26 



The Rorists^ Review 



Maboh 9. 1022 



carded. Mme. Grozy, an old and univer- 

 sally known variety, still has a place. It 

 is dwarf and produces such a wealth of 

 brilliant red flowers, with a yellow bor- 

 der, that it is perhaps more popular 

 than any other of the variegated cannas, 

 even though tlie size of the flower is 

 small. No one lias, to our knowledge, 

 duplicated the brilliant color combina- 

 tion of Mme. Crozy in a large-flower- 

 ing canna. I succeeded in getting it one 

 time, but lost the seedling over winter. 

 It seems to me that here is a field for 

 canna breeders to exploit. 



I am fully aware that there are many 

 varieties of both yellow and variegated 

 cannas offered to the public, but in my 

 estimation tliey should all go together 

 into the dump as back numbers, beau- 

 tiful indeed and valuable in their day, 

 but that day has passed. 



Bed Cannas. 



The time was when I should have 

 mentioned a long list of red cannas as 

 being valuable and worthy of propaga- 

 tion, but today I mention only a few, 

 because the others are out of date. 



Firebird was introduced by Vaughan 's 

 a few years ago with a great flourish 

 of trumpets, and immediately attracted 

 wide attention. It comes as near 

 to being a marvelously good canna and 

 to being wholly worthless at the same 

 time, as any variety, perhaps, that has 

 ever been offered to the public. The 

 size of flower, the color and the shape 

 are all that could be desired and liave 

 never been surpassed and perhaps never 

 equaled. But the foliage is so weak 

 that by tlie time the plants get a good 

 start the foliage begins to burn and 

 die. I have never seen a single plant 

 of Firebird that grew throughout the 

 season without the foliage burning and 

 dying so badly tliat it was an eyesore, 

 although I liave grown this variety 

 ever since the year it was introduced 

 and have tried hard to select the best 

 plants, in order to overcome this dif- 

 ficulty. Firebird, however, has proved 

 to be one of the most valuable cannas 

 ever produced for the canna breeder, and 

 practically all of the best cannas that 

 have been introduced in the last five or 

 six years contain blood of this variety. 

 Weak, diseased foliage seems to be re- 

 cessive when anything is crossed on 

 Firebird, and the size and shape of 

 flowers seejn to be dominant. I have 

 seen but one exception to this. 

 I grew one Firebird seedling whose fo- 

 liage was so exceedingly bad that we 

 never could get it to bloom. The foli 

 age ,'ihvnys biiiiied and died by the time 

 the flower buds l)egiin to show, and while 

 an abundance of new shoots came from 

 the roots, thoy died before they had a 

 chance to open their flowers. I mention 

 this because it should he of interest to 

 the plant breeder, for it is an unusual 

 thing for a cliarficter which is recessive 

 to ai^pcar strongly dominant in a ]iar 

 ticular cross. 



Fiery Cross was the first of the good 

 Firebird seedlings to be offered to the 

 public, being introduced by the W. Atlee 

 Burpee Co. I- consider it as good a 

 canna as there is in existence today. 

 Its height and habit of growth are jiist 

 right. The flowers are large and of ure 

 most intense fiery crimson scarlet. Two 

 hundred plants growing at Chattanooga, 

 TenTK, last summer attracted unusual 

 attention and j)Taise. No one can go 

 wrong in planting this variety. 



The President is the second of the 



Firebird seedlings offered to the public 

 and was introduced by the Conard & 

 Jones Co. It is now generally supposed 

 to be the best canna in existence. Grow- 

 ing it side by side in our fields with 

 Fiery Cross, I have not been able to 

 decide which is the better. In fact, 

 were it not for The President 's distinct 

 touch of yellow in the throat and a 

 thread of gold on the edge of the petals, 

 I am not sure that if the two became 

 mixed, I could sort them out and be 

 sure that each kind was true. I have 

 seen The President growing in quantity 

 in most of the canna-growing districts 

 of the United States, and unhesitatingly 

 say no one should be without either 

 this variety or Fiery Cross. Possibly 

 The President has a little better foliage 

 and is a little more robust, but I am not 

 sure of this. 



Last summer I saw several large beds 

 of a new canna in the grounds of the 

 Department of Agriculture at Washing- 

 ton and was told it was a Firebird seed- 

 ling produced in the government green- 

 houses. I did not get this officially, how- 

 ever; neither did I succeed in learning 

 the name. At any rate, it is a third 

 candidate for the place of the best red 

 canna. Fully as large and fully as free- 

 blooming as any of the others, it is not 

 ((uite so brilliant a red, but is no less 

 beautiful for this reason. Doubtless, it 

 will soon be offered in quantity to the 

 public. 



Cheerfulness is nowhere nearly so su- 

 perb as the three varieties just men- 

 tioned, but it is an entirely different 

 shade of red and is an ajipealiug color. In 

 our canna fields all visitors are attracted 

 by Cheerfulness and I predict that, un- 

 less a better variety of the same color 

 is offered, this canna will soon become 

 popular. It certainly deserves a place 

 among our best cannas. Cheerfulness 



really should be described as a blending 

 of orange and scarlet, with a brilliant 

 golden border. Without apology, I pisg 

 all the other red cannas with gr, en 

 leaves, as they are out of "dare," in 

 spite of their many good qualities. 



Bronze-Leaved Cannas. 



Bronze-leaved cannas have alw; ys 

 been popular and deservedly so. Kmg 

 Humbert has been long recognized as 

 the standard variety and today it is still 

 one of the best varieties of its col ir. 

 It has two or three outstanding we.tk- 

 nesses, however, and is bound to be su- 

 perseded in time. First, the foliage does 

 not remain a good bronze, but rtins 

 green, especially when the weather be- 

 comes hot; this is not so noticeaMe 

 in the north and east as it is in the 

 south; second, King Humbert is a ile- 

 cided cropper and, where the season 

 is as long as it is with us, we have 

 periods in which it is almost out of 

 bloom. For this reason many of our 

 park superintendents prefer planting 

 the much inferior David Harum, because 

 David Harum is always a mass of bril- 

 liant red and has better foliage than 

 King Humbert. 



Wyoming undoubtedly has the most 

 beautiful bronze foliage of the standard 

 cannas. It is a strong grower and is 

 a little too tall for some places, but is 

 exceedingly good. The flowers are a 

 little larger than those of King Hum- 

 bert, and are brilliant orange in color. 

 There is no other canna of its color 

 worth considering and it is, therefore, 

 one of our best varieties. 



Statue of Liberty is a new candidate 

 for public favor and has more beautiful 

 bronze foliage than any other canna, the 

 leaves being twice as large as those of 

 King Humbert. It is a much more beau- 

 tifully colored flower, being fully as 



Adiantum Farleyense. 



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