Several of us have Canna, my garden wouldn't be complete without a bunch of them. Even though they are advertised as a bog plant and it's said they should have consistently moist soil, they do great in the black clay I have that is rarely watered by nature and only by me twice a week. Click on this link to see photos and plant information in our Plant database.... Canna X generalis (Canna ) They come in Orange, Yellow, Yellow/orange mix, Red and Dark Red. I have more photos I need to get ready for posting too
I've just started planting them. They do flower, and they have a wide variety of flower colors and shapes and foliage color and sizes. I find them fascinating. I plan on making them the focal point in my yard someday. I've just started collecting seeds and rhizomes from a few places so unfortunately I only have one in bloom so far. I'm sure other members have some pics they'll share though. If not my parents have some nice older ones blooming right now, those seem to bloom continueusly when the weathers warm. I'll try to capture a few next time I visit, which is often.
Down here, they almost grow wild. And they aren't picky about the soil or water. they grow and grow and multiply and multiply year after year. One of the "northerners" can give you growing specifics. In the meantime, here is my orange ones. Canna ( photo / image / picture from cherylad's Garden )
i grow them every year, they are really quite easy, but do need thorough watering. being in zone 5a i do need to lift them every fall, as the freeze would kill them. this picture shows them about half as tall as they get, and the usually bloom toward the end of august. cannas & hollyhocks ( photo / image / picture from Annette's Garden )
If Canna like where they are planted they will multiply to the point of pushing up any edging you have around the bed. Just dig them up, break apart and make a new bed...or give them away. I'm in zone 8a so digging them up for winter isn't something I have to do for any bulbs. In the fall, be sure to cut the leaves off at ground level before the first freeze, after a freeze the leaves turn into a spongy mush and are really difficult to cut. This hedge of them was planted 4 years ago and is about to out grow it's spot, it was about half that long then. 4 year old Canna bed ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden ) The dark leafed ones on the left have dark red blooms, the rest are a mixture of colors, some orange, some yellow with orange splotches and a few medium reds. The tallest blooms are about 5 feet tall and have been blooming since mid-May down here.
They are hardy up zone 7a but with a good layer of mulch you should be able to keep them in the ground over the winter. But for the first winter, you might want to dig up some, leave some in the ground with mulch and see what happens the next spring. The dark leaves are the Canna 'Tropicana' mine probably are too but the lady I got them from had no idea and the ones I can find online all have orange blooms where mine are dark red. But for your purposes look for the Canna 'Tropicana' and you will find others with the dark leaves too. Yes, they are perennials and come back every year. Being a tropical plant they need it pretty warm to start growing and blooming so you may not see any signs of them returning until well into May or June, depending how cold the winter was and how warm the Spring is. Mine started coming up in early April because basically winter forgot to show up down here this time.
I keep meaning to get some different colors... but it always slip my mind. I do have a dark leaved one, but the flowers are pretty small. They may not be getting enough water since I dug it from the side of the river.
Yep, they won't bloom or get very tall if planted in the shade. Mine get full sun from about 11 a.m. till about 7 p.m. A better look at the leaves. ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden ) The blooms in relation to the leaves... ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden ) A closeup of the red bloom, my hand is the white thing at the base of the bloom, it was very windy the day I took the photo and it lets you get a better idea of the bloom size. ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden )
It should start growing pretty quickly since your temperatures will be rising. But like all newly planted plants, it has to get some roots growing and established before the above ground growth begins so it could take a few weeks. I don't know if it will have time to bloom this year, depends on how soon fall arrives for you. But you never know, so give it a try...gardening is one of the most thrilling and mostly rewarding experiments there is.
I have some seeds somewhere, I forgot about them. I grew some at my old house, they are very hard to get to grow, I think I had to file a grove into the seed first. They make a lot of seeds, now I know why people buy the plants!
I have a canna that blooms orange and yellow .Io love this plant .The drought killed my red blooming ones and pink blooming ones last year as they did not come back this year.
Elishasmama.... I got the orange one from one of my aunts. It's pretty much the "standard" one around here. Here's a photo from a couple years ago of the dark leafed one that I got from the river's edge. It was still in a container then. Canna Lily ( photo / image / picture from cherylad's Garden ) I'll try to get at least a photo of it's leaves tomorrow. But there haven't been any blooms for a week or so. Note to self... give this plant some more water!
Those leaves are really stunning, I haven't found the black leafed ones available here...may have to find one online this fall. One thing that might help it bloom even where it is now on a few hours of daily sun is to thin them out. It looks like there might be too many in that one spot, they multiply better than rabbits and will become overcrowded before you know it.
My regular orange one's die back/get cut back to the ground in the winter. They grow QUICK... and are at least 7 foot tall. They get sun for most of the day. The darker leaf one that has pretty much left to grow on its own is about 5 foot tall. Also dies back each winter but it gets a little more shade.
