The Canna Flower

 Cannas are one of my personal favorite plants groups. They are striking in the garden with beautiful flowers in a wide range of colors and bold foliage. Over the years cannas come in and out of popularity and availability.  In the 1700's and 1800's only the well off Europeans were growing cannas in their gardens. The canna was seen as a strange new plant form the new world and they started taking the Victorian gardens by storm. As the cannas popularity grew so did the breeding, hybrids began to improve on the flower size and over all shape and size of the plant. By the early 1900's some of the more well known cannas were being developed by breeders around the world.

How to Make a Wabi-Kusa

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How to Make a Wabi-Kusa 

                   

Wabi-Kusa is a fairly new term to a lot of people. It comes from a Japanese aquarium artist named Takashi Amano. He is well known in the aquarium world for revolutionizing the entire industry. His aquariums look like works of art. While developing his technique in aquarium-scapes he had plants pre-grown in moss balls to use in the aquarium construction. This was extremely smart since he was able to get well grown plants set up in the aquarium instantly after insulation. The moss ball technique was later used to develop a whole new low maintenance aquarium movement. The idea was to set a moss ball with plants growing on it in a shallow tank or bowl of water and allow it to grow. The results can be very rewarding and it reminds me a lot of an aquatic version of bonsai. Much like bonsai the different variations of wabi-kusa have become only limited to what can be grown on a moss ball.