Cannas, (Canna generalis), have long been grown for their hot-colored flowers in shades of yellow, red-orange, red and hot pink. They add a lush tropical look to the gardens of Tennessee. The flowers of the standards are borne on one-foot clusters with flowers three to five inches. They can be left in the ground to over winter in our area and need only be divided about every three years. Today we have cultivars that are grown for foliage as well as their flowers. Leaf color can be green, bronze or variegated.
I have made them sound carefree already but I have had personal experience in slowly killing them with shade. I had beautiful peach-colored ones blooming in a sun border but tired of them because of Japanese beetles. Japanese beetles love cannas, they lace-thread the leaves and hang upside down eating the blooms. I moved my rhizomes to a shady area. The first year I received a few blooms, the next year I had stunted weak plants. This year I have only a few leaves.
They do not like shade. Rhizomes are the underground tubers and look like a skinny sweet potato. This creeping stem spreads horizontally under the surface of the soil and produces roots from its undersurface. Cannas thrive in full sun and well-drained soil that is rich in organic matter. If you can provide even moisture they can withstand the hottest summer weather. They also benefit from a monthly feeding of a balanced fertilizer. These fleshy rhizomes will rot in wet soil. Remove flowers after they fade to keep the plant looking neat and to encourage new blooms to form. We can enjoy blooms from mid-summer till frost. When you are buying cannas make sure that the rhizomes are firm to the touch.
This plant adds a bold spot of color among annuals and perennials in beds and borders. Mass plantings along foundations, hedges, shrub borders or walkways are also very effective. They make a handsome container plant especially the dwarf types. Be sure to choose a large tub or pot and feed and water regularly throughout the summer.
My favorites that give beautiful foliage aswell as great spike blooms are ‘Tropicana’ a five-foot plant that has purple foliage striped with green, yellow, pink and red. ‘Australia’ is another good choice with burgundy to black foliage topped with red flowers. If you need a container plant the dwarf form of ‘Tropical Rose’ can even be grown on the front of a border garden.
This is obviously a good consistent plant for us here in Tennessee. So why are we not seeing more of them? I think it is because of the demise of whitewashed tractor tires. This was once a familiar scene to those of us living in the South. You never ran the lawn mower over a plant that had a tractor tire around it. In the 50’s and 60’s people even asked for used tires at the local tire center. I’m sure today’s recy- cling groups could never come up with such a creative way to take care of the extra tires lying around the farm and highways.
