“Each act of imagination, each moment of creative life stands up to the entire material universe and affirms the reality of meaning against the corroding solvents of entropy, dark matter, or whatever else may be dragging the physical world into oblivion.”
“While it can be used for fantasy, illusion, make-believe, and escapism, the real work of imagination is to make contact with the strange world in which we live and to serve as both guide and inspiration for our development within it. It is the way we evolve. Imagination presents us with possible, potential realities that it is our job to actualize.”
Gary Lachman
Our Forest Garden 
Six?
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Oh, not enough good photos this week, I’m sad to say. At least not enough things that were new. It has been a busy week here. I did begin planting out the Cannas and gingers you sent today! I’ll keep working on that this week. It is 90 here right now, so I finished up outside before it got too hot to work happily in the sun 😉
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Pictures need not be good, Otherwise, I would post only picture of Rhody, and only if he cooperates, which he rarely does. It is warmer there than it is here or in Southern California. The Canna started to grow earlier but then decelerated. I will start using some in the kitchen soon because there are too many that I can not share. (They got too close to some that were potentially virused.)
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In the kitchen? Are these Cannas edible? Yes, we set a record for heat today- 20 degrees above average, and the closest record was 89 in 1941. Not a good way to start the summer season. And now there is a severe thunderstorm headed our way for the evening’s entertainment. Rhody is such a sweatheart. I love when you post photos of him! Some of the Cannas I put outside today are already a couple of feet tall! Very exciting!
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Gee, the biggest Canna here is only about a foot tall, and it is one of the tall sorts. The first Canna that I got years ago was ‘Australia’ that I got for the planter box downtown, at the request of a neighbor who wanted bronze foliage out in front of her shop. After that, I wanted the vegetable Canna that I remember from when I was in high school. All Canna are edible, but some cultivars were developed for culinary application rather than as ornamentals. Most of what I acquired are ornamentals, but one is culinary, and the only one that I purchased, but was not what it was supposed to be, seems to be very similar to it. Coincidentally, it is also one of three varieties that is in isolation and can not be shared because it may have been exposed to virus. Since I can not share them, I may as well eat them. I can still share the primary vegetable sort that is not in isolation, but do not have very much of it yet.
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It is strange to think of Cannas as edible. We only use them as ornamentals here, but they are considered very tall plants. I grew C. ‘Bengal Tiger’ in a raised bed with good soil and excellent drainage at the botanical garden, and it quickly grew to more than 6′ tall by the time it bloomed. It kept growing all summer and bloomed over several months, with regular deadheading. It was a beauty, but also increased phenomenally, crowding out those perennials I had planted at its base. I had to thin it regularly, and so potted up divisions for the annual plant sale. I planted one of the larger divisions of C. ‘Australia’ that you sent to me in the large pot I just emptied of a Camellia, and surrounded it with some silver Dichondra, a few Caladium tubers, and a bit of Alyssum as groundcover. Should be quite pretty this summer! Thank you!
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Even here, almost all Canna are grown as ornamentals. However, the most common cultivar that was likely shared around this neighborhood through the last century or so, was likely grown originally as a vegetable. It has thinner flowers, but very plump rhizomes. Such Canna were somewhat popular among Chinese laborers who built railroads here a long time ago. Canna became less popular as a vegetable over time, but became available in a few Vietnamese markets after the 1970s. That is when I remember it from. I should have grown a piece of it at the time, although what I got now should suffice. Besides the Canna that I can not share, I also grow one of the vegetable types from the neighborhood.
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Wow. So like Colocasia/taro, Canna was also grown to use its rhizomes as food? My original Cannas here were delivered by a neighbor in a grocery bag 13 years ago. They have very plump tubers and skinny red flowers, with plain foliage. They grow to around 6′ tall. My neighbor was an immigrant from Pakistan, but she never mentioned these as food. She was being kind to me after a major summer storm transformed my upper garden from shade to full sun, with the loss of several trees, and I was still in shock. She was like, “Go plant these and get started creating something new!” And her nudge worked ❤
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Oh yes, those are good as a vegetable also. One of our originals (in the old landscape from 1968) is one of those, with lightly bronzed foliage and pastel orange bloom. I got another with similar bloom but green foliage from a neighbor. They may be a simple species, but are more likely a simple hybrid. Although they were not likely developed to be a vegetable, they work well as such. Not only are their rhizomes edible like small potatoes, but their fresh new shoots are also edible as greens. All Canna are technically edible, but some are better for such purposes than others. For example, ‘Australia’ grows relatively scrawny rhizomes that take more work to peel.
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Thank you for sharing all of this. It is amazing how much good food grows in the landscape that we never choose to use.
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and also among weeds. I can not eat all the mustard, radish and turnip greens that grow wild outside and in the abandoned baseball field. There is also dock (ick), dandelion, stinging nettle and cleavers.
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