If you have watched my new video about Exotic gardening with Will Giles you will see how Canna are an essential plant if you want to create a tropical feel in your garden. They are bold and brash providing a dramatic look in one season as they grow very fast if fed and watered well.
These faboulously showy plants vary in size and stature from the very small Canna Lucifer which grows to no more than 45cm high, to giants like Canna Musiflora, which, in an average season will easily reach 3m or more.In total here are around 300 different types of canna now available . A popular choice is Canna Wyoming with orange flowers - see far right below- which can be found in most nurseries.
Most cannas are green leaved but a good many have variagated leaves in delicious shades of pewter-purple-maroon. A few are particularly spectacular with vivid variagation such as Pretoria and Durban.
Although they are manly treated as perrenials in the UK, some growers in sheltered location do leave them in the ground, mulching with the dead foliage or straw. Only do this if you have light soil or a winter microclimate. Clay or waterlogged soil is just not suitable for leaving canna in the ground.
Canna need full sun but also need damp soil that does not completely dry out. They are wonderful container plants but keep the moisture content high.
I have planted mine in the ground for the first time ever . Dug them in with lots of rich compost in a sheltered spot where they can catch a good deal of sun during the day and enjoy the evening light as the sun goes down - they look wonderful with dabbled light on them. Fingers x I will get a good display in a few months if these high temperatures remain.
For more information about choosing varities and take a look at Will Giles’ wonderfullly illustrated book:
The Enclyclopedia of Exotic Plants for Temperate climates http://www.exoticgarden.com/books.html .
To buy plants THE nursery specialists are http://www.hartcanna.com/
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