Question
QUESTION: Question about cannas! The cannas I have in my yard are 10 years old and are yellow. They're some sort of a hybrid that does NOT produce seeds.

The cannas I have now are salmon pink cannas and DO produce seeds.

If I give yellow canna pollen to the salmon cannas, will the salmon cannas still produce seeds? Will they be either yellow OR salmon or still just salmon?

ANSWER: Hi Desi,
Thanx for your question.  I'm not an expert at breeding plants but I can tell you this.  Some plants when bred together will produce a sterile hybrid.  That means their progeny will not be able to reproduce itself sexually (via seed).  You can make clones of the plant by dividing the rhizomes but these are exact copies and not what you want to do.  Amongst mammals like ourselves, the cross between a donkey and a horse, produces the sterile mule.  So, my guess is that you yellow cannas are sterile but your pink one are not.  You may be able to find some yellow seeds by inquiring over the Internet.  Gardenweb.com has a seed exchange, for example.  The fact is, if your yellow cannas were able to produce seed, they would have been pollinated by now like your pink ones, and produced seed.  So, taking pollen from the pink and sprinkling it on the yellow will not work in my opinion because there is nothing to pollinate.  The flowers either have sterile ovaries, immature ones or none at all, which is quite common in sterile hybrids.  I hope this helps.
Tom

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: No I know the yellow is sterile, I wondered if putting the yellow's pollen on the pink one would do anything

Answer
Hi Desi,
Thanx for the follow up.  I apologize.  I misunderstood your question.  I don't know if the pollen of the yellow canna is sterile too.  Plants can produce pollen that is not viable.  The only thing you can do is experiment and pollinate the salmon cannas with the yellow canna's pollen and see what happens.  Cannas are not hard to grow from seed.  Nick the hard shell and soak them in water for a couple days.  Then plant in a warm environment and keep warm.  It will take 1-2 years to bloom.  I hope this helps.
Tom