I had to cut most of it way this spring anyway?
Thanks for your help
Vince

P.S. I'm gardening only because I have to for the pond I built

Well, I'm right on the border of Zone 5a and 5b, so there goes my theory!
Come fall, before a hard frost comes, I dig up the tubers, chop off the stalks and leaves, and put in a cardboard box in the basement. I used to fuss more, and packed them carefully, all swaddled in newspaper. And before that, I 'planted' them in damp sawdust. I might still do it, but the population of canna tubers is out of control, and I'm beginning to despise them.

I've got the Canna totally immersed in water all the time. Over the top of the pot.
When I bring them in when it gets cold, I put them, plastic pot and all, in buckets, keeping them covered with water all winter. I'd sure like to try to cut off the stalks, take them out of the planting medium (fired fullers earth), and separate them into several pieces. And,Like you do, place them into a box in the basement until the spring , that way no care needed thank you.
However, These things are now use to constant water, so I'm afraid I might kill them.
Do you think I should give it a try?? They only cost me $20 so I could buy another and start over in the spring with a fresh plant if it doesn't make it. :^O LOL

Thanks for your help and interest
Vince
P.S. Did you keep the paper wet all winter or just let the things dry out?

I don't do anything special to them while in storage, I don't dampened the newspaper.
I am not a water plant gardener at all. No experience, ever.
I don't think being stored in dry conditions would make any difference to them, though. The idea is to go dormant, so if they're used to living in a watery home, being tucked away in a dry, cool, dark place should keep them in dormancy quite well.
I usually lose a few small tubers over the winter using the dry storage method. The little ones sometimes shrivel up. But I lost many more when I kept them in damp sawdust, to be honest. The damp encouraged rot.

I think I'll give dormancy a try this winter for the Canna. Maybe for me too .
Thanks for the help and have a good fall and winter because they are on their way.
Vince