Hi,

well you have picked an easy plant, especially for your area.
They LOVE sun, average to good soil, lots of water, and lots of fertilizer once they are in active growth (June--> September).

I would just experiment in your area with hardiness. Most likely quite a few would be hardy in the ground for you,but it all depends on the winter, location, soil etc.

I have the best luck growing mine in big pots and bringing the rhizomes in for the winter.

See my canna photos at link below.
Welcome to the canna club - LOL!

Boca Joe

Here is a link that might be useful: Boca Cay Cannas 2005

Here in the DFW area, we routinely get several 20 degree days each winter, & my cannas, cut down & mulched with a thick layer of autumn leaves, do fine.

In fact, a couple of them are showing new growth already!

Just put your cannas in a bright, sunny spot with protection from the wind.

Cannas' big leaves are like sails that are connected only at the bottom, & wind will tear them to shreds.

You don't have to deadhead, although I've heard that cannas will flower more if you snip off the *individual* spent flowers (flowerlets?) & not the whole flowering end of a bloomstalk.

I wouldn't let them go to seed:
1. It'll be at the expense of continuing flowering.
2. Being hybrids, many cannas don't breed true from seeds.
3. Cannas spread well enough by themselves, & the increase will be the same variety as the parent.

After the first hard frost, the foliage & stalks will look like brown mush.
That's when you cut them off near the ground & mulch them.

Canna Bugs:

The canna leaf roller is the Northern Skipper butterfly.
This past summer, I decided to let nature take its course so that I could have butterflies.

Well, last summer was the ugliest summer on record for cannas in my garden, & I think I saw 2 Northern Skipper butterflies!

Leaf rollers ruined the shapes of probably half of the plants.

This year I'll be using either trichogramma wasps, which are microscopic wasps you buy from an insectivorium (sp? & it may not even be the exact right word!), or BT, bacillus therengensis (sp?).

Best luck, & have fun!

Beautiful photos!