canna growers - about container growing (from newbie)

I have ordered a c. Musafolia from Karchesky and Harris. I live in the east bay of San Francisco -- zone 9b, close to border of 10a. We rarely get freezing temps here. I am growing the canna as part of a larger scheme for a quick screen. I will be planting the canna in full sun.

Here's the deal: I'd like to put the canna in one of those giant wine tubs and place it on casters so that if it gets taller (or wider) than I'm expecting then I could relocate it. We have a nice view of San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate Bridge from our living room and I don't want to accidentally wipe that out. Some ugly portables were recently erected that will be there for two to three years...we are trying to hide them. Problem is there is very little space between the roofs of them and what's left of our view of the bay and bridge.

So, here are my questions:
How tall and/or wide might one expect canna musafolia to grow in a large container? (Ultimately, I would love it at about 12 feet.) Is one of those wooden wine tubs the right thing?
Assuming I would need to water it more often in a container, how often might that be?

If you think it might get much taller than this container bound, then I've a totally different location for it, at the bottom of the hill, where I would LOVE it to reach it's potential 20 feet. Then my questions become:
How much water will it need in the summer? (We don't get any rain here from about June thru October.) About how long before it reaches 20' (or does it really get that big)? Now that I think of it, there is some shade late in the day down there now, lol, because of the portables. I don't know if that's good or bad.

Finally, are there any other potential problems that I'm not thinking of here?

Sorry so many questions -- if you answer only one or two of them I will be grateful.
Thank you so much for your time in reading this!

Best,
Melanie

Melanie,
I have some in two gallon pots that are 8-9 feet tall now with several stems on them.feed well and water a lot and they will get real big in a container.Better in the ground..but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. :-)

Thanks, Eclipse! 8-9 feet in a two gallon pot is quite impressive! I was thinking I'd need a much larger container than that. I'm pretty convinced already that I'll go with the container, because I can just keep it on the lawn and take advantage of the built in sprinkler system, not needing to add much in terms of supplemental water. I already need to increase to every-other-day watering on that system (for reasons I shouldn't bore you with).

Thank you most kindly,
Melanie

Wow, Karchesky and Harris was quick! I just gave them the CC info on Sat. and the canna came in the mail today! I'm impressed.

Does anyone know if a clay pot vs. a redwood or cedar pot would keep the soil warmer?

thanks,
mel

Just wanted to let ya'll know I gave up on the idea of a container. I couldn't have used two gallon pots because I'm planting outdoors, and I'm pretty sure they would have blown over in the wind right away. So I was looking at 24" diameter pots and larger. Went to go buy one, and wow, are they heavy. I was looking at the glazed ones so it would hold moisture better. By the time you add soil, I figured easily over 100 pounds, if not 200, so my idea of being able to move this 10' plus tall canna around became a bit hard to imagine, to say the least.

So, it's in the ground. I dug a big ole hole, put in a bunch of compost, and put her in. Gave it a little TLC, because it was kind of late in the day by the time I planted it. I swear, the stem (or whatever you call that) grew an inch by the next morning! I hope it's happy there. When I figure out how to get a picture from my 35mm camera onto this board, I'll post.

If it obscures the view, well, I suppose I can always rent a tractor and drag it out, lol.

Best,
Melanie

Melanie,

Have you ever seen those Rubber Maid tubs that people use for laundry baskets, toy boxes, etc? We have quite a few of them that we have painted with Fusion paint (for plastic) in both hunter green and terra cotta. My DH then wraps the nylon rope handles with electrical tape. (Not only does it make the virtually disappear from view, but it also protects them from degrading in the sunlight.) Once all that's doen we drill a hole in the bottom, fill with soil and plant. Not only do they look great, but they are really very easy to move around as they have handles.

I have grown a duranta, Buford hollies, brugmansias and a wisteria in them and will be transferring my Tropicanna cannas to one (as well as some other plants) once they're large enough.

And if that isn't your cup of tea, why not buy or build a plant dolly so you can move your container around?

Hope some of this is of some help,

Donna/dstartz
http://davesgarden.com/members/dstartz/

Donna,

What a neat idea! Wish I had thought of that before I spent all day digging, lol. I did look at the dollies that are pre-built; unfortunately none of them were tough enough to wistand moving around on the lawn something so heavy as banana canna in a gigantic pot. I think they were built with decks and patios in mind. If time weren't in such short supply, building my own would have been a good option. Problem is, the students move into these portable classrooms in September, so I've little time to get my privacy garden going. It's sort of panic gardening, lol. But I'm enjoying it nonetheless, partly because of the fun interactions I've been having on these forums.

Thanks you so much for your thoughtful input -- I am placing it in my memory for the future.

Best,
Melanie