Growing of Canna flowers, flower bulbs and plants
Canna is a beautiful, hardy, ornamental garden plant, mostly grown in tropical & sub tropical climate. The orchid-like flowers are often brilliantly coloured in white, cream, yellow, orange, pink, scarlet, deep red and various shades of these colours. The bold and attractive foliage resemble those of banana and may be green, grayish, brown or purple coloured with some cultivars having streaked variegated leaves. This provides an instant contrast for bedding purposes. Plants are perennial herbaceous with rhizomatous roots. Stems are glabrous and height goes up to 1.5 meter. Leaves are large, oval, markedly veined and up to 45 cm long.
The word Canna is derived from the Greek word ‘Kanna’ for a type of reed, referring to its herbaceous stem. It is a native of warm and tropical regions of America and Asia. It is commonly called ‘Indian Shot’. It belongs to Cannaceae family.
Use of Canna plants and flower bulbs
Cannas are excellent plants for bedding displays, shrubbery border & in tubs. They are also used as dot plants and in mass plantings of single colours against a wall or at the waterside. The rhizome of canna edulis is consumed as food because of its starch contents. Although canna flowers have very attractive colour, they have poor vase life.
Climate and soil required for Canna flower bulbs
Canna should be planted in sunny location. It is a tropical plant and susceptible to frost damage. It cannot tolerate temperature below 50c.
Canna can be successfully grown in sandy loam soil rich in organic matter. Soil must have water retentive capacity but should not have water logging problem because it may cause damage to the rhizome.
Canna rhizomes choosing, buying and planting
Rhizome selected for plantation should have strong healthy shoot with numerous thick roots.
Planting Cannas
Canna beds should be thoroughly dug up to a depth of 45 cm and left for sun drying for a week. A layer of 10 -12 cm well rotten farm yard manure is spread on the surface and the bed should be leveled before planting. The rhizomes are planted at 45-50 cm apart for dwarf cultivars and 60-70 cm apart for tall cultivars at 8-10 cm depth. Application of a handful of bonemeal per plant at the time of planting is recommended. The bed should be flooded with water after planting.
Cannas can also be grown in pots of 30 cm size. The potting mixture consists of two parts of cow dung manure and one part each of garden soil and sand. The plants require repotting every 6 to 9 months.
Care of Cannas
a) Watering: Canna spp. needs a uniform temperature, a moist environment and plenty of water at longer intervals than frequent light watering.
b) Manures & Fertilizer: Organic manure such as well rotten farm yard or compost, bonemeal, neem cake and some basic phosphate rich fertilizers are applied at the time of bed preparation. During flowering, feed the plants with liquid manure prepared by decomposing oil cakes.
c) Mulching: Mulch the bed with leaf mould or manure when the first flush of flowering is over.
d) Aftercare: Stalk which have finished flowering must be cut down to ground level to obtain continuous flowering. Remove the leaves which are damaged by frost. Regular weeding and hoeing encourages better growth and flowering.