Washington Gardener Magazine is the award-winning publication for Mid-Atlantic USA gardeners by local gardeners.
Wednesday, August 05, 2020
Plant Profile: Canna
Canna is an annual tropical flowering plant that lends drama to the landscape
with its fabulous foliage and colorful blooms in mid-summer in our Mid-Atlantic
region. The foliage can be green, bronze, burgundy, solid, or striped. The
flowers can resemble an orchid, iris, or gladiola and have a sunset-like color
range from pinks to yellows to oranges to reds.
All Canna originated in the tropical and sub-tropical
Americas. They went to Europe in the mid-16th century and then on to Asia, South
Africa, and Australia. Canna breeding took off in these regions and they have
returned many wonderful cultivars to our gardens in recent decades.
Canna can be purchased in three forms: seeds, rhizomes,
and potted plants. Due to the Canna yellow streak virus, it is recommended that
Canna be started from seed or if rhizomes are offered, you should ensure that
they be certified virus-free.
If you start from seed indoors in early spring, you can
then transplant them outdoors when any danger of frost is gone. Canna do best
in full sun and moist, rich soil. If you
are satisfied with having only the foliage, Canna can be planted in part-shade
conditions.
Gardeners in our region have found that their Canna may
reliably over-winter and return when they are planted against brick walls,
along greenhouses, and in south-facing locations. You can give them extra mulch
as some insurance against an exceptionally cold winter. You can also pull the
plants in October, cut off the stalks, and store their rhizomes in peat moss
(or similar material) in a dark, cool spot.
Canna are useful in the summer garden at the back of
mixed borders, in containers, and as a privacy screen. The range of Canna sizes
span from dwarf forms around three feet tall to tall standards over 10 feet.
Two of our favorite varieties are ‘Ermine’, which has a
creamy yellow flower and thrives in a wide variety of growing conditions, and
‘South Pacific Orange’, an All-America Selections winner that is a compact
grower perfect for containers.
For more tips about growing Canna, see our plant profile
story in the Summer 2012 issue of Washington
Gardener Magazine.
Canna - You Can Grow That!
The video was produced
by Washington Gardener Magazine.
Visuals by Taylor
Calavetinos
Audio by Kathy Jentz
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