In the world of summer-flowering bulbs, if you will, and in the world of
colorful foliage, cannas probably stand out a bit because of the fact they offer the
gardener the ability to produce a plant in short order
that had dramatic foliage as well as some interesting flowers.
Shown here in one of our trial gardens is a series of canna called
'Tropicanna'.
And in that particular series there's three different colors.
This one happens to be called 'Tropicanna Black' which is almost a really deep,
deep red-black which is extremely exquisite
in a garden.
There's also one called 'Tropicanna Gold'
that has green leaves with striped yellow
markings in it.
And then a third one is called 'Tropicanna'
which is kind of a multi-colored, almost a combination of these two
offering this multi-colored foliage.
If you want something that is dramatic in the garden, growing anywhere from four to six
feet tall
very quickly,
good for a full sun or even very large containers, or can also be used in a
water garden,
you might want to consider
cannas such as this or the others that are in the marketplace.
They offer large, dramatic foliage,
some very interesting flowers. You can see right here, 'Tropicanna Gold'
is starting to produce these very nice yellow-orange colored blossoms.
And they provide
a good backdrop or screen for
other annuals in the garden
and will
basically
grow all summer.
And what's nice about these things is that when you buy a small plant, by the
end of the summer it gets to be quite large.
These can be overwintered very easily.
Let a light frost basically take the tops back to the ground,
dig up the whole clump,
the whole root mass,
and do not clean it off. Basically store it in some shallow container
like a, perhaps a plastic milk carton container or bread container or
something similar to that and put it in a place where it's cool and dark. About fifty
degrees or so in a dark location
and let it stay there all winter long.
Next spring, somewhere around April or so, these can be brought up,
cut apart, cleaned, potted into individual pots and started to grow and and put out after
frost.
You'll have yourself a dramatic display.
If you're looking for something quick, simple,
quite dramatic,
think about using cannas. And the other thing to think about also is that many growers
and purveyors of canna are now offering
virus
free cannas. Something to consider. Cannas have been riddled
with a lot of viruses as of late because of the way they've been produced which
effects the color of the foliage and really produce a plant that's kind of
inferior. So if you're shopping for canna,
you might wanna look for a term to say these have been virus indexed or virus
free.
This assures you a good healthy plant which is going to give you good color season long.
Another canna that's just
plain fun, and if you can find it I would highly suggest that
you maybe put it in your garden.
This one right here is called 'canna musifolia'
and basically
it's a banana-leaved canna.
And what that means is that this canna right here, which has leaves that are
very similar to banana plants,
can get up to ten to twelve feet tall in the season very easily.
The thing about it; it doesn't flower, but who cares. Something that big, that
large, that leafy,
just commands attention. And I'd just put it in the garden for a good backdrop or
screen, some drama, some interest in the garden, and it's just kind of a fun plant to grow.
So again, canna musifolia would be one that you want to add to your canna
collection, if you can find it.
And again, it's handled much the same way as your other flowering cannas.
During the season they enjoy moisture, so keep them well watered.
They do enjoy their fertility so make sure they've been put in a bed that's been
fertilized
and maybe midway through the season you might want to apply a
supplemental amount of fertilizer to keep these things vigorously growing because they
are producing leaves,
which are there highpoint, along with some flowers. These over here, all leafy plants.
Something you might want to consider for that extra drama in the garden.
The other thing about canna, for those of you that are in areas that are
prone to japanese beetles,
japanese beetles look at canna as
the filet mignon of the plant world.
You can see right here what they do to cannas once they find them.
They riddle the leaves, they basically skeletonize it,
feeding on the upper and lower surfaces, causing the plant to dry out.
It's kind of an appearance thing. They don't kill the plant, but it's an appearance
thing.
And if you wish to control it, there are a number of products on the market that you can
safely use to control these beetles. You can hand pick them,
however you choose to do it, depending upon the side infestation.
If you can put up with a little bit of this,
I'd grow cannas, enjoy them, have fun.