Cannas

Beautiful plants to give that extra splash of exotic colour, these have the perfect flowers, not to mention lush foliage, to hot up the jungle in the summer months.  Easy to cultivate by lifting after the cold has blackened the foliage then storing dry, or better still in vermiculite, and frost free - some are actually worth experimenting with left in situ as their hardiness does seem to vary.  When they are underway, the more food and water you can give them, the bigger, brighter and better they will become.  If you fancy being experimental, I have heard of people growing ALL their cannas as pond marginal plants - not just the water cannas - I will try this one day, but I know it works with some.  This is a list of some of my favourites.

Large stocky plant over 2m high, broad green leaves 60cm long, small orange red flowers.  Great foliage plant.  

Super plant for the pond margin or normal border if kept watered, this is a tall canna with narrow, pointed glaucous green  leaves that are held upright, and delicate sprays of yellow flowers.  Given rise to a race of water cannas.  

Small plant with narrow tapered foliage and cute little spidery red and yellow flowers.  Not as showy as some but quite sweet.

Nothing like the previous plant - recent rumblings suggest it may indeed be form of Canna edulis - this is a tall plant well over 2m high with large paddle shaped leaves that are mainly burgundy coloured with green interveinal splodges (sorry to get technical) and smallish but nevertheless attractive orange-red flowers.  Seems to come into growth early and continue growing late, so I am trying some outside this winter (1999)

Superb.  Very tall - 2.5m - enormous fresh green banana-like  leaves and nodding clusters of dark cerise flowers that are more discreet than the gaudier hybrids but just as attractive.  Can be grown as a pond marginal plant, which makes it easier to cope with the heavy water demands.  Said to be one of the hardier cannas, survived outside last winter. (1999)

Stupendous.  Magnificent.  Awesome.  Ugh ungh.  Words fail me.  3m high, 90cm leaves, strong burgundy colouration to stem, leaves around the veins and margins, this is a plant that SHRIEKS exotic and is really easy to look after.  Uncommon but worth the search.  Flowers so infrequently in this country as to not bother waiting for but WHO CARES.  

Purple leaves, bright red flowers.  Nice.

Purple brown leaves that are the most even colour of any dark leaved canna, like oxblood leather, topped by delicate, floppy bright orange flowers.  Said to be difficult to overwinter as a dormant plant so best kept ticking over.

Same as 'Tropicanna' and 'Phaison' this is unbelievably garish.  Purple leaves striped with orange and pink, dark orange flowers.

Background picture.  Large yellow flowers spotted with red.  Green leaves, nice.

One of the water cannas, this is possibly my favourite with strawberry red flowers, very glaucous leaves that have a thin penciled margin of dark red.

Short canna with very large glaucous leaves and a confused cluster of bright red flowers.

Green leaves and large yellow flowers.

Small canna with narrow fresh green leaves and the most fantastic two tone red/yellow flowers - red centred and irregularly margined in yellow.  Really shines at you.  Don't buy this from the packets at garden centres - the 'Lucifer' in those is in fact a coarse affair called 'Rosamund Coles'

The nearest thing to a purple leaved/yellow flowered canna, this has bright, pale orange-yellow flowers.

Also seen as 'Malawiensis Variegata' or 'Striata', both names are now invalid.  Whatever name you find it under this is a magnificent canna.  Yellow variegated leaves which in good strong light are often more yellow than green, purple-ish stems and a purple penciled margin around the leaves.  Flowers are large and bright orange.

Water canna superficially similar to C.glauca but larger showier flowers. 

A favourite - large plant 2m or more with very large glaucous leaves and huge two-tone orange flowers.

Caused something of a stir when it first appeared a couple of years ago, this has turned out to be something of a disappointment.  It is a tall plant with an upright habit - upright narrow leaves similar to C. glauca and small, fairly ordinary pinky-orange flowers.  But the leaves are variegated, and in huge irregular bands, with ivory and grey.  The first plant of this I saw at Wisley was magnificent, but that is the only nice one I have seen.  The white bits burn, even in shade, and often strangely stunted leaves are produced.  I am sure that it must be possible to give this, potentially, beautiful plant the conditions in which it will thrive, but I don't know what they could be.

An old favourite but still one of the best - assuming you get the right plant, as there is misnamed stock of this in circulation with small orange flowers ( but not C. indica 'Purpurea' ). This one is tall and vigorous easily reaching 2m; the leaves are large and very dark purple with occasional green streaks, the flowers are large and bright orange with a hint of pinky-red feathering around the edges of the petals and spotting on the throat.  

< cacti-index-climbers >