If you are seeking a new, vibrant pop of summer color for your garden, how about trying a Canna plant?
The Canna, also known as Canna Lily* (Canna × generalis), is resilient and easy to grow in your garden. These beauties provide a dazzling show of large, ruffled flowers that are like Iris plants. The blooms have bright orange, pink, and red color variations. They also have tall foliage of large, variegated leaves that creates a jungle-like landscape in the garden.
Recently, I attended a presentation by UC Master Gardener-Yolo Janey Santos on “Creating a 12-month Garden”, which I found to be inspirational. The focus was on having combinations of plants so that there are blooms in the garden during every month of the year. I was happy to see that Cannas were her “go-to” summer plant for some nice, colorful drama… I can absolutely vouch for that!
Canna is a perennial plant in the 9b gardening zone, so it will return year after year with radiantly dazzling orange blooms. The plant also acts as an evergreen with year-round foliage. The variety of Canna that we inherited in our garden has a combination of green, yellow and maroon variegated leaves on stalks that stand approximately 4’ tall. In winter, the foliage can be a little rough around the edges, but do survive the cold season.
Give a green thumbs up if you do end up planting these beauties in your garden.
*Cannas are not actually lilies. They are more closely related to ginger, bananas, and the bird of paradise.