The Main Plant entry for Cannas (Canna)

There are supposed to be about 25 species of Canna, which are native to tropical America. Wild Cannas tend to have more narrow flower petals while the garden canna are hybrids having wider petals. The numerous cultivars have flowers of red, orange, yellow, creams, and pinks, and some are bicolored. The leaves are green or red-purple and can have white or yellow stripes, even with orange areas. They like moist, rich soils and can be grown as shallow water plants. When used as annual flowers in northern climates, the big tan tubers can be dug up in late fall when the foliage is killed by frost, and the tubers can be stored in peatmoss or similar material in a cool indoor place for the winter. Then grown plants again in the spring. Bumblebees love the flowers. Unfortunately, the Japanese Beetle also likes to eat holes in the flowers. The various cultivars can range in height from 1.5 to 8 feet high. The richer the soil and the more rain result in bigger cannas.

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Here in Florida, and I'd imagine in other warm, humid climates, Cannas are prone to rust in the late summer. This is very unsightly and not healthy for the plants. It is also very hard to control. Good air circulation is a basic thing to remember when planting Cannas. If you do start to see rusty spots on the leaves, jump on them immediately and remove all leaves showing the fungus. Housekeeping is the best medicine here. Be sure to bag up the infected leaves and throw out with the trash. Don't compost them.

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I love the lush tropical look of Cannas, both their flowers and their foliage. Unfortunately, they are not winter hardy here in my garden. I get tired of planting them each spring and lifting them for storage each fall, so I have not had Cannas now for a few years.

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Taken from wikipedia's page at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

"The plants are large tropical and subtropical perennial herbs with a rhizomatous rootstock. The broad, flat, alternate leaves, that are such a feature of this plant, grow out of a stem in a long narrow roll and then unfurl. The leaves are typically solid green but some cultivars have glaucose, brownish, maroon, or even variegated leaves.

The flowers are typically red, orange, or yellow or any combination of those colours, and are aggregated in inflorescences that are spikes or panicles (thyrses). Although gardeners enjoy these odd flowers, nature really intended them to attract pollinators collecting nectar and pollen, such as bees, hummingbirds and bats. The pollination mechanism is conspicuously specialized. Pollen is shed on the style while still in the bud, and in the species and early hybrids some is also found on the stigma because of the high position of the anther, which means that they are self-pollinating. Later cultivars have a lower anther, and rely on pollinators alighting on the labellum and touching first the terminal stigma, and then the pollen."

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