EXPERIENCE WITH CANNAS 

 G. A. WOOLSON. 



FLOWER OF CANNA AUSTRIA, 



rWO-THIBDS NATURAL SIZB 



Fig. .653. 



THE advent of Canna Austria marked 

 an important era in the culture of 

 these semi-tropical plants, which 

 are now considered so essential to every 

 lawn. The foretelling of its glory impressed 

 me favorably, hence a fine specimen was 

 duly installed in a prominent bed in my gar- 

 den. Somewhere I had read that the 

 variety " did best in poor soil." This I did 

 not in the least believe, for I had had long 

 and intimate acquaintance with cannas of 

 many kinds and had fully demonstrated their 

 ability of appropriating for personal glorifi- 

 cation the desirable elements in the richest 

 and strongest soil which the ingenuity of 

 man could concoct. Consequently I ex- 

 pected to break all previous records of the 

 new acquisition. 



Cow manure was liberally spread over tne 

 bed and the soil forked over and thrown our. 

 Just what the excavation was filled with I 

 positively refuse to tell. However, the re- 

 servoir was to serve as bank account for the 



plant to draw from later on. The soil was 

 then thrown back and the bed got in shape. 

 All went well for a while. Fine fresh 

 leaves unrolled rapidly, but after a little they 

 blanched strangely, turned brown and with- 

 ered. 



" Drench it with plain straight water," 

 was the advice given, but of no avail. The 

 roots had struck the reservoir, and deluging 

 the soil only choked them with a bigger 

 drink. My " centre piece " was facetiously 

 commented on. The roots were lifted in the 

 fall, and as they were sound, but not vigor- 

 ous, were ensconced in a lo-inch pot, given 

 indifferent soil and placed in a sunny bay 

 window. Liquid fertilizers were dutifully 

 passed on to more appreciative cannas, 

 nevertheless nothing but leaves resulted; 

 these were good to look at, and Madame 

 Crozy and Gen. de Miribel made up all de- 

 ficiency of bloom, showing what a canna 

 should and could do indoors in midwinter. 



Last spring I cut down the stalks and di- 

 vided the root growth into thirds; two of 

 these were repotted in ordinary soil and a 

 moderate allowance of liquid fertilizer given 

 occasionally, but out of door pot culture was 

 no more fruitful than that indoors, in fact 

 the foliage was less luxuriant, owing to the 

 more rapid evaporation of moisture in the 

 open air. The third section was located in 

 the poorest vein of soil my garden could fur- 

 nish ; some water was of course given, but 

 assuredly the subject was not " fussed with." 

 As a result thereof there stands in that un- 

 usually barren spot a robust plant stretch- 

 ing its glorious spikes of clear yellow to 1 

 height of six feet. Individual flowers meas- 

 ure fully six inches across, and the larger 

 petals are fully two inches wide. Obviously 

 Canna Austria is a law unto itself, a fact de- 



