Hardiness zones
Sunset All zones
USDA All zones

Landscape Use: Flowering accent, flower gardens, tropical, grouped as a border or poolside plant

Form & Character: Basal foliage is strongly upright and bold. Canna

Growth Habit: Vigorous growing perennial to 10', clumping by the copious production of underground rhizomes. Leaves emerge from rhizome buds.

Foliage/Texture: Large rich medium green ovate lanceolate leaves, 4-12" across and 1-2' in length, prominently pinnately veined, often tinged with bronze or red, coarse texture

Flowers & Fruits: Flowers formed in terminal spikes of many colors, mostly red and yellow, not tubular at the base, fruit a 3- valved round cap, green

Seasonal Color: Can flower all year long in mild climates, but mostly in spring to fall.

Temperature: Will freeze to the ground in cold winter areas. Lift rhizomes and store over winter if soil tends to freeze, Otherwise in mild winter locations such as the Southwest US, cut canna stalks to the ground in the late fall/early winter.

Light: Full sun, except absolutely NO western exposure in Southwest desert gardens.

Soil: Tolerant of most but highly alkaline, prefers an organic well-drained soil

Watering: Regular

Pruning: Remove spent flower stalks, prune to ground in fall

Propagation: Simple division of rhizomes.

Disease and pests: None

Additional comments: Many cultivars, some dwarf, some with bi-colored flowers. Dwarf cultivars make excellent edging plants. Easy to culture. A good coarse textured plant for mesic garden themes or around water features and protected patios.

Taxonomic note: Canna indica was hybridized and backcrossed with other Canna species, including the North American native, C. flaccida (golden canna). These hybrids have been known as Canna x generalis, or Canna x orchiodes, depending on flower characteristics. But they have been hybridized too, and the phenotypic distinctions are now largely lost or forgotten. Today, experts include all the canna hybrids under the scientific name, Canna x generalis.