OriginKELLY Herb HeightMedium FoliageGreen FormUpright FlowerPink BloomingGood bloomer TilleringSlow
Canna ‘Panache’ is a medium sized aquatic cultivar, equally at home as a water marginal or in the border; glaucous green foliage, lanceolate shaped, upright habit; oval main stems, coloured green; triangular flower stems, coloured green; spikes of flowers are open, apricot and pink, staminodes are narrow, edges regular, petals red, fully self-cleaning, good bloomer, blooms open in the early morning; fertile both ways, not true to type, self-pollinating, capsules globose; rhizomes are long and thin, coloured white and pink; tillering is slow.
Although a simple, aquatic cultivar, this is one of the best sellers when made available for sale. Aquatic cultivars have thin, long rhizomes which dry-out quickly over-winter and they are not easily handled, stored and packaged by the major canna growers.
(T) narrow green leaves, very delicate small flowers, soft apricot shading to pink. Quite stunning.
Plant Delights Nursery, Inc., 2000
This Herb Kelly introduction is one of the truly “hot” new Cannas. We received this Canna from our garden writer friend, Pamela Harper, who got it from famed designer Wayne Winterrowd, who extolled the virtues of ‘Panache’ in the September 1997 Horticulture Magazine. The narrow, pointed, gray green leaves adorn the upright stalk to 6 feet. Atop the clump through summer and into fall are charming, narrow, salmon pink flowers (darker in the center). This vigorous grower even spreads fast enough for you to share plenty. This is a C. glauca hybrid which can grow in standing water or in regular garden soil. ($18) ($15 in 2002)
Herb Kelly. Quite a novelty. Tall and slender growing, with bright green lance-shaped leaves. Smallish thin petalled pale cream wide-open flowers with a streaky maroon centre. Looks somewhat like a Water Canna, both in leaf and flower, and may be grown in water (as may many Cannas). Quite tall, over 2m.
Ian Cooke, The Gardeners Guide to Growing Cannas
(T) This lovely Canna is quite distinct from almost any other described in this list and proves that not all Cannas are brash. It has narrow, glaucous-green leaves and small, very delicate flowers in open trusses. The four petals are long and thin and their wide spacing creates a very open, spidery effect. The colour is a soft apricot, shading to deep pink in the throat. The overriding effect is light and open like a small cloud of delicate moths. It was introduced by Herb Kelly. In France, where panaché means variegated, the name is also confusingly used to refer to ‘Pretoria’ and other variegated Cannas.
Podgora Gardens, Sonja Mrsich, North Island, New Zealand. Catalogue
Creamy-pink petals and frangipane flowers. Green leaves. Found growing in a National Trust Garden in New Zealand under the name of ‘Highwie’. 100cm.
Rivendell Botanic Garden, List January 2001
Creamy pink flowers, blue leaves, tall.
KAVB International Canna Checklist, September 2004
Introduced by Herb Kelly, before 1997. Narrow pointed grey green leaves; narrow salmon pink flowers. A Cannaglauca hybrid. (Plant Delights Nursery, Raleigh, North Carolia, USA. 5 Feb 2002)
Summary: A medium sized clump of narrow green leaves crowned by gorgeous small flowers, soft apricot fading to pink.
Size: To 1.5m.
Flower: Small flowers, soft apricot fading to pink.
Foliage: Narrow green leaves, showing a relationship with C. glauca.
Origin: Introduced by Kent Kelly.
