Speaking of tropicals, which we were at Meadowbrook recently, canna lilies are another plant that I've discovered long after most of you probably did. They weren't part of my landscape genetic material until last summer, when I bought a few dwarf varieties at Primex. (That's a place where I could easily spend my inheritance!) They were slow to get going but were a delight all summer long and longer into the cool weather than I would've expected, knowing that they're of tender constitution.
I had a yellow one with orange spots and a creamy apricot one, and interestingly, few visitors knew what they were. Had my visitors been from the South, no doubt they would've recognized them instantly.
Cannas aren't really lilies, and like many gaudy, outrageously colorful plants, they were popularized by the Victorians. Those Victorians sure were repressed. All their wildness came out in plants! Cannas are now what publicists and hyperbolic garden writers call "hot," a characterization that makes me run the other way. But they are cool. Guess that's what makes them "hot."
With the container-planting trend, cannas have taken off. Tropical plants, too, have become very popular up here in the hardy North. People are growing them indoors, and planting them on patios in summer. They're a bit funny looking, but that could just be my cold-weather sensibility. I can see how you'd come to love them, even be passionate about them, given enough time around them.
And then, as they say, you won't be able to resist. In other words, you canna have just one.
