How do you all use cannas in your landscapes? I have some beautiful ones just now coming up in pots but would like to plant them out if I had a plan. I need a plan. Any suggestions?
Cannas in the landscape
Marti, when you say out, do you mean inground? Mine are planted ingrouond, but b/c they are fast growers, I thin my clumps yearly as I don't want the cannas dominating the landscape. I have a noid canna, about 4 ft tall, with a very bright coral flower, and it is placed in a spot where flowers will be noticed.
Then I have a planting of canna Bengal Tiger, also orange flower, which I have in a spot where the variegated foliage is the main focus.
I have a clump of a 2 ft canna with white flowers that I have planted in an area I call my white bed.
Finally, I have one called Fire Fly which is barely 1 ft at maturity. t it is a young plant in my garden so not much of a show right now. It has red flowers. It is a rather delicate plant, not a typical canna.
Hope this helps. You are welcome to rhizomes of all except Fire Fly as too little to divide.
This message was edited Feb 18, 2014 4:51 PM
I have Cannas, three or four varieties, planted in the garden, to me they look great. Plan? No I don't have one of those. I have to dig mine up and divide every year also, they multiply so fast. I was looking yesterday and there must be dozens coming up in one clump. I do have one plant with purple leaves that just refuses to grow or multiply, it would be the one I really wanted to multiply.
Where are your cannas? In a bed with other plants? In their own bed? What do you have them paired with, if at all? Against a wall or fence or as a specimen out on their own? Do you have the different cultivars mixed or not? Do you keep the clumps small? etc.
My cannas are hodgepodged all over my place..here and there..I mainly use them as shade plants and hiding stuff behind them..like an ugly fence..lol
I have maybe 7 r 8 diff kinds with variegated color leaves..
steadycam3
My cannas are in beds with other plants, they are mixed in with perennials and annuals. A chain link fence runs down the middle of a four foot wide bed on inside and a five foot wide bed on the outside. I have the different species spread out in intermittent clumps all along the beds, and yes I try to keep the clumps about three feet or less in size. I had never even thought of mixing the different cultivars, but I might try that.
I like them as back of the bed plants because they are tall.
or along fence lines or as a screen.
bees, butterflies, hummers love em !
I love to give them an extreme haircut (6" from the ground) in Aug/Sep as it results in beautiful plants for Thanksgiving. So, you have a spring and a fall show. I do not have a purpose for tall cannas, but if I did, my choice would be Australia as it has the most beautiful dark purple foliage.
Correction: I do have a big canna, Musafolia but it really looks more like bananas. It would be excellent as privacy hedge but in my garden I use it to contrast with shorter plants growing in that particular bed.
Late to the thread, but canna clumps were used in the hwy medians in Wichita Falls and thrived without anything extra done to them after planting. They WERE the old fashioned cannas, and not the dwarf or new varieties, thrived in dry windy sunny hwy. Multipliers that can get away from you easily in ground they multiply so fast. Drawback in Houston area is the skeeters love to multiply in them-but I guess the hummers dont mind having mosquitoes close. They are good at holding soil on slopes...
I did not know until recently that hummingbirds actually eat small insects like mosquitoes, and aphids.
I would like to know where one could get some of those old fashioned ones. I recall my Mother had those growing in front of her house back in the "60". and they grew without any work at all.
Do any of you have any photos of your cannas in your landscape? If so, I'd like to see how you have used them.
Here is one of the only ones I have showing a full view of the bed with the cannas.
Seed, that's really pretty. The cannas look like they are in shade. Is that just the photo or the time of day or is it really shade?
Most of the day they are in the sun, but later in the afternoon, that end gets the shade of the oaks. I had some cannas in a shady area for two years and they never bloomed, and grew very little, but they finally multiplied enough that I moved half of them to the sun. They bloomed that year and grew much taller and stouter. I left the others in the shade at the base of the stairs, I just liked the foliage in that particular location.
Thanks. Mine are in pots, waiting for me to decide where to place them. Decisions, decisions. Hardest part.
Steadycam--I use cannas in 3 places along my backyard fence. These old fashioned orange ones are my favorites. They grow about 7 feet tall. The others are yellow and about 3 feet tall.
Thanks, Bezzie. Those look pretty there where you have them. I finally planted two of my Tropicannas today. One I placed in the ground in sort of a "specimen" position in a bed. It will have a large lantana to the east of it and a large clump of zexmenia to the South of it. To the West it will have a Mexican turk's cap. The other I just uppotted to a bigger pot and set the pot in another bed behind a clump of Dietes. I have 2 left to make a decision about. Now is the only time I can see what I have and where things are. Once summer cranks up, It all fills in and runs together. Photos tomorrow.
I personally prefer to keep them far away from the house and places where people congregate. For whatever reason, I've never had a bed of cannas that didn't have ants too! They'll grow most anywhere that they get enough water. We hack them down and use the leaves and stems as much to cover the bed during the winter. If it gets really cold, I'll throw some old newspapers and a plastic sheet over that for a few days. Haven't lost a one yet.