Bad Canna weather in England again!

Garden and forest. / Volume 8, Issue 395. [September 18, 1895, 371-380]

Foreign Correspondence.

London Letter.

NOT only was the display at this week's meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society large and brilliant, but many novelties were shown, notwithstanding that this is the dull season when every one who can get away is out of town. A great gathering like that on Tuesday indicates how active is the interest in horticulture here since it can induce so many amateurs and professional growers to devote a day each fortnight for the admiration of the new and rare plants that have come into season since the preceding meeting.
The brilliancy of the exhibition was chiefly due to the magnificent array of Gladioli, new hybrid Cannas, Dahlias and the finest types of hardy perennials.

...

Canna 'Star of Ninety-one'

The Cannas were from Messrs. Cannell, who are among the principal growers and introducers of these increasingly popular plants from the French and German cultivators. There were numerous new varieties shown, but none of this year's novelties, in my opinion, eclipse some of the older kinds, though a few show original markings and combinations of colors. Those worthy of special note were Colibri, pale canary-yellow, with a blotch of deep crimson in the centre-this is quite distinct in color; Quasmoda, vivid scarlet, broad petals sharply edged with yellow; Beaute Poitevine, brilliant scarlet and large; Aurore, very large flower, glowing scarlet; Madame de l'Aigle, scarlet, with yellow edge, in the way of the German Königin Charlotte; Sunset Glow, orange-scarlet, yellow edge. These are all first-rate Cannas, but I do not see that such fine sorts as Madame Crozy and Star of Ninety-one are eclipsed in their particular colors by the new kinds.

This has been, one would think, a favorable season for open-air culture of Cannas, but the best I have seen are not to be compared in growth and flowers with those I have seen in the United States, or in India during the winter season, when they bloom continuously for four months if the seeds are constantly picked of. In England I fear we shall always have to grow these beautiful plants under glass.

Kew. W. Goldring.