Canna Red King Humbert - Indian shot

Canna 'Red King Humbert' is a rare and truly majestic canna. It first captivates with its foliage, which takes on a beautiful bronze-patinated brown colour at maturity. This sublime dark foliage borrows its luxuriance from the banana tree, and enhances its long summer flowering. It blooms from July to the first frosts, with a gorgeous shade of red-orange. It forms an imposing plant measuring 1.5m (5ft) tall if it receives the right amount of water, heat, and food. This rhizomatous plant with a tropical appearance appreciates the sun and the shelter of a patio. It also thrives in open ground, in a mild and warm climate, for example on the banks of a water point.

Canna 'Red King Humbert' is a fairly old horticultural variety, resulting from crossbreeding between C. edulis, or C. indica, a large perennial native to the tropical and subtropical regions of South America, with C. flaccida, which has wider flowers and spectacular variegation, native to the wetlands of the southeastern United States. All these plants belong to the Cannaceae family, and to the same group as gingers and banana trees. In spring, its thick and knotted rhizome develops a dense clump measuring at least 80cm (32in) wide, composed of many large entire leaves whose sheathing base forms a false stem. Over the weeks and with sunlight, the laminae become tinged with brown, purple, bronze, and even red in full sun. From July to the first frosts, thin floral stems reaching a height of 1.2 to 1.5m (4 to 5ft) (sometimes 1.8m (6ft)) appear at the centre. The asymmetrical flowers with shiny petals are grouped in dense spikes.

Hybrid cannas are majestic and colourful plants, ideal for adding spice to the back of flower beds or planted in large groups on a lawn. Their cultivation is accessible to all. Consider planting them in dense flower beds of about ten bulbs of the same variety, or by mixing green and purple foliage. Canna 'Red King Humbert' is a marvel for curious gardeners. It can be used to create stunning exotic-looking container displays. Given the size of this variety, a large container will be required. It is superb planted in isolation, but also forms a beautiful combination with a banana tree, bamboo, castor oil plant, or nandina. Grow this plant like a dahlia. Dig up the rhizomes before the frost arrives and replant them in spring.