When Cannas Are At Their Best-By l. Barron, 



New 

 York 



STUDY A LARGE COLLECTION OF CANNAS NOW AND NOTE THE BEST VARIETIES FOR NEXT YEAR'S PLANTING 

 —THE POINTS OF A GOOD CANNA— A SKETCH OF ITS EVOLUTION— WHAT HYBRIDIZERS ARE STRIVING FOR 



THE canna has a peculiar interest to 

 Americans. Up to about fifteen years 

 ago, the canna was regarded merely as a 

 foliage plant for "subtropical" effect. To- 

 day the canna vies with other popular 

 bedding plants for the beauty of its flowers. 



The old foliage canna was long-stalKed, narrow- 

 petaled, and sparsely flowered. The modern type is 

 valuable for its dense masses of large flowers 



It has been dwarfed, too, until even very 

 small gardens can well accommodate a half- 

 dozen canna plants and not look overstocked. 



The greatest breeder of new American cannas 

 is Mr. Antoine Winzer who has raised nearly forty 

 thousand crosses 



This development of the modern canna 

 from the old-time, tall-growing type, with 

 its long, scattered head of small-petaled 

 flowers, into the dense, compact truss of 

 broadly petaled and highly colored flowers 

 of to-day, began in Germany and was con- 

 tinued in Italy and France respectively, by 

 Pfitzer, Damman and Crozy. Also, in our 

 own country, Antoine Winzer has accom- 

 plished more than all the European breeders 

 put together, and is the most largely respon- 

 sible for our modern appreciation of the 

 canna in American gardens. 



The special interest from our standpoint 

 is that the small, old canna popularly named 

 Indian shot, because its hard, black, round 

 seeds were the most conspicuous thing about 

 it, has been bred up to a really beautiful 

 garden plant by the blending into it of 

 Canna flaccida, a species native to Florida. 



When the first Italian introductions came 

 to this country, they were at once given the 

 popular name of "orchid-flowered" cannas, 

 because the so-called petals (in reality, 

 modified stamens) were fully as broad as 

 they were long, and in texture and general 

 outline recalled the petals of some of the 

 cattleyas. 



Among our hot-weather plants, the canna 

 stands unequaled, for the hotter the weather 

 (provided it can be given a reasonable 

 supply of moisture at the roots), the more 

 gloriously does it flourish and the more 

 magnificent its floral display. It is the 

 August flower for the suburban and city 

 garden, and produces more greenery for its 

 ground space than any other of the tender 

 summer bedding plants. Massed against 

 a background of trees and shrubs (preferably 

 evergreens) it makes a composition that 

 leaves but little to be desired. It will grow 

 and flourish with a minimum of attention. 

 For glaring, gorgeous color, its flower heads 

 are as showy as those of any other plant 

 grown, and for a profusion of bloom there 

 is nothing to equal it. A single inflorescence, 

 by actual count, made last August bore 1 50 

 flowers, and there were ten shoots to the 

 one root! During this month, I advise the 

 amateur gardener to make a study of some 

 good collection of cannas and select varieties 

 according to his needs and fancies. There 

 is a wide choice; fully fifty varieties of 

 marked distinction, and a great many others 

 which differ a little among themselves. For 

 instance, among the dark red-flowered 

 varieties, there is Beaute Poitevine, and 

 Fiirst Bismarck, which seem to be identical 

 seen close at hand, but at a distance the 

 former shows up two or three shades darker 

 than the latter. 



There may be some trouble in making up 

 a select list of varieties to embrace the com- 

 plete range of colors in the different heights, 

 because each grower has a well-marked 

 race to which he adheres, and with the 



18 



exception of some specially popular varieties, 

 the stocks are not offered generally by all 

 dealers. Certain varieties are universal, how- 

 ever: Black Beauty, for instance, the modern 

 standard of perfection for the dark claret- 

 colored foliage, and Souvenir de Madame 

 Crozy, which was the starting point of the 

 modern interest in cannas, having flowers of 

 scarlet bordered with gold. 



In the evolution of the canna, the flower 

 has been developed from red into pink, rosy 

 pink, pinkish white and creamy white, very 

 dark red, bright scarlet, yellow and various 

 combinations of these colors, especially red 

 spots on yellow ground, which, however, 

 may be regarded as yellow, for all practical 

 purposes. The canna should be studied 

 for its distant effect — effect en masse — and 

 not for the minute markings of the individual 

 flowers. Many of these colors (except 

 white) are also found in combination with 

 dark claret-colored foliage. 



The ideal of the breeder is to combine 

 dark foliage and white flowers, which seems 

 to be most elusive, for whenever the dark 

 foliage is produced, the flower comes strongly 

 colored also. 



The history of the white-flowered canna 

 itself is also distinctly American. The start- 

 ing point was Van Fleet's Alsace, and the 

 nearest approach to perfection in that color 

 yet reached seems to be in Mont Blanc 

 which compares favorably for size with any 

 of the large-flowered red cannas, say Egan- 

 dale or Philadelphia. 



In the yellows, the standard of perfection 

 is perhaps Buttercup (pure golden color and 

 dwarf habit) and Florence Vaughan (spotted 

 red, but yellow in effect). These varieties 

 are not cited as the very best, but they are 

 practical standards from observations made 



Contrary to common belief the white canna is as 

 greatly improved as the red in size 



