Canna Tropicana

Cannas do very well here in Austin, Texas. They can take our heat and still bloom until frost.

Yours is already blooming!? Very beautiful. How old is your stand of Tropicannas? Mine are only about 15" high so far. Tell me your secret please. Lots of water? Fertilizer? I would really love to know. Mine get plenty of sun and water.

Tammie

mine are taking too long. I need to spray for bugs now so they have a chance. lol

I planted them last year. So they had the winter to grow friends.. :-)

I feed them acid plant food when I remember, but this spring has been very wet, so they have had plenty of water. Other than that I simply tell them how beautiful they are, and they like that.

Some of the Tropicanas get trashed by the wind here, but we have lots in bloom. I planted 40 more bulbs this year, so next year should be fantastic!

Gorgeous!! Mine look terrible. The bugs are eating one alive so I need to spray it...again. lol

wow..40 rhizomes! Are they all tropicannas? I can't imagine that many. I just had one small growing one when I started then bough two more. The growing tropicannas at HD are $17 and look TERRIBLE! I did find a decent looking one and planted it at my mothers.... been there since mothers day and it looks MUCH better.

Tammie

I added two new Pink Tropicanas, but the rest are all different colors. I just love Cannas. Such a big punch of color all summer long.

These are Cleopatra Cannas. Every now and then they will have a solid red flower amidst all that yellow. Just lovely. And the rhizomes don't cost that much. I think I paid $1.75 to $2.75 per rhizome. And they grow more every year they are in the ground. How good is that?!

Your cleo is beautiful too. I can't believe how big and blooming they are. My cleo was in a pot all winter in the atrium and grew fairly well. Put it in the gound and it promptly wilted and curled its leaves on the edges... sort of 'frilly' .. strange. It is now finally starting to put up a new shoot. The orginal foliage just looks 'goofy' and sad. I was worried it had reverted until I found a marroon stripe on the back of a leaf. You would have no idea it had it from the top.

Tammie

I'm lucky.....I just leave em in the ground over winter.

No Topicanna's at any of the nurseries around here yet this year .... a real bummer as I LOVE this hybrid!!!!

Good morning all,
A friend planted a tropicana canna in a pot and would like to know how tall she can expect it to get.
Thanks so much,
Mary

Morgan, your cannas look great.

Thank you, Dean.

If you live in Cedar Park.....that's an area that seems to get the brunt of all the ugly storms.....do you have any problems in the garden?

Pam

mine get about 4ft maximum. Again this year, mine are barely growing. Wanted to give one in a trade and could not find anything to dig without taking out my entire tropicanna.. they just did not spread this year.

Pam, no problems this year weather wise nor insect wise. Bermuda grass is a recurring problem in beds though.

Yes the dreaded Burmuda grass. Has anyone tried the OVER The Top grass killer? I got some and am not sure about using it. My beds are full of grass and I swear it goes six feet down at least.

I've never heard of that product.

I had a small clump of bermuda on one of moms small canna beds.. I dug and dug.. I swear I had a hole over a foot deep and pulled roots 18" long out...and more.. I was shocked! That stuff is amazing.. no wonder it survives glaring sun, heat and drought.. and it grows soooo fast! Don't blink.. it will fill a bed. Of course, it is growing around moms tropicanna I paid $18 for last mothers day..trying to choke it out... I won't let it.. I pull that stuff out of there every week!

Tammie

What gets me is it grows BETTER in the beds than on the lawn. It is my never ending Beast! Has anyone tried the product Amaze? I think my DH put some in a couple of beds to kill it a few days ago. My luck all the plants will croak and the beast will live.

We don't even grow Bermuda grass......but have it in the yard none the less. Have never heard of Over the Top product. My DH pulls out what he can, and then we put a weed barrier down, then mulch over that. We're seeing if that works.

Pam

I have 2 layers of weed mat and bermuda still comes through it. I cannot tell you how many cannas I have and it is a constant battle. I had an old piece of carpet down on the back side of the greenhouse and It grew right through that also. Was just wondering what you guys do. Im organic and my DH wants it gone for good. Im game for anything now.

We're mostly organic........will eventually use something non-organic when necessary.

Our neighbor has Bermuda grass.....and along side one of our plant beds with only a wrought iron fence between. My DH was tired of pulling it out all the time, so we hired someone to build a small stone barrier and mortar it in good. We made him start 4 inches below the surface and then go up from there. This did not stop it entirely.....but cut it way back to managable levels. We added the weed barrier this year, so we have yet to see the results.

Even our grass, Zoysia, was getting into the beds.....so we did the small wall thing to all of them. We have even talked of making a walled in raised bed of our planter along the neighbor's grass. We should have done it to begin with.....but who knew! And the wind still blows here.....sooo! But it is way down on the "I want" list.

This is a pic of some of it last year before mulching....you can see some of the small wall. And the bed is large....to make it all raised would be a major project.

Pam

Pam, great looking yard.

Thank you.........my DH thinks it could look way better.....but I convinced him we have to take time to sleep!!

:-)

I don't think I would use over-the-top around the cannas, unles you are VERY careful. Maybe try cutting the bottom out of a plastic container(milk, cream, juice, etc) and spray through the opening with the bottom on the ground. I do that with glosophate to the weeds around here. As I remember, OTP is supposed to only be freely sprayed around trees, shrubs and roses w/out damaging.

Great photos Pam. She has the most beautiful place with the swimming pool and all. Do you need another grandmother honey, I'm available. LOL Just fix up my room with a view of the pool and all the flowerbeds. (grin)

Don't you just hate the grass always growing in the flowerbeds but turning it's nose up in the yard? I've made lots of flowerbeds where the grass wouldn't grow. Only to have more grass there a year or two later than anywhere else on the place.

I have used round up in the iris beds with good results. Of course all I have in these beds are irises. I do not get it on the irises and even if you do it will not kill them. I have a bag of amaze but I've not used it. I have too much money tied up in my irises and daylilies to risk it.

Besides don't all of you think that weeding fun? I wouldn't know what to do with myself if something didn't need weeded all the time. I'd have entirely too much free time on my hand and would probably add a ton more flowerbeds to this 35 acre tropical paradise I'm creating around me. I can see it now, me down in the creekbeds planting more cannas, ferns, and a sprinkle of flowers here and there. Hummmm, I should be doing that instead of sitting here and typing these d-mails and post. LOL

Happy Gardening, Ya'll
Marian

Has my grass been talking to your grass, Marian? And you can become my YOUNG Grandmother anytime......a houseguest who weeds!!!! (grin) Can't get much better than that.

When ever I feel down about the yard now......I remind myself what it looked like a mere 3 years ago.
Then I don't feel bad at all!

Look at our early yard!

Pam

Wow Pam, that little mustang did a lot of work around your place. I need to find one of them and a dozer to borrow for about a week to clear off a little more of these place.

We have three open meadows but I'd like to clear out more around the creekbeds. This sounds so dumb but I'd like to put in some picinic tables in the back near one of the creeks and by some huge trees. It is such a beautiful setting back there. It's like being a million miles away from anything, no electricity, no buildings in sight, and just gentle rolling hills and creeks.

We have the front pasture and the house sits at the bottom of a hill. Then we have the horse barn and behind it is woods. Then behind those woods is another open meadow, then woods again and then another open meadow. Of course the creekbeds and ponds are all through the property. I just wish I could afford to rent a dozer for about a week. I'd have those neat little paths I'm making finished in no time. Ahhhh, I can dream about finishing it.

Happy Gardening, Marian

P.S. How your place looked before you got your yard and flowerbeds and pool and all in is how alot of my wooded area looks now. Actually after that storm that came through here a couple of weeks ago it still has some huge trees down that need to be cut up and cleared out of fence lines and so forth. Oh well, gives me something else to do this winter.