Working with the Canna Lilies (Canna Indica)

One cool thing about my apartment complex is that it came with a big batch of Canna Lilies in pretty much everyone's front yard.  There are so many of them and I'd bet that they've been here since the complex opened back in the late 50's/early 60's.  They seem to have started from underneath everyone's air conditioner window units, as apparently the water that drains from those provides a needed moist environment that softens the very hard covers of the seeds, thus allowing them to sprout.  They grow best on the east side of the complex as that side gets a lot more sun than the west side.

This plant is indigenous to the Caribbean and to tropical locations in the America's and from what I read on Wikipedia is good to grow through zone ten.  I have friends that grow it back home in Iowa though and it's grown there only in the spring and summer time while the weather is still warmer.  The bulbs/tubers are all dug up then in the fall after the foliage dies down a bit and stored in the basement in paper bags or boxes filled with sawdust and replanted again in the early spring.

3 to 5 flowers per stalk

I live in South Texas as you all know, but I've been keeping my Canna's in containers.  That came about when the landlord (God rest his soul) decided to replace the roof on two of the apartment buildings and gave me the option of digging them up before they were destroyed from falling asphalt shingles.  So, right now I have three containers of these buddies growing in the backyard and I need to get them transplanted into the ground Pronto!  They are spreading inside these containers and all three containers are starting to become really crowded.  This could conceivably kill off the plants, and I hate the idea of just letting them die.

The flowers of the Canna Indica are short and spiky, and really almost boring.  Get enough of these plants together though and they can make a rather nice show!  The flowers grow on stalks that come from the center of the plant, like most lilies, and they produce a several nodes on the stalks that become flowers.  On average, you can expect a stalk to have three to five flower clusters on it.  You can anticipate a flower to last for about three to six days, given the weather.  Hotter weather (90+ degrees) seems to make the flowers die faster.  Cooler weather (75 to 90 degrees) is optimum for a longer lasting flower.

Flowers and immature seed pods

Canna Indica is a Hermaphrodite, meaning that there are no sexes for the plants.  Each plant can fertilize itself and after the flowers die off it's not uncommon to see a strange green spikey ball begin to grow where the flower once was.  This is the seed pod.  It will stay on the plant for several weeks and grow, then begin to die off.  Once it has turned completely brown the pod will crack open and show many perfectly round seeds inside that will either drop off onto the ground or the pods will be popped off by someone like me who collects seeds.

The seeds themselves are apparently quite useful and are used in many crafts.  In the past, they've been used to make jewelry and even to fill maracas and other musical instruments that require that kind of sound.  They are also very hard and have been substituted for "shot" in the guns of the old west.  That's why an alternative name for this plant is "Indian Shot".  Apparently, when soldiers using rifles ran out of lead shot to use in their guns, they would look for one of these plants and collect the seeds to use in place of the usual lead balls they were supposed to load their guns with.

Mature pod with perfectly round seeds

If you've looked at these photos you've noticed that I have a rather substantial crop of seeds this year.  I have many many more than I need, and if anyone would like some of these please feel free to drop me a line.  I will get in touch with you to get your address via email, and get them shipped out to you asap!

My thanks to Wikipedia for some of the information gathered on this plant today.

Happy Gardening Everyone!