Canna Felix Roux - Indian shot

Canna 'Felix Roux' is an ideal variety for patios or balconies. This perennial rhizomatous plant boasts a very bright flowering on compact vegetation. Its fairly wide flowers are tightly packed on stout spikes. They are light red tinged with muted pink. Its abundant and healthy green foliage is adorned with purple hues. It likes heat and tolerates drought, but it will be more beautiful if planted in moist but well-drained soil in full sun.

Canna 'Felix Roux' is a horticultural creation, belonging to a large group of hybrid cannas of unknown or complex lineage, all of which originate from tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. This plant belongs to the Cannaceae family, and to the same group as gingers and bananas. In spring, its thick and knotty rhizome develops a dense and wide clump measuring at least 50cm (20in), composed of numerous large entire leaves whose sheathing base forms a false stem. The thick green leaves resemble those of bananas, but they are marbled with purple. From July until the first frost, thin floral stems measuring 60cm (24in) in height appear in the centre. The asymmetrical flowers are grouped in dense spikes. The rounded blooms are composed of fairly wide petals in a soft and bright red colour. At the end of the season, the flowers are followed by peculiar round fruits covered with spines. These green capsules turn violet and then brown, and they contain fertile, black, and very hard seeds. This variety thrives particularly well in warm Mediterranean-style climates.

Hybrid Cannas are majestic and colourful plants, ideal for the back of flower beds. Consider planting a densely packed flower bed with about ten bulbs of the same variety, or by mixing green and purple foliage.  'Felix Roux' can be used to create stunning exotic-looking container displays, alongside agapanthus, amaranths, and cosmos. It forms a beautiful combination with a banana plant or bamboo. Grow this plant like a dahlia. Dig up the rhizomes before the frost arrives and replant them in spring.