North Coast Gardening

Amy and Gen Tropicanna the Garden: a Giveaway!

***Giveaway below***

Outside of the garden, I’m attracted to cool, subdued colors, like purples, blues, blacks and greys. But lately, in the garden? Give me some color! Wild, exuberant color, that shocks the eyes and cheers the soul.

So when the kind folks out at Tesselaar Plants offered to send Amy Stewart and I some Tropicanna cannas, I was all over it. Miss Zonal Denial is ready for spring!

Three Tropicanna varieties

The original Tropicanna, Tropicanna Gold, and Tropicanna Black (photo courtesy of Tesselaar Plants)

happy lemonsWe took some of our Tropicanna bounty over to local artist Linda Mitchell’s home. Linda (yes, those are her lemons at left!) has a gloriously tropical garden of her own, with loads of exotic fuchsias, bold foliage and exciting colors that come up in summer.

Here’s Amy and I finding homes for all the different kinds of Tropicanna:

These are one of the hardiest “tropical” plants around. They’re safe in the ground to zone 7, and gardeners in zones 6 and below can plant them in containers, or just dig them up each season and bring them in. In my area where they overwinter easily, they reach about 6′ tall, but in pots they’ll stay a more sedate 3-4′.

Inspiration board for the three kinds of Tropicanna canna:

Tropicanna4173954047_e6f935f9c5_bCanna Tropicanna Black AlstroemeriaEuphorbia photo by wlcutler on Flickrsunrose or helianthemum UnciniaGolden CallunaClianthus puniceus Parrot's Beak - Copy

Top row: Tropicanna canna, Alstroemeria ‘The Third Harmonic’, and Uncinia uncinata ‘Red’

Second row: Tropicanna Gold, Euphorbia characias, Calluna ‘Beoley Gold’

Third row: Tropicanna Black, Helianthemum ‘Henfield Brilliant’, Clianthus puniceus ‘Red’

Would you like to grow your own Tropicanna cannas?

Tesselaar Plants has provided a whopping FOUR SETS of Tropicannas for Amy and I to give away to some lucky readers. Each winner will get a generous set of all three types of Tropicanna, enough of each to try them in a number of cool combinations.

All you have to do is comment here and over at Garden Rant to win, and next Thursday Amy and I will each announce our two winners. US only. Good luck!

And if you want to connect with the nice folks out at Tesselaar Plants, you can check them out on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

Genevieve

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34 responses to “Amy and Gen Tropicanna the Garden: a Giveaway!”

  1. Beautiful cannas. Thanks for letting us know about the Tropicanna variety.

    maynekitty[at]live[dot]com

  2. Tropicannas (or any kind of cannas) are my favorites! Living in zone 9, I don’t think we can have enough of them!

  3. We plant them along the front of our office. They look great, especially the red.

  4. Those colors are absolutely stunning! I would have to bring them indoors in the winter but it would be totally worth it.

  9. I love that you paired the dark purple black leaf Canna next to the yellowish house .
    That is going to be a great color combination as well as the gold banded canna next to the blue/green art studio.
    I’ve never grown Tropicana Black and now I am inspired to give it a try this year.
    I have grown Canna Australia , which is not quite as deeply rich in foliage color, but as you can see from this attached photo, it looks good with other tropical looking foliage plants
    From Pina Colada

  12. Those are gourgous Cannas. I have never grown these before! I am slowly incorporating flowers and bulbs into my veggie garden. Watching your video cracked me up this morning! You 2 are fun to watch!

  13. I love Canna tropicanas – Phaison is my favorite but I’d love to try black. I have one next a burgundy Cordyline ‘Festival Grass’ with an Abutilon ‘Halo’ growing up the wall behind it next to my front door. It’s a wonderfully striking combo that really captures my eye when I turn the corner to my street. Seems to be doing fine despite the fact it’s in shade for a good part of the day. I grew mine from a five gallon at the nursery. Any idea how long the rhizomes take to get going?

  18. I’m big on cannas in pots and in the ground, but frankly won’t need them for about two months or so here in the frozen north. That’s when I’ll head to the cellar and see how my buckets of rhizomes overwintered.

  19. […] think you’ll totally dig Gen and Amy’s video about pots full of colorful tropicanna Cannas. Check it out! You Might Also Like: Community Container Garden Hear ye, hear ye! Community […]

  21. I just love them!! I had both the Tropicanna & Tropicanna Gold!! in big pots! Just
    beautiful in fact they were so awesome that while I was at work some low life entered
    my secret garden and stole um’ 🙁 – OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!! (that is how awesome they were.) Well, … now with camera action happening (there goes the neighborhood if I must
    resort to this 🙁 I can keep my “Hidden Hawaii”! still in the S.G.Valley. 😉
    I won’t quit planting … I’ve got “green” in my blood! Plant Fever!!!!! obviously, I dig it!
    just as much as the rest of you! lol

  22. Tropicannas are fun! Loved the video. You famous garden bloggers are just like me and my friends, except you have excellent writing skills. Thanks for keeping gardening real.

  25. Tonight I was searching for a photo online of a Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’ in a container planting, and finally I found one on your web site, of the Silver Falls, a salvia farinacea, and the black Tropicanna. I said, “Now THAT’S a great container!” It is simply stunning! I have been in charge of my child’s school plant sale for 3 years now, and every year we try to come up with new and different plants for the sale. I think that I have accidentally stumbled upon some new plants for us to offer for next year’s sale! The Tropicannas are new and different, and obviously easy to grow. What a find!

  26. Tropicannas are great foils for the garden, I love them in containers too.
    Haven’t tried the black leafed variety, but guess thats on the list for this year.
    Love how you are getting wild with color. Push things to the extreme. Remeber with Victorian society gardening, tropical plant and garish colors were au courant and de rigor. American gardeners have been experiencing this revival for a bit now, but its called “new” and “bold”. That’s OK, be bold!
    LOve what you are doing with your site!

  28. Thank you so very much Gen and Tesselaar !
    This summer I am opening my garden to the non profit garden group ‘Bay Friendly Gardeners’ for their annual tour, and know that these plants are going to be a show stopper.
    I’ll be sure to let folks know how and where these wonderful plants came from.

    In much appreciation,
    Michelle

  29. Yes! Thank you Gen and Tesselaar !!
    For the “Eye Candy For The Soul” Tropicannas ! I can’t thank you enough for the
    second chance to have these beauties in my “Hidden Hawaii” in the S. G. Valley!
    They are definitely the total” look at me plants” and ….. ENJOY!!!
    And you know I will ! 🙂
    I DIG IT :0) Roberta

  34. Absolutely beautiful! I am new this year to gardening and trying to fix up our new yard…I am instantly obsessing over it and I bought 3 different varieties of cannas and they are in pots currently and doing amazing! I read that they may not bloom the first year but even the foliage is beautiful. I am in love with these and excited to get more for our lawn! I started a project that didn’t seem so big at the time but now am motivated to make it look great. I laughingly told my husband that I give up on the inside of house( having 2 toddlers) and is endless battle, that atleast with my flower garden this is something I can take pride in and no one is going to follow after me and mess up:) so winning these beautiful flowers would be a greatly appreciated addition to my new favorite place. Thanks, Erin