Gardening | Brian Kidd's tips for growing cannas

Sofia has to have walks of course but I can't remember having to wear Wellington boots every day because the lawn in the back garden is so wet. The water comes half way up my shoes and it’s a dirty job trying to get them dry and clean. But sitting indoors brings happy memories.

When I was an apprentice gardener cannas didn’t flower unless they had been grown in pots in the wonderful conservatory at Victoria Park where there were great displays.

Cannas flowered in late summer but this was always a bonus. The leaves were considered the best part of this plant.

Forty years on we take it for granted they will flower as the weather is entirely different; warmer seasons with much milder winters. It's a good idea to pot them early so they have large leaves when we plant them out.

Cannas originated in India. Their botanical name is Canna indica and they are commonly known as Indian Shot because the seeds are as hard as shot – round and look like shot used in old pistols.

Cannas are available at garden centres. A pack of five different colours is about £4.99, but they won't bloom unless we help them.

If you decide to buy five in one of the fancy packs at your garden centre, put each one in a five-inch diameter pot into any universal compost. Water them and in about four weeks foliage will appear. You don’t need a greenhouse, just put them in the pots in a window in the sun.

Which way up? You will see pointed shoots, those that will produce the leaves. Keep these upright. The ones I bought had tiny roots. These go downwards in the pot. Don’t use a large pot, find one which will be just big enough to take the roots.

Keep the compost moist, lots of light and plant them into the garden after May 21, when the danger of frost has passed.

Why all this bother? If cannas are started now, they will produce beautiful flowers in late July and on right into autumn.

Cannas have beautiful foliage, they look great in any part of the garden, they love sunshine and are also brilliant in pots and containers.

In winter they need to be kept in a frost-free place. If you grew them in containers last year, knock them out of the pots, yank the rhizomes apart and put each one with a pointed shoot into a new pot. Give them a little water and in four weeks, they will send out new leaves.

Can they be grown from seed? Yes, but germination can be tricky and they will almost certainly not produce flowers until they are two years old. I know a lot of you love growing from seed so here’s a trick to ensure they will grow.

Shake the huge seeds in a screw-top jar with a tablespoon of sharp sand for five minutes to break down the hard coating and then put them in rain water for an hour. Sow the seeds around the edge of a five-inch diameter pot about an inch apart and germinate at about 18C (65F).

Welcome to an Indian summer !

THIS WEEK’S TOP TIP

It’s amazing how compacted the soil is now. Winter-flowering pansies don’t seem to be growing and it’s all down to the weather. Not many things are ‘early’. Fork over ground where spring flowers are to allow air into the soil.