I also like Bengal TIger. More cold hardy than you might suspect. If you mulch, they should be good to zone 7B or maybe 7A (so 0-5 F.)

I should have mulched. Our lowest so far has been 8F and mulching would have saved me a lot of work..

I'm 7A (Arkansas), and I've never lost a canna in the last 30 years and do nothing (absolutely nothing) for them. I've even been trying to eradicate a row of them by benign neglect and some pulling, for 10 years. They are totally weeds in my climate.

I love cannas so much. so easy to grow and look tropical. I grow ’Wyoming’ and ‘Musifolia’ each year, but the Cannovas caught my eye. Great info here

Is there anywhere to get cannova cannas as tubers? i only see them available as live plants

Yes, Canna 'Bengal Tiger' is up there for me - which I think is the same as 'Pretoria'? Sadly, it was often very expensive here to buy grown, and rarely seen available from tubers. Another thing I noticed a few years ago when I did see them full grown at the nurseries, I suspected they had the canna virus. Yes, I know it is tricky to determine because they are variegated to begin with, but my Spidey sense was tingling...

I grew Cannas for the first time last season, I'm in Z8b Oregon. I bought a package of six tubers at Costco, 3 King City Gold and 3 Yellow King Humbert, a very cheap way to get my feet wet and gain experience. They all grew fantastically in the garden. King City Gold is a fairly ugly plant though, I do not recommend. Yellow King Humbert is much better, but still just ok. If they all survive (with no mulch) after our dreadful Arctic Blast, I'll give away the KCG and all but 1 of the YKH.

Later in the season I added Canna musaefolia (musifolia, musafolia???). Mine has slightly burgundy foliage and red-orange flowers. I later learned that there is also a plain green version of C. musaefolia. I really like mine, and it was a tremendously vigorous grower.

I'm planning on replacing the yellow ones with the dramatically variegated Phasion - AKA Tropicanna (some say Durban is the same, while others claim the flowers are distinct) and the dark leaved Australia. I also saw one called Volcanna in the display gardens at Sebright Gardens that blew my mind. It has foliage and flowers similar to Phasion/Tropicanna/Durban, but Sebright is not selling it and had no information on it. Who knows, perhaps its the same plant as P/T/D with yet another name?

The only problem I experienced last season was cucumber beetles eating the flowers and the young, rolled up leaves...awful little blighters!

Clark, the 'Cannova' series utilizes the genetics of a more cold resilient species, thus not only are these plants the bloom machines they are, but also keep going strong through the cooling autumn nights of my northern region. Last year, a Polish canna breeder was kind to have passed along a large amount of seed of his own hybrids. Although of very nice colors, the flowers of these had melted and fizzled with the cooler nights of September and October, while the 'Cannovas' remained in pristine form.

Did you grow your cannovas from seed? Do they attain a good size if so?

No, I had picked up some sturdy plugs at the greenhouse, but the 'Cannovas' grow and develop quickly from an early sowing.

Artinnature, I agree, 'Tropicanna' AKA 'Phasion', 'Durban' really can't be beat! :)

I actually favor Praetoria myself...pic taken 17 yrs ago.

I haven't grown cannas for years. There was a time when it seemed impossible to buy a canna which wasn't virussed in the UK so I just...gave up. The 'hardy tropical' style is ever-popular here in the UK (but not for me) so they have been back on my radar (but usually in someone else's garden).

As you say RP, it was a phase I went through a long time ago (though I was surprised to find that photo was 17 years ago). Now I wish to kill the ones that won't die on my property..but don't hate them enough to actually dig them. Cold/heat/drought and they're still here.

@dbarron - your Praetoria photo is lovely, and reminds me of why I was attracted to canvas and that variety in the first place (large leaves; exotic). But fell off that bandwagon - as RP mentioned the virus was prevalent, and also that particular variety was always difficult to get up here (and never seemed to multiply rapidly for me like the other canna varieties).

Hah, well in Pretoria's defense, it tried to take over my yard...advanced several feet from the bed in 2 years. Admittedly, in drought years it wasn't nearly as lush...and watering things just doesn't make up for natural rainfall.

Well, as I mentioned I haven’t been on the canna bandwagon for a bit, but at a recent seed exchange, someone brought their huge clumps of red King Humbert. So after picking up three clumps, looks like the circle is complete and I am back on that bandwagon…

Here is the elusive Volcanna in Sebrights display gardens.

Yes, hard to tell if 'Volcanna' is the same as 'Tropicanna' / 'Phasion', though here's a photo (from the net) of the latter, the colors certainly are strikingly intense in the red and sunset shades.