Canna Strasbourg - Indian shot

Canna 'Strasbourg' is a medium-sized variety appreciated for its blood-red flowers in summer, which contrast beautifully with its clump of large bluish-green leaves. It is a fast-growing perennial with rhizomatous growth. Its exuberant foliage resembling that of banana plants and its spikes of large, warm-coloured flowers add an exotic touch to sunny beds. In colder climates, its base needs to be overwintered indoors, just like dahlias. Place it in a warm location, such as against a wall, and in full sun in rich, moist, and well-drained soil.

Canna 'Strasbourg' is a horticultural hybrid, belonging to a large group of hybrid cannas with unknown or complex lineage, all of which originate from tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. This plant belongs to the Cannaceae family, in the same group as gingers and bananas. From spring, its thick and knotty rhizome gives rise to a dense clump, 80cm (32in) tall and 50cm (20in) wide, composed of numerous large entire leaves with sheathing bases forming false stems. The colour of the leaf blades is a medium green tinged with blue. From July to October, thin floral stems appear in the centre. The asymmetrical flowers are grouped in dense spikes, displaying deep blood-red petals. The foliage dries up and disappears at the end of the season, while the plant enters dormancy. Canna rhizomes are sensitive to frost and prefer to spend winter in fairly dry soil. Leaving them in the ground during winter is only possible in our mildest regions, with a thick protective mulch.

Hybrid cannas are majestic and colourful plants, ideal for adding interest to the back of borders for taller varieties, or for brightening up patios and balconies for more compact varieties. Growing them is within everyone's reach. Consider planting them in dense flower beds of about ten bulbs of the same variety, or by mixing green and purple foliage. Use them to adorn a corner of a pond alongside colocasias, ferns, and ground cover species like helxines or creeping jenny lysimachias. Canna 'Strasbourg' 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.