Missouri Botanical 
Garden Bulletin 
Vol. Ill St. Louis, Mo., July, 1915 No. 7 
CANNAS 
Cannas are of tropical origin and are indigenous to South 
America, Central America, and the West Indies, and at 
least one species (Canna flaccida) is native to Florida. As 
early as 1848 cannas had made their appearance in Europe 
and were grown for their foliage or mass effect. At that 
time the plants were tall and long-jointed with small flowers 
coming at the end of the season. There being many objec- 
tions to these tall, weed-like cannas an attempt has been made 
since their introduction to increase the size of the flowers, 
the range of color in both flowers and foliage, and to 
decrease the height of the plant. Reference to the collection 
of cannas shown this year at the Garden will give a compre- 
hensive idea of the success of this undertaking. Hybridiza- 
tion has produced decrease in stature and larger flowers, 
and a survey of the progress of the hybrids leads one 
to believe that large flowers and dwarf plants are coincident. 
The plants do not wait for their full growth before starting 
to bloom, however. A six-foot canna will probably send 
out its first flowers when it is not over a foot high, 
but these flowers will very likely be poor specimens. 
It is not until the plants have become firmly established, 
about the first of August, that they will attain their maximum 
as to size, form, and color of blossom. 
The first important production of the hybridizer was the 
so-called French or Crozy canna originated by M. Crozy, of 
France. The crossing of our native variety (Canna flaccida) 
with the iris-flowered canna was accomplished by Dammann 
of Italy, and the hybrid is known as the orchid-flowered 
canna, and also as the Italian canna. The flower has the 
form of the iris but is rather short-lived. “Italia,” “Austria,” 
and “America” are the best-known varieties of this type. 
While the Italian cannas undoubtedly have the largest 
flowers, their late blooming qualities and the frailness of 
the blooms have been objectionable, and later varieties such 
as “New York,” “Louisiana,” and “King Humbert’ are 
, (93) 
