Canna

CANNA (kdn'a). When the tropical plant from which modern garden carinas have been developed was taken to the United States in 1830,its large dark-green and bronze leaves were the most attractive part of it. The same thing was true of its early descendants, which were prin-cipally valued as foliage plants. After that time, however, plant breeders produced varietieswith glowing flowers of clear red, pink, yellow, or orange that are four times the size of the old-fashioned canna's dark red ones. New varieties are raised from seed but in ordinary gardening, carinas are grown from roots, which must be dug up in the fall and stored for winter in cool cellars, as the canna is tender to frost.

The stately canna is commonly grown in formal garden. The flowers are in clusters on stalks rising from the dark-green or bronze leaves.