Add some drama to your urban jungle
For a taste of the tropics, the showy blooms of a canna lily are hard to beat
IN THE GARDEN SPECIAL
LONG before I’d collected the keys to my first house in East London, I’d put together a list of plants that I wanted to grow in its sheltered, south-facing garden. Among them was a canna lily recommended by the late Will Giles, an exotic plant pioneer and author, who turned a half-acre plot in Norwich into the ultimate urban jungle.
It was back in the early 2000s, and I’d travelled to Will’s plot to write a feature on it for a gardening magazine. I was blown away by the tropical paradise he’d created from scratch, and I left with a plan to create an exotic garden of my own, along with the names of some big, leafy plants that would thrive in my sun trap.
Scribbled down on my list of must-grows was Canna ‘Musifolia’, a dramatic foliage perennial that can soar up to 10ft in a season
300 varieties that are perfect for breathing life into a dull bed or border
and has huge leaves, measuring 3ft long by 1ft across. The following spring, I managed to track one down and it went on to provide impact in my space for several years.
Since that time I’ve grown loads of different canna lilies, both in my old garden and current one, where six varieties dazzle all summer. In my opinion, few other plants can compete for drama, thanks to their leaves, architectural form and showy flowers in shades of red, yellow, pink, orange and white.
Native to tropical and subtropical North, Central and South America, along with the West Indies, cannas were transported to other parts of the world by seafarers. As a result, naturalised plants can be found in south-east Asia, East Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and on several Pacific islands.
Nobody knows when they arrived on our shores, but they were first mentioned in a book from 1629 by
John Parkinson, a botanist and apothecary to James I. By the late 1800s, they were highly popular, thanks to an endorsement by the gardening cognoscenti, and were a mainstay of public garden bedding
displays. Today, almost 300 varieties are readily available in the UK, ranging from knee
high types to stately forms that require plenty of room due to forming sizeable clumps. Give
them plenty of attention and plants will produce a succession of flowering stems, often from late spring until the first frosts of autumn.
Some gardeners like to start cannas from bare-root rhizomes (bulb-like structures) in spring, but I prefer to snap up ready-grown, container specimens in summer. Apart from providing instant impact and delivering a better show in their first season, pot-grown plants don’t require any careful nurturing to get them going.
Most cannas will do best in a sunny spot with fertile, welldrained soil. They are suitable for breathing life into a dull bed or border, or for arranging with bananas, gingers and other statement plants in exotic displays.
Another option is to grow compact ones in 12in to 18in pots filled with John Innes No3 compost.
Ensure plants grow vigorously by watering regularly and feeding every couple of weeks.
For the best floral performance, wait until all blooms have withered on a stalk, then cut it back to a side-shoot. This will encourage plants to produce more flowers and not to waste energy on creating
seeds. Cannas are only half hardy and will expire in a cold snap. Prise rhizomes from the ground when foliage starts to die back, cut off top growth and leave to dry. Place them into pots of dry compost and store in a frostfree place until spring.
Those in mild parts can leave rhizomes in situ, covered with a thick blanket of bark chippings.
Prune the foliage of plants in pots in the same way, before moving them to a front porch, shed, garage or cool greenhouse.
If you’re in a part of the country where frosts are rare, you can leave containers outside, standing them on special ‘pot feet’ (some bricks will do at a push) to allow excess moisture to drain away freely.
In early spring, rhizomes will produce shoots. Those overwintered indoors should be set individually into small pots – make sure the top is just covered with compost.
Water and put on a light windowsill. Transfer into slightly larger pots when necessary, and plant outdoors when there’s no longer any danger from frost.