Being canny with cannas
This week it’s:
CANNAS are exotic, mind-blowingly colourful and very popular. They are some of the best plants for providing height in summer flowerbeds – usually as tall ‘dot’ plants, surrounded by lower bedding plants.
But don’t feel compelled to use them just in this way: they make a stunning splash of tropical colour in containers on the patio, or as clusters in a mixed border, or particularly when grown en masse in a flowerbed. They are so versatile. They are coming in to flower now, so let’s look at some of the stories surrounding these beautiful plants.
The canna name derives from the Latin word for a ‘cane’ or ‘reed’.
It’s all about the rhizome
IN spring, you can start cannas from rhizomes – swollen underground stems. These may be newly bought, or your own saved from the previous year. Although they can be planted directly outside once frosts have passed, it is far better to pot them
