Yes, some cannas do better in water than others, but one thing I have found to be true with all cannas grown in water is to make sure that the crown of the plant is at least 3 inches above the water's surface. I usually grow them 4-5 inches above the water line just to be sure. I use the big aquatic mesh potting baskets and place them on cinder blocks and/or bricks to achieve the proper height. Trust me, this makes a huge difference.

Because all cannas love water, they can all be grown in the pond. Any canna can be a water canna. But allow them to grow a few leaves before you put them in the pond. A bare rhizome could rot. But a leafed out plant will absorb the water.

You want to set the pot shallowly in the pond with only the bottom two or three inches of the pot in the water. You don't want to flood the canna. But it likes its feet wet.

Can all cannas be grown in the ground?

Nancy

Yes, all cannas can be grown in the ground as well. And altho they all love moist soil, they tolerate some drought as well, even down here in the South. About the only thing cannas can't tolerate is having their bulbs frozen.

I have a few of mine in my pond.I use a regular pot but have broke sidewalk pieces in pot and then made mud balls around my rizomes.They were leafed out when placed in pond.I'm a zone 8b& my cannas kinda try to grow year round being mild temps.I do cover the foliage on cool nights after febuary& have been getting blooms now this month.They were fertilized before placeing in pond.(maybe my ducks poop will fertilize them now huh...LOL)also my water level changes with evaporation,so their hight/depth of rizome does change.

I put a canna Pretoria in the water at 3 inches of depth. The instructions on the box said I have to do so. It is a rhizome in a netted coconut wrap.

I still has not sprouted after 3 days.

Do you think this company selling these water plants is scamming the customers?

I think cannas can take 2-3 weeks to sprout. Mine do, anyway.

Thanks! I didn't know that they take 3 weeks to sprout. I compare them with gladiolus, which sprout from underground after just 5 days!

I have 2 in my pond. I had heard to keep the surface out of the water so one is placed that way in the pond. I inherited another one and just plopped it in the pond and it is covered with about 3 inches of water. It's doing much better than the one that has the surface out of the water.

It depends on the type of Canna, your zone and the plants micro-climate. My water Canna's crowns are at least 3 to 6 inches below the water level in order to survive our winters in zone 6. If I were trying to grow non water Canna's in the pond then they would need to have their crowns at water level or just let the pot just sit on slowly running water like a bog and then over wintered either in the bottom of a deep pond or out of the pond and heavily mulched and kept moist. Again depending on your zone.

bump - helpful thread

I needed to know if cannas could handle those polymer based gel water crystals. Obviously they will.

- Sandy