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darlene_tn

canna id please!

DARLENE_TN
18 years ago

I bought a few of these Cannas last fall from Lowe's on clearance. As best I remember the tag said something like Canna Argentina or Canna Australia! Here are a few pictures to help ID this plant. If you can ID it I also need to know whether it likes sun or shade. I have one in each place (sun & shade) but neither look as healthy and good as the rest of my cannas.

Thanks for any help!!

Full size pic

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THE LEAVES


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THE BLOOM


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DARLENE

Comments (7)

  • skygardening
    18 years ago

    I have a friend who's father works at Lowes. He said it is canna australia"sp". It grts about 4 feet tall. Do you have any to trade? I have Richard Wallace (yellow) that I could trade with you.
    Sky~~

  • RainbowDreams
    18 years ago

    I think what you have is probably Black Knight or Red King Humbert. Those are common ones that Lowe's sells. Australia is a collector canna and I've never seen it in a box store. It's rare, hard to find, and rather expensive when you do.

  • skygardening
    18 years ago

    Is the leaf brown like that or is it just drying up? That is what he was going by.

  • skygardening
    18 years ago

    There is one on Ebay for $13 buy it now. Is that not what it really is? What would the price be?

  • DARLENE_TN
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    The leaf is actuallt brown,w/yellow and streaks of green. I bought it last fall because of the color and had never seen one like it before.
    Darlene

  • RainbowDreams
    18 years ago

    The yellow streaking is probably due to the canna virus. Australia has deep deep burgundy leaves, nearly black. Red King Humbert and Black Knight also have dark leaves, but Australia is even darker, rarer, and much more expensive.

    To limit the virus, you might try cutting back your infected cannas and disposing of the debris. Do not compost or you only spread the virus. AND cleanse your pruning shears in bleach after cutting back the cannas to prevent contamination to other cannas.

    In hot climates, symptoms of the virus will dissipate as the cannas grow and the virus goes dormant. It will resurface with cooler temps. If you like the streaking, then you have nothing to worry about. The virus won't harm the cannas. And often a virus is introduced into plants to achieve the variegation we like. But when trading, please alert prospective traders that your cannas have the virus so they can choose whether or not to bring it into their gardens.

  • capehlke
    18 years ago

    I agree with the above comments. The canna does look to be 'Austrialia' even if it did come from Lowes.

    It is however probably the most infected specimen I have ever seen. It really should look like this http://www.karcheskycanna.com/australia.htm
    The virus is 'Canna yellow mottle badnavirus' The streaked leaves start to be deformed (as is evident in the picture) and prematurely die. The growth is also stunted. The virus will spread to other cannas if planted in the same bed. FYR the state of California shut down a number of canna nurseries this year in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus and in 2004 Ian Cook's National Heirloom Canna collection was destroyed to prevent further spread (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/iankcooke/OpeningFrameSet.html)

    If it were me, I'd destroy this particular specimen but if you like the streaking and keep the dying leaves cut back, don't have other cannas, and want to contain it, then by all means enjoy this exotic plant

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