Canna Lily growing and care guide and tips that will help gardeners to get healthy plants and beautiful flowers. Canna lilies produce showy blooms that can be found in different colors including cream, pink, yellow, red, and orange. These flowers are easy to grow even for beginners.
Canna Lily Growing and Care Guide
Whether you intend to grow your Canna Lilies in containers or in gardens, this post will provide useful information to help you succeed.
Canna Lily Soil
Canna lily grows in moist, organic-rich, well-drained soils. However, they can live in a wide range of soil types and don’t have any special soil requirements.
The flowers also prefer slightly acidic soil with a pH of about 6.5. Make sure the soil is well-dug and mixed with garden compost.
Canna Lily Planting
The best time to plant Canna Lilies is during spring through early summers. The flowers are planted from rhizomes. Establish rhizomes 4in. deep (10 cm), and about 2-3′ apart. Avoid overcrowding if you want the flowers to do well.
Plant the canna rhizomes with the tip facing upwards and cover with soil. Cover the area with a sizable layer of mulch.
Canna lilies can survive cold temperatures of up to 0° F. However, they should not be planted after August, north of Zone 8.
You can also grow Canna Lilies that were already given a head start and planted in pots. When transplanting them in the ground, make sure that you position them at the same level they were growing in the pot.
Fill the sides with soil, firm the sides and water immediately. You should also add mulch to help conserve moisture around the plant.
Canna Lilies Indoor Container Gardening
Choose large containers for planting Canna Lilies. The plants are large and will do well in large pots where they have room to grow. Your container should be at least 15 inches wide in diameter.
Also, ensure the pot has good drainage to avoid the plant from sitting in water. As noted above, ensure the soil is mixed with organic material to make it nutrient-rich. You can also add a slow-release fertilizer to support these plants that are heavy feeders.
Plant your rhizomes or plant in the pot and water it. Place it in a location where the arrangement will receive sufficient light.
Canna Lily Fertilizing
Fertilizing Canna Lilies is necessary because they are heavy feeders. Gardeners must provide a general-purpose fertilizer during the actively growing months to promote healthy growth. Fertilize once per month.
If you don’t provide your flowers with sufficient food and moisture, they don’t grow properly and look ugly. The best type of fertilizers to use are those made using organic materials. Using these types of fertilizers will help you not over-fertilize.
Canna Lily Light
The Canna Lilies do well when grown in full sun. However, they will survive in a shaded location. Best flowering will happen in direct sunlight especially when coupled with organically rich and well-drained soils.
When grown in hotter climates, the partial shade will help the blooms last longer. When the sunlight is too strong which is common in the south, it destroys the blooms.
The hot sun can also destroy the color on the leaves. The Canna Lilies are also grown for their banana-like leaves.
Canna Lily Temperature
Canna Lilies are native to tropical and subtropical regions. They do well in temperatures higher than 900 F. They are also not tolerant to cold or frost and can be damaged easily.
They also thrive when planted in areas with high humidity levels. If you are growing them in a location with low humidity, you can increase it using a humidifier.
You can also make a DIY humidifier by placing pebbles in a tray and filling it with water. Place the plant pot in the tray. Make sure the pot isn’t touching the water because you don’t want your plant to be sitting in water.
Canna Lily Watering
You must provide consistent moisture and do not let the soil dry out. However, don’t keep the soil soggy to avoid root rot. You can also reduce watering after flowering has taken place.
In comparatively drier areas, Canna Lilies need to be watered once or twice per week to appear at their best.
Canna Lily Pests/Diseases
The most pest that causes the most damage for Canna Lilies is the Canna Leaf Roller. One of the signs of these pests is leaves that are webbed and are not unfurling. Manually remove such leaves and treat the plant with an insecticide.
Canna Lilies can also be attacked by other pests such as snails, slugs, and Japanese beetles. These pests chew on the leaves as well as the flowers.
The flowers can also be attacked by different types of diseases including aster yellow and canna mosaic virus. Treat them with fungicides when you notice any symptoms.
Canna Lily Pruning
Pruning Canna Lilies is not necessary but it’s a great way to keep them looking beautiful and clean. It helps reduce the weight of the stems, resulting in less tall stalks falling over.
All the old flower stalks will wear off and die on their own, but you can cut them back if you want a neat look.
Overwintering Canna Lilies
Canna Lily rhizomes need to be overwintered indoors. In fall when the first frost arrives, cut the flowers back to ground level.
Dig up the rhizomes clumps and store them in containers filled with vermiculite or peat. Ensure that the temperature in the containers doesn’t fall below 400 F.
If you were growing your Canna Lilies in pots, cut them back and bring the pots indoors. You should also spray the pots with water once in a while to prevent the soil from drying out completely.
However, don’t water regularly or heavily. Avoid the soil from being consistently damp as it will cause the rhizomes to rot.
Canna Lily Propagation
The easiest method to propagate Canna Lilies is by dividing rhizomes. During fall or early spring is the best time to split the rhizomes.
Dig up the rhizomes and expose the joints. Make clean cuts at the joints ensuring that each of the segments has one or more eyes. The eyes are small bumps where new plants sprout from the rhizome.
Plant the segments about 5 inches deep and take care of them as you would with normal rhizomes.
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Final Thoughts
There are many varieties of Canna Lilies to choose from. You can select them based on the size and color of the flowers. Whichever you choose, you will get beautiful flowers if you give them the proper care.
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