One of the most common inquiries I receive is from people who want to decorate their home with natural beauties of plants and flowers; they want to know about some unique options for their place.

This search for something ‘different’ becomes more pronounced when they’ve tried all the easily accessible options. We have all planted plants and flowers like pothos, commonly known as money plants, snake plants and flowers such as jasmine, rose, marigold and hibiscus in our home, at least once in our lifetime. Some opt for differently coloured flowers or leafy plants with unique designs or patterns in a bid to make their homes unique.

Today, we will tell you about the yellow-coloured Canna Lily plant, which offers the aforementioned options and might easily become your go-to choice when it comes to boosting your garden with some amazing flora. The buds, flowers and seeds of this plant all are unique in characteristic, nature, colour and shape, and even the multi-coloured leaves offer amazing patterns.

Even without its attractive, velvety flowers, the pattern of the leaves themselves qualify as ornamental. And the best part: you can easily grow the yellow-coloured Canna Lily at home, with little but continued efforts.

The Canna Lily plant is a unique plant to decorate your home and garden with and is easy to grow

The easiest way to get a Canna Lily plant is, of course, to get a grown one from a nearby nursery. But for many avid gardeners, this kills the satisfaction of watching your seeds develop into a plant and then growing some amazing buds and flowers. Taking nothing away from the fully-grown plant buyers, the entire growing process appeals to many, who love and grow their plants with devotion.

The flowers of Canna lilies come in shades of yellow, white, red, maroon, gold and orange. Similarly, its leaves have two to three coloured straight-lined patterns and can have any of the multiple colours from yellow to green and maroon to anything in between. One of my favourite Canna lily flowers are the yellow ones. Depending

upon different characteristics and place of origin, there are dozens of Canna lily varieties being grown globally. I have grown the Canna Cannova yellow and Toucan yellow Canna lily.

The Canna Cannova lily, which is botanically known as Canna x generalis and is available in the market with the common name of yellow Canna lily, can also be grown by seeds. The seeds of this plant are hard and round with a smooth surface, are shiny black in colour and have a size a shade bigger than a whole black pepper.

There are usually two to four seeds in a Canna lily seed pod. The seed pods change their colour throughout their life cycle. The seeds are ready for harvest once the pod changes its colour to light brown. Just a slight pressure with one’s finger can pop open the shrivelled pod, where one may find a few seeds.

Since the seed coat is very strong and hard, sometimes people try to scratch the outer coat with the help of a knife, sandpaper or nail-filer before sowing the seeds. This is done to improve the possibility of moisture entering the seeds and thereby promoting germination — a process which is termed as scarification of the seeds. The scarification is usually done at the seed’s hilum or on the side of the seed which has a slightly raised bump.

The best time to sow the yellow Canna lily seeds would be just around summertime, when the temperature is ideally within a range of 20 to 25 degrees Celsius. When sowing, you should ensure that the growing medium is softened, devoid of any pebbles or stones, and well-watered beforehand. The water should, however, not pool up, and the container should provide a well-drained environment to the germinating seeds.

The seeds should be completely covered with a layer of compost or the growing medium. The container should then be placed in shade, away from direct sunlight exposure. In favourable conditions and with controlled external factors, the seeds are likely to germinate between one week to ten days of sowing the scratched seeds. Trying to germinate a Canna lily seed without scarification may result in failure though.

Next week, we will see how the Canna lily seedlings fare as they grow and mature to finally arrive at the flowering stage. We will also cover its required fertilisers, possible pest and disease attacks with their remedies, and a few other factors that can help you to beautify your place with a bright yellow Canna lily flower plant.

Please send your queries and emails to doctree101@hotmail.com. The writer is a physician and a host for the YouTube channel ‘DocTree Gardening’ promoting organic kitchen gardening

Published in Dawn, EOS, March 3rd, 2024