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MABCH 8, 1922 



The Florists' Review 



25 



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CONSIDERING TODAY'S CANNAS 



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THE first inBtallment of this article, 

 which appeared in The Review for 

 March 2 under the title, "Taking 

 (Hunt of Today's Cannas," dealt with 

 cnnas from a point of view of their 

 (iilture, the selection of soil, the meth- 

 (i.i-^ required for success, etc., and de- 

 scribed some of the best varieties in 

 whites, pinks and bronze-leaved pinks. 

 The discussion is here concluded and 

 (I'iils with cannas of still other colors, 

 tlic first of which is the yellow canna. 



I have long hoped that the day would 

 iiome when we might have a good yellow 

 cnnna. Possibly no variety did so much 

 to popularize the canna as Florence 

 Vaughan, which is classed as yellow, in 

 spite of the fact that it is spotted with 

 red. Although this variety should have 

 been discarded long ago, it is still grown 

 widely, and its production of bloom and 

 brilliancy of color cannot be gainsaid. 



Many yellow cannas have been intro- 

 duced since the advent of Florence 

 Vaughan, but all of them have shown 

 notable weaknesses. Either the petals 

 are fragile and break in the wind, they 

 sun-scald, or some other notable weak- 

 ness is evident. When Buttercup was in- 

 troduced I hoped a good yellow canna had 

 appeared, and in some respects this was 

 true, but on the whole it proved 

 a disappointment. Queen Helen, 

 the yellow King Humbert, which 

 was introduced a few years ago 

 has already become popular and 

 possibly it is the best of the 

 generally known yellow cannas 

 today, but this variety is also 

 speckled like the old Florence 

 Vaughan, and is too fragile. 



Richard Wallace, which was 

 introduced a number of years 

 ago, is, perhaps, still the best 

 solid yellow canna that is plenti- 

 ful enough for general planting. 



Golden Gate. 



For a time Golden Gate bade 

 fair to surpass it and certainly 

 it is a much better yellow, for 

 Wallace at its best is only a 

 •ieep sulphur color and sun-scalds 

 badly. Golden Gate, however, 

 turns red in the throat to such 

 an extent when the weather is 

 |"ot that it is already losing 

 it« popularity. Jane Addams is 

 a much improved Golden Gate, 

 ijii'king the red center, but for 

 •^iime reason it is not generally 

 known. It is better than Wal- 

 lace or Yellow Humbert. Juan- 

 'ta, a bronze-leaved variety, has 

 'leautiful flowers that are almost 

 f'range yellow, but it is not free 

 'lough and the flowers are ton 

 -mall. 



For the last five years I have 

 ^een breeding for a good yellow 

 canna and have been rewarded 

 with a Firebird seedling crossed 

 with Juanita and then crossed 

 with Golden Gate that is the 

 best yellow canna for this cli- 

 mate that I have seen. There 

 are only a few plants at present 

 ind they may not hold up so 

 Well as they appear now, but, so 

 far, the flowers have been al- 



By FLOYD BRALLIAR. 



most as large as The President and have 

 been a pure pumpkin-blossom yellow. 

 During its second season, in the hottest 

 weather some of the flowers faded some- 

 what and showed red in the throat after 

 the order of Golden Gate, but there was 

 not enough red to be noticeable at a 

 distance of ten feet. I had the mis- 

 fortune of having half of this stock 

 stolen last fall, but will be able to 

 Increase the remainder this year and 

 give it a thorough trial. 



Features That Attract. 



The Conard & Jones Co. has intro- 

 duced the only other yellows in recent 

 years, Wilmer Atkinson and Mrs. Antoine 

 Wintzer, that show real merit with me. 

 Mr. Wintzer sent me several as yet 

 unnamed yellow seedlings that have 

 made a good showing and the varieties 

 Wilmer Atkinson and Mrs. Wintzer, 

 which have been offered to the trade for 

 the last two years, are both good. Ap- 

 parently all of these are Buttercup 

 crosses and resemble Buttercup, except 

 in size. Both have large flowers, as 

 well as large trusses. Both have the 

 weakness of fading under our hot south- 



Canna The President. 



ern sun, but neither fades so badly as 

 Richard Wallace, and either of these is 

 therefore superior to any other variety 

 that we now have on the market. Mrs. 

 Wintzer is much the better of the two 

 and comes nearer to the ideal yellow 

 than any other canna on the market, and 

 even at the high price is a good buy. 



It seems best to consider the spotted 

 and parti-colored cannas together, es- 

 pecially as none of them is of any dis 

 tinctive color. A few years ago Henry 

 A.. Dreer, Inc., originated several good 

 cannas at the establishment at River- 

 ton, N. J., three of which have proved 

 to be exceptionally good, at least in this 

 country. Eureka has already been con 

 sidered as one of the best whites. The 

 other two are Gem and Favorite. Gem 

 is creamy yellow, speckled and spotted 

 with red. Favorite should be described 

 as a large-flowering, free-blooming yel- 

 low, heavily mottled with faint red 

 spots. It could be described as a much 

 improved and glorified Florence Vaugh- 

 an. For bedding work in large parks 

 its general effect is yellow and I like 

 it much better than Yellow King Hum- 

 bert, its nearest rival. It is one of the 

 freest blooming cannas we have; it is 

 of just the right height for bedding, 

 and both the individual flower 

 and the flower heads are large. 

 Of the reasonably cheap cannas 

 for bedding, I believe this is the 

 best variety. As soon, however, 

 as some of the varieties pre- 

 viously described are plentiful 

 enough to be had at moderately 

 low prices, I predict that they 

 will displace this variety. Gaiety 

 is a moderately large-flowered 

 and wonderfully free orange and 

 scarlet canna, bordered and 

 mottled with yellow. It gives a 

 brilliant effect and is rightly 

 named. 



Candelabra. 



Panama, Candelabra and Ni- 

 agara are all splendid new va 

 rieties of differing shades of or- 

 ange red, blotched and bordered 

 with yellow. All are good, but 

 (Jandelabra is clearly the best of 

 the lot. 



With us this Candelabra has 

 been exceedingly free-flowering, 

 and both the size of the individ- 

 ual flower and the flower head 

 is larger than either of the other 

 varieties. In general appearance 

 it is a deep reddish orange. The 

 foliage is good. Its one out- 

 standing feature is the fact that 

 each stem produces five heads 

 of bloom, instead of three, the 

 standard number, and this means 

 that the older plants are still 

 blooming freely when the young 

 shoots are in full bloom, thus 

 producing an unusually heavy 

 show of flowers in the bed. 

 These four cannas have always 

 appealed to me, but the public 

 does not seem to appreciate 

 them. They are as great im- 

 provements over such older va- 

 rieties as Gladioflora and Gla- 

 diator, which should now be dis- 



