Canna Louis Cottin - Indian shot

Canna 'Louis Cottin' is an old variety that stands out with its small size and warm colours. Its flowers boast a soft apricot-yellow enhanced by a red centre. The blooms emerge from a bouquet of large, purple-tinged leaves. It looks wonderful on a patio or in a garden with an exotic theme. Cannas are fond of heat and sun, and love fertile and moist soil. These rhizomatous plants are cultivated like dahlias.

Canna 'Louis Cottin' is a horticultural creation, belonging to a large group of hybrid cannas of unknown or complex lineage, all of which originate from tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. This plant belongs to the Cannaceae family, and to the same group as gingers and bananas. From spring, its thick and knotty rhizome develops a dense and wide clump measuring at least 50cm (20in), composed of numerous large entire leaves whose sheathing base forms a false stem. The colour of the laminae is a slightly variegated purple with dark green on the oldest leaves. From July until the first frosts, thin floral stems, 80cm (32in), tall appear in the centre. The asymmetrical flowers are grouped in dense spikes, displaying apricot-coloured petals maculated with red in the throat. The dry vegetation disappears at the end of the season, while the plant goes dormant. Cannas rhizomes are sensitive to frost, and they prefer to spend the winter in fairly dry soil. Leaving them in the ground during winter is only possible in our mildest regions, with a thick protective mulch.

Hybrid cannas are majestic and colourful plants, ideal for adding interest to the back of borders for taller varieties, or for brightening up patios and balconies for more compact varieties. Growing them is within everyone's reach. Consider planting them in dense flower beds of about ten bulbs of the same variety, or by mixing green and purple foliage. Canna 'Louis Cottin' can be used to create sumptuous pots with a very exotic appearance, in the company of agapanthus, amaranths, and cosmos. It forms a beautiful association with a banana tree or bamboo. Grow this plant like a dahlia. Dig up the rhizomes before the frost arrives and replant them in spring.