Caption
Canna Tropicanna®: The original Tropicanna, Tropicanna Gold, and Tropicanna Black
Image Credit:
Anthony Tesselaar Plants
Botanical Name
Canna x generalis
Grown as
Toxicity
Sun Exposure
Water Needs
Height
Spread
Resilience
Plant Type
Planting
When to Plant Cannas
- Cannas can not tolerate cold temperatures. The soil must be 60ºF or warmer before planting rhizomes—often the time when folks put tomatoes in the ground. See our Planting Calendar for tomato-planting dates. Dig a small hole 2 inches deep and insert a thermometer to determine soil temps.
- In cold, short-season areas, start canna rhizomes in pots indoors or in a greenhouse, ready to transplant outdoors at the right time.
Where to Plant Cannas
Cannas need full sun for good flowering and consistently moist soil with a pH of around 6.0–6.5. Add lime before planting if your garden soil is acidic (low pH). Position plants away from strong wind; their large, soft leaves are vulnerable to damage.
How to Plant Cannas
- Space rhizomes 1-1/2 to 2 feet apart to give cannas enough room. Containers need to be at least 18 inches in diameter (per rhizome).
- Before planting, loosen the soil to a depth of 1 foot, then mix in 2 to 4 inches of compost.
- Dig a hole 2 inches deep and set the rhizome 1 to 2 inches below the soil with the “eyes” (bumps or nodes, which are growth sprouts) pointed up.
- Cover with 1 to 2 inches of soil. Tamp firmly.
- Water thoroughly, then withhold water for as long as three weeks and watch for signs of growth. Cannas are slow to sprout. Once sprouted, water at least once a week by slowly soaking the area around the roots.
- Full foliage color develops when days are warmer (59ºF or more). Blooms should appear in 10 to 12 weeks.
- Cannas should not need to be staked, as they have strong, upright stems.
Growing
Watering
Cannas need wet soil. If the soil doesn’t remain moist, provide a good soaking once a week and every other day during the hottest weeks of summer—water freely in dry spells. Maintain a thin layer of mulch to help retain moisture.
Fertilizing
Where the soil is fertile, fertilizer is optional. However, cannas are big eaters and would benefit from slow-release fertilizer at planting and twice during the growing season. Fish emulsion fertilizer, which is a little higher in nitrogen, is a beneficial organic alternative. Higher nitrogen fertilizers tend to increase canna height. Rose or tomato food products are also suitable.
Photo Courtesy of Anthony Tesselaar Plants
Deadheading Cannas
- To promote blooming, check your canna every few days to deadhead (i.e., remove spent flowers).
- When deadheading, use small garden pruners or scissors. Do not pinch with your fingers.
- Canna stems grow several flowers on a single stem. Snip off only the spent flower where it joins the main stem, leaving the other spikes to continue to bloom.
- Once all the flowers on a single canna spike have bloomed, you may cut that part of the stem back, but avoid cutting off any new budding spikes.
Cutting Back and Pruning Cannas
After the entire plant has been deadheaded several times and with flowers no longer forthcoming, cut the flower stem back to the foliage.
Only at the end of the growing season should you cut the plant—down to around 6 inches off the ground.
If the plant looks “trashy” or the leaves get sunburnt, however, you can simply trim off the brown edges (like a haircut) or trim off any dead leaves at the bottom near the stem.
Be careful not to nick the main stem. If the stem is damaged, cut it back to the ground.
You may see seed pods on your canna! These seed pods will make more cannas, so you can clip them off and put them right in the soil of your cannas; it may take a few years to get going, but you’ll have more cannas in the future.
How to Store Cannas for Winter
In Zones 7/8 and warmer, cannas can be left in the ground year-round. After frost kills the foliage, cut in-ground plants back to 4 inches. Add a healthy layer of straw or leaf mulch in the fall to protect rhizomes from the cold as the plants overwinter in place. (Note: Zone 7 doesn’t always experience canna-killing winter temperatures, so it’s a judgment call.)
Bring cannas grown in pots indoors into a garage or basement for winter. Keep them dry (do not water) until spring’s nighttime temperatures are consistently above 50°F, typically after the tulips have bloomed in northern areas. Only then move them outside for the summer.
In Zone 6 or colder, it is necessary to dig up (lift) in-ground cannas in the fall and bring them inside for the winter. After cutting the canna back (as above), dig out the rhizome with a shovel. Avoid damaging the rhizome by digging about 1 foot away from the stem. With your hands, gently loosen the soil and lift out the clump. Shake off the soil and cut off any foliage. Divide clumps into 3 to 5 rhizomes, each with eyes.
Cure the rhizomes in the sun or in a garage or closet for a few days to toughen them up and help them resist rot. Wrap each rhizome in a newspaper or a paper bag, along with a small amount of dry growing medium, such as peat moss, to absorb moisture and prevent rot. Rhizomes should not touch each other.
Store cannas over the winter in a dry place where the temperature will not drop below 40ºF. Often, this is a basement, attic, or garage. Check the rhizomes a couple of times over the winter to make sure that they don’t dry out. Mist with a bit of water, as needed. If you find rot, trip it away or discard the entire rhizome.
When spring’s nighttime temperatures are consistently above 50°F, replant outdoors. Make sure each divided piece has at least one eye; from it, new leaves will grow. Blooms should appear in 10 to 12 weeks.
Types
- ‘City of Portland’: 4 to 5 feet tall; green foliage with coral-pink flowers
- Ehemann’s canna: 5 to 8 feet tall; green foliage with deep rose-pink flowers
- ’Pretoria’, aka Bengal Tiger: 4 to 6 feet tall; variegated yellow-and-green-striped foliage with orange flowers
- ‘Futurity Red’: 2 to 4 feet tall, on average; burgundy foliage with crimson flowers; self-cleaning (drops spent flowers)
- ‘Toucan Yellow’: 2 1/2 to 4 feet tall; deep green foliage with golden-yellow flowers
- For a tall canna, the Canna Tropicanna® is a popular choice. Growing 4 to 6 feet tall, ‘Tropicanna’ boasts tangerine, iris-like blooms and exotic bronze foliage. Plant in the back of your garden bed or large containers for a dramatic statement on your porch or patio.
- A medium-size gem is ‘Los Angeles’, which has large, deep pink florets and opens out so that you can see the face. Growing 4 to 5 feet tall, this canna blooms from June to August.
As well as medium- to tall-size cannas, you can find smaller “dwarf” sizes and dramatic “giant” sizes!
- Dwarf cannas stand 2 to 4 feet tall and are easy to fit into our downsized modern gardens. ‘Picasso’ is a real attention-getter with bright yellow flowers and deep red leopard-like spots; it blooms from July to frost. ‘Wyoming’ has dark burgundy stems and lush orange flowers that bring life to a quiet bed from mid-summer until frost.
- Interested in a giant canna? One of the most popular is ‘Musifolia’, which grows up to 8 feet! With 3-foot-long red-vein leaves and red blooms, it makes a statement.
One of my favorite plants is cannas, i grow some from seeds and some i buy at Lowe's when they mark them down and repot. Do you have pictures of your cannas, any advise on growing cannas in containers?
Thanks,
I live about an hour South of Memphis.. Zone 7. I have transplanted cannas from a half dozen gardens over the last couple of decades and never had a problem with them not coming back up. In fact, we had one of the coldest, harshest winters here this past year than any we've had in my 50 years of living here. It was in the single digits for nights on end and below freezing for night after night this year and it wen't on like that from Sometime in Nov to around early to mid April. Of course thats harsher than normal but we do have very cold winters sometime. Even in the South. If you want to transplant and see quick growth, don't remove the dirt from the roots. Take one big scoop at a time and transplant the entire thing Or take out a big clup, dirt and all, split it into sections but just leave the dirt around them, you will have flowers quickly that way if you are doing it in Spring to Summer months. I've done it a thousand times in my own yard. You won't disturb the plant and they will come out just like they were never moved. All I do is, dig a hole, pour in a 5 gallon bucket of water, put the plant in soil and all and pack it back in, they bloom at the same time as my others. I transplanted 20 or so clumps this month and they look just like my others. Another thing I have found, if you want to eliminate any real care for them, don't cut them back EVER. Let the deal foilage fall on them when they die out in late fall / winter, and they will always come back thicker and hardier than ever. I never do a thing to mine unless I want to transplant them and they are MASSIVE. I've heard people say to cut them back for some reason time and time again, but I've never done it to mine. Not once and they come back thicker and bigger every single year. They got so tall the year before last they were up to near the roof. I would estimate some of them were 10-12. I'm over 6 foot tall and I couldn't come close to touching the tops of them. Unless you want to just thin them out, I suggest you do nothing. I have a few dozen beds of them in my yard, I dont water them. I dont bother them. I dont put anything around them and I don't cover them. They come back every single year thicker than the last to the point you will eventually want to move some and thin them out like I finally did this year because the entire front of my house became hidden by them in the last couple of years because they became so tall and thick you could barely see the front of my house. I have reds, yellows, tigers and other large colors. They are beautiful and so thick at times they look like a forest. My sister in laws mothers home is the same way. She said she doesn't fool with them execept when they get so thick they need to be thinned. My sister has some as well and she said she had so many this year she dug them up and thew them in the ditch because they were taking over her entire yard. In this are, the best thing to do for them if you want big, tall, massive numbers is to simply leave them alone. I have done the same thing for my tiger lillies and other bulb type plants. I plant them all over the place and just let them spread. We have had extended periods of every kind of weather one can imagine here over the last two decades. From drought to month long sub freezing at night ( and mostly in the day) to like this spring where it has rained nearly every day for a month or more. Cannas are VERY hardy if you ask me and I'm speaking from a couple decades of growing them and having them in our yard growing up as a child / for the last 50 years. I have some from my grandmothers strain, some from my sister in laws heirloom strain taken from her mothers home and some from my sisters mother-in-laws strains. They had them for decades. You can't kill them or at least I haven't and I dont do a THING to any of them. NOTHING. No water, no drainage no clearing, no cutting, no covering.. They all grow naturally without any help from me what-so-ever. I never even moved any of them after the first planting up until a few years ago and I began to spread them all over the yard because they had nearly taken over the entire lenght of the front area of my home. Now I have literally thousands of blooms each year that are now starting to bloom and will bloom until late fall most of the time.. Even in a drought. In a couple of months, my yard will look like a canna bed from one end to the other. In the next couple of years after this years new additions It's going to be even more amazing in the summer. If you are not transplanting the entire plant, then you will have to be patient because I have seen times when they wouldn't come back out until the next year. I have reds that I planted this spring that are not coming up yet and I expect they may not come up until mid summer and many of them may not come out until next year. They will come up. Unless your seeds or risome are bad, they will come up and within a couple of years they will begin to grow VERY thick. Within 2-3 years you will have a LOT of them. Within 5 years, you will have a mass number if you have decent soil. So if you live in an area where the temps fall down to freezing, I wouldn't worry TOO much, because it does it here and we had a long hard winter this year and mine are coming up EVERY WHERE. A little later than most years, but just as thick and hardy as ever. PS. The reason I don't cut mine back and let them die out is, the foilage will stay over the plants for most of the winter months and provides natural protection. You do NOT have to cut them back and I don't suggest doing it unless you just want to spend the time covering them up. I know people tell you to, do what you want, but I have never done it once in 20 years and my plants have never died out.. Not one time. I have found that mine stay covered ( here) very well throughout the winter months by the dead foilage and in the spring time ( around may here this year because of the extremely cold temps) they will start to peek through. I've never put any type chemicals on them. I've never had any type fungus or other problem, I leave them be and let nature do what it does best. At one point this year, mine tried to come out in april and we had hard frost /cold spell that knocked them back but as canna will do, they came right back a couple of weeks later and now I have thousands of them. Hope this helps. Don't worry , they WILL come up. I have some that came from Thailand that I planted from seed in the middle of summer here, I thought they weren't going to do much either but the next spring, I had them everywhere.. I just ordered a thousand seeds from an importer and am going to plant them in the next week or so. Don't rush them.. They will do what they are supposed to do when they get ready.. LEAVE THEM ALONE.. Water them if you like but other than that, just leave them be!
Where do you get the seeds from the canna and can they be planted rich away.
Thank you very much for your advice. This is my first year with canna lilies and have mine in a pot. I might transfer them into a larger pot or wait until spring and transfer into the ground. I will also be buying more which I will probably put either straight into the ground or into larger pots. The border I have is only small so I am restricted to where in the ground I can put them but it is good to know they will survive in clay which is what some of my border is. Thank you once again
You r so lucky! I'm new to growing cannas. Live in Northeast Pennsylvania. I just finished a new house and am starting to do my yard and landscaping. If u ever want to thin out ur rhizomes I would love to get some from u. I would gladly pay for shipping if u would kindly share your abundance of cannas. U can contact me at my email address.
Mine have yet to bloom this spring. I'm in Dallas. This is a new house for us.. Is their a reason ?
Also, I am total newbie gardener, don't know what I'm doing pretty much. My friend's cannas are real close together...So when we dig up the canna for me to transplant do we need to be extra careful not to damage the rhizomes vast root system since her's are so close together? And you said keep the dirt on the rhizomes? How big of a hole do I dig for it? And how do I trench it? And do I need to water it every day at first and how much water do I give it and how long do I do this at first? Do I put peat moss or something in the dirt hole? And should I plant it up against my house or can I put it out in the yard? I know they can grow very tall so do they need to be up against the house or not? Sorry for the multitude of silly questions but I really don't know how to do this at all and need any and all help I can get lol. Thanks again! Toni N
PS. Sorry, did realize what you said. If she only has 6 plants coming up, I would assume this must have been last years / springs planting for her and she started out with maybe 1 or 2 plants or she just bought a pot somewhere and put them out. If they are really close together, you will need to be more careful about damaging the rhisomes of her other plants. You may or may not get any small "baby" rhisomes in the bunch if they are newly established. If there is space between the plants, you will just have to take your shovel or maybe a small "hand shovel" and start digging in between.. Kind of go right down the middle between both plants. If you don't hit root, then you can take your shovel and separate you one out. That would be the way I would do it. Like "garden surgery" (ha), Just get the one the furtherest away from the rest, that will help. Then dig it up with an ample amount of soil left around it. The more the better in my opinion.
Thanks again John...and u can write a book anytime, you're advise is extremely helpful to me & I really appreciate your time! Her plants are well established but very close together, well over 6 feet tall, orange, and very beautiful. So it sounds like we need to be extra careful digging up the rhizomes b/c of this, yet you say it's ok if we cut thru big rhizomes. My friend says she's done this b4, but my brown thumb makes me worry a little lol. So, our soil here in this part of northeast Texas has a lot of clay so I think I should use potting soil and miracle grow with the dirt when I plant them, like you said. So you said they will spread on their own? That's awesome! You're help is so greatly appreciated. Thanks again, doesn't mean I'm not gonna be asking you for more sage advise tho lol. Toni.
Let me put it like this, I wouldn't just go in and cut them all up intentionally, but if you do happen to, its not going to hurt it. If hers are thickly planted, it will probably be almost un-avoidable to not cut one in half unless you are just digging out one rhisome at a time. I never do it like that. I just get me a shovel full and move them. If you accidentally cut one, it doesn't seem to phase them much. That's your best bet. If she will let you have a good ole shovel full, you should get some extra "babies' as well. Like I said, if shes really generous and you see babies, you may even be able to split it and plant in two or three places. I do that all the time too. Well, good luck.. MY LAST Canna comment. These people are going to start to think I live here ( ha). Vacation time.. good luck to you guys.. Hope yours all do well.
- « Previous
- 1
- 2
- …
- 10
- Next »
📣The Gardening Club Just Got Better! 3 Deliveries, 10% Store Discount, and more!
Comments