MY EXPERIENCE IN HYBRIDIZING CANNAS 



By Antoine Wintzer, West Grove, Pa. 



It is about nine years since the writer first commenced to experiment 

 with cannas. with the object of improving the strain and creating some new 

 and desirable varieties suitable for our trying climate. At that time we de- 

 pended almost entirely on the skill of the European growers for our novelties 

 in cannas, and they sent us annually a great many new varieties. While 

 some of these novelties were good, a great manj' were little, if any, im- 

 provement, on existing varieties. 



After growing a few seedlings from the best strains, the writer com- 

 menced to cross breed M'ith the intention of producing a good solid yellow 

 canna. There were plenty of spotted yellows, but we desired something 

 purer. In 1893, from a batch of Crozy and Star-of-1891 seedlings, I was 

 fortunate in getting one almost yellow. It was named Golden Star. The 

 next year I succeeded in growing from another lot of seedlings another al- 

 most pure yellow; it was named Coronet. 



By crossing these two varieties I succeeded in producing Buttercup. 

 This variety seems to have the desirable qualities long looked for in a yellow 

 canna. It is rather dwarf, an early and free bloomer, erect head held well 

 above the foliage, endures the sun without bleaching, drops its faded flowers, 

 which always gives it a bright and clean appearance. It will also bloom 

 under a lower temperature than most varieties, and last, but not least, its 

 tubers are small and solid, making it especially valuable for pot culture. 

 Besides the yellow, I was also desirious to grow some good pink varieties. 



To enable me to get these I had a good start with Pink Ehmani, which 

 I raised in 1894 from seed hybridized by Dr. Van Fleet. Having a start in 

 color, I hybridized it with other varieties, and produced Maiden's Blush, 

 Rosemawr, Martha Washington, Betsy Ross. The main difficulty found in 

 the varieties of this color was the poor keeping quality of the tubers. In 

 the earlier varieties they were soft and spongv and liable to rot in a dor- 

 mant condition, long before the weather was warm enough to plant them in 

 spring. The last two named varieties are free from this bad habit. They 

 usually produce small hard tubers of good keeping quality. 



After breeding cannas for a few years, I noticed that it was desirable 

 to produce small and solid tubers. A great deal of this work is still in its 

 infancy, but we are slowly advancing along that line. In the early '90s 

 there were several good red cannas in commerce, and any one at that time 

 looking over the leading catalogs and reading the description of such va- 

 rieties as Alphonse Bouvier, would wonder how a more brilliant color could 

 be produced, and I often longed for the shade of red wc had in such rosci 



