Wow, right? And no, they are not felt, this is the real thing, but thanks for the idea! Last Friday afternoon I ran outside for a moment, and there in my container garden was this amazing gift! A little cry from my green friends: "Hello, where are you? We miss you! " Or something like that..... It has been a bit of a rough year for the container garden: a drought, lots of very hot weather, and a caretaker who has been concentrating on crafting rather than gardening, alack alas. But I feel a little change coming on, and the need to reconvene with my green friends before many of them go to sleep for the winter......
So while Fall isn't the time that one normally talks about plants and gardens, I'm just reporting life as it is, and the fact that I'm starting to miss tending to my little garden. Mind you, the plants have more or less weathered this difficult period, with only a few losses, and all will be well in the Spring. That said, I just wanted to rave a little bit about Canna!
Who could resist leaves like this? Canna does great in pots, and in my region (tropical 7) it dies back in the in winter. If you live in Florida, Southern California, Texas, Australia, Israel etc, Canna is for you, as a perenial, otherwise you may be able to grow it as an annual, or move the pots indoors for the winter, but you'll have to do the research on that one!
Canna is a tuberous plant and thus multiplies quickly.....if you'd like to you can keep making more and more pots of Canna by cutting apart the contents of the pot each year when it dies back. Isn't that great? Maintenence wise, if you want the plant to look lovely you do have to cut off dried/dead leaves now and again, but all and all, given the gorgeous blooms, and it's dramatic height, it's worth it! And to top if off, this sun lover is very forgiving— the man in the nursery told me to let the pots dry out completely before watering, which is certainly what happenend this year!
Before I sign off, and give all the limelight to the Canna, I should say that I see signs of communication from a few other friends as well.
My Spiny Yucca (from the Agave family) is finally sprouting some babies from its tuberous exposed roots. I'll have to decide whether to leave them intact or cut them off and fill some more pots.....And are those lemons? What do you say? One of them even looks ready...I think his destiny may be as a Moroccan pickled lemon! More on that another time, all the best!
