Canna Lily are tropical and subtropical flowering plants with large, banana-like leaves. Their popularity and active hybridizing have resulted in a dazzling array of cannas to choose from, many with large, showy flowers and variegated leaves that look like stained glass when the sun shines through them. Striking flowers notwithstanding, cannas are often grown for their foliage alone. The large, paddle-like leaves come in a range of greens, blue-greens, and bronze, and can have variegation and stripes.
Somewhat tubular and lily-like, canna flowers come in shades and combinations of yellow, orange, red, and pink and are borne on tall stalks poking out of the foliage. Rhizomes planted in spring after the last frost will take a few weeks to sprout but will then grow at a rapid pace and often flower in the first year.
Because most cannas sold today are the result of many crosses, cannas are rarely classified and are simply considered hybrids.