Canna Red Wine - Indian shot

Canna 'Red Wine' is a hybrid cultivar of medium-sized canna lily, valued for its vigour and magnificent colours. This plant has great ornamental value with its large dark leaves tinged with wine red, which perfectly highlight its spike of cherry-red flowers with a hint of pink. This flowering repeats throughout summer. It grows rapidly. It is as easy to cultivate as a dahlia, but possesses a completely different exotic charm. Plant it in a flower bed with pink or blue flowers, or in a large pot on a patio for a sublime display.

Canna 'Red Wine' is an herbaceous rhizomatous plant of the Cannaceae family. Its ancestors come from tropical areas of Asia and America. This canna lily quickly forms an opulent clump, about 1.20m (4ft) tall, occupying 70cm (28in) of space on the ground. It has large, entire, broad, oblong leaves that are sheathing at the base. The lamina shows a variable colouration ranging from very dark green with purple reflections, to brownish-purple and burgundy. It is entirely traversed by prominent veins. Flowering takes place from July-August to September-October, in the form of almost red spikes of flowers with a hint of pink. Each flower, 6 to 8cm (2 to 3in) in diameter, is asymmetric and composed of 3 petals fused at the base, 3 sepals, and visible stamens. The plant easily multiplies vegetatively by producing numerous shoots.

Canna 'Red Wine' can be used to create stunning exotic-looking container displays, alongside agapanthus, amaranths, and cosmos. It also forms a beautiful combination with a dwarf banana tree or bamboo. Hybrid cannas are majestic and colourful plants, ideal for spicing up the back of flower beds for the taller varieties, or for brightening up patios and balconies for the smaller varieties. Their cultivation is within everyone's reach. Consider planting them in a densely packed flower bed with about ten bulbs of the same variety, or by mixing green and purple foliage. Use them to decorate a corner of a pond with colocasias and ferns, and ground cover species such as helxines or golden creeping lysimachias.