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August 31, 1916. 



Ttie Florists' Review 



17 



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IMPROVEMENT OF THE CANNA. 



Notes of a Trip to West Grove. 



The mail brought a tempting invita- 

 tion from Robert Pyle, president of the 

 Conard & Jones Co., to visit West Grove 

 and see the cannas. Something was said 

 about some good new varieties and a 

 word of caution was thrown in about 

 avoiding Jupiter Pluvius. An < after- 

 noon was gladly named. It proved a 

 happy selection. King Sol was there in 

 all his glory and West Grove never 

 looked prettier. The canna fields were 

 not at their best, Mr. Pyle said. It 

 had been dry and hot, 97 degrees in 

 the shade, the day before and it was 

 not exactly the right hour, earlier or 

 later in the day were better undoubted- 

 ly, but what matters it to the unaccus- 

 tomed? Fancy beautiful farming coun- 

 try, gently undulating valleys and hills 

 on either side of the winding road, with 

 a bit of woodland beyond. Then fancy 

 the most glorious fields of color coming 

 into view as the hilltop is reached; 

 fields of green and bronze foliage sur- 

 mounted by orange scarlets, deep 

 oranges, bright yellows, rich pinks and 

 ever pure whites, each color flowing 

 like the water of a brook down the hill- 

 side until lost to view in the valley 

 below. Would you care whether these 

 cannas had looked a little better at 

 some other time? Not a bit. You would 

 just be glad that you were there to see 

 them looking so amazingly lovely .in 

 the afternoon sunlight. You would 

 smile at them and they would smile back 

 in the joy of life. You would also won- 

 der whether Mr. Pyle knew what a rare 

 gem lay at his feet and as you looked 

 at him you thought that perhaps he did 

 know and hoped you were right. 



Mr. Pyle would not permit a detailed 

 examination of form and color without 

 the presence of the man who has im- 

 proved the canna, Antoine Wintzer. So 

 down the hillside to the greemhouses the 

 road was followed, bordered by long 

 rows of cannas. There was Mr. Wint- 

 zer ready to show and talk of cannas 

 with a knowledge and simplicity that 

 never fail to charm. 



Firebird and Its Brood. 



There is a Barnum story — the name 

 of the bright visitor who told it was 

 missed — to the effect that he liked any 

 color so it was red. This story was to 

 the point because of the seedlings of 

 Canna Firebird and the prominent posi- 

 tion accorded them and their parent. 

 There were ten of these seedlings 

 deemed worthy of saving. Three of the 



ten have shown especial promise. All 

 three are nearly identical with the par- 

 ent in color of flower and in foliage.. 



It may not be regular to say so, but 

 it is quite true that a hurry-up tele- 

 phone call and its consequent distrac- 

 tions, to say nothing of the lapse of 

 hours, has shaken up the meiital view 

 of the gorgeous canna fields at West 

 Grove. Where was I? Oh, yes — looking 

 at the seedlings of Firebird! Three of 

 the ten are like the parent in color, a 

 glorious red between scarlet and crim- 

 son. All these three make heavier 

 plants than Firebird; that means that 

 they bloom more freely. One of them, 

 No. 6, is planted by Mr. Wintzer 's 

 house. The other two, No. 9 and No. 

 10, are on the main road by the offices 



VaVERY now and then a well- 

 KSI pleased reader speaks the word 

 which is the means of hna^ng a 

 new advertiser to 



Such friendly assistance is thoroughly 

 appreciated. 



Give us the name of anyone from 

 whom you are buying, not an adver- 

 tiser. 'We especially wish to interest 

 those selling articles of florist's use 

 not at present advertised. 



FLORISTS' PUBLISHING CO. 

 ^30-60 Caxton BIdg. Chicago 



and down by the driveway to the rose 

 houses. All three are fine. 



A Coming Pink. 



City of Portland is a wonderful pink 

 canna. Its quality can be judged by 

 the fact that it is giving Mrs. Alfred 

 F. Conard a great race for supremacy. 

 Mrs Conard has stood at the top for 

 years, with scarce a rival for the title 

 of queen of the pink cannas save Beauty 

 of Hungary. Now City of Portland has 

 come. It is of the same type as Mrs. 

 Conard. I think Mr. Wintzer said it 

 was of the same blood. It bears flowers 

 of the same lovely La France shade of 

 pink, a shade that seems so impossible 



in a canna until you see it. The critics 

 say City of Portland bears blooms that 

 show more life than the blooms of Mrs. 

 Conard. Time will prove this and other 

 points of comparison. Meanwhile, City 

 of Portland clearly shows that it is a 

 fine canna. 



The Symbol of Purity. 



Now for the whites. Here also there 

 is something doing. Some fifteen years 

 ago, Mr. Wintzer produced Mont Blanc, 

 the finest white canna. Six years later, 

 more or less, the floral world was again 

 startled by Mrs. Blanche Wintzer. To- 

 day he has a show of seedlings from 

 Mont Blanc and Blanche Wintzer that 

 promise another step forward. There 

 are four or five of these white seedlings 

 that are simply fascinating — great, big 

 trusses of pure white flowers of im- 

 mense size, borne erect, above strong, 

 clean foliage. They are a sight. You 

 go up the field to look at Flag of Truce, 

 a fine, showy canna of stronger growth 

 than the Mont Blanc-Blanche Wintzer 

 seedlings, but not a pure white, though 

 at a distance the color in Flag of Truce 

 cannot be distinguished. There . are 

 other white canna seedlings, notably 

 from Eureka, but they are not so prom- 

 ising. It may be that a hybridizer's 

 own seedlings do best with him, or it 

 may be that the best blood is in the 

 Mont Blanc-Blanche Wintzer strain; 

 anyway, it looked like a sure victory 

 for the home team. 



Quest for Pure Gold. 



The yellow canna is today, as it has 

 been for many years, a matter of deep 

 interest. The aim is to get a pure 

 yellow flower that will not fade. The 

 strongest yellows are marred by mark- 

 ings, usually of scarlet. Florence 

 Vaughan is an example of t^is class, a 

 fine canna but not a pure yellow. The 

 purer the yellow, the more apt it is to 

 fade. Buttercup was close to the real 

 thing, but Buttercup has not enough 

 stamina and is difficult to propagate. 

 Even at its best Buttercup is not a 

 modern canna. 



Whether Mr. Wintzer will get a satis- 

 factory yellow from his seedlings I 

 don't know. I am inclined to think he 

 will some day, for more intelligent, 

 painstaking, thorough hybridizing can- 

 not be imagined. You feel that he must 

 succeed. You look back over the old 

 cannas, then at the great (at that time) 

 Crozy type, and now at these wonder- 

 ful cannas of today and you feel that 

 this quiet, unassuming man who stands 

 before you has, with God's help, pro- 

 duced colors and forms and size in the 



