Canna 'America' arrives

Garden and forest. / Volume 10, Issue 480. [May 5, 1897, 171-180]

Canna, America. - We have just had this Canna in flower, the third in Dammann's list of so-called "Orchid-flowering" Cannas. It has been something of a surprise to us, for in some way we had formed the notion that it was inferior to Italia and Austria. In our present opinion, however, it ranks above both. The foliage seems to be stronger and tougher, and is of a color much harder to get in Cannas. It is dark bronzy-red, with irregular and inconspicuous dashes of lighter greenish color. The flowering-stem is tall and strong, bearing a large spike of flowers of the form and size of Italia. They are, however, of a most rare and striking color, a sort of brilliant apricot-red faintly spotted with darker salmon. The centre is canary-yellow, marked with the apricot-red of the body color, very much after the pattern of Austria and Burbank, except that in America the centre is lighter-colored than the wings. The blossoms are richer in appearance than any of the earlier Orchid-flowering Cannas. They do not appear to be better in substance, though; and this seems likely to prevent the general use of all the Canna flacida crosses in outdoor bedding. If it were not for this flabby quality of their blossoms they would soon very largely supersede the French dwarf Cannas for all classes of ornamental work.

University of Vermont. F. A. Waugh.

Here is a link to Canna 'America' on the veritable Karchesky & Harris canna web site.

Footnote:

At Claines Canna, we have never been successful with this cultivar, each accession has been suffering badly with Canna virus, and so we have no photograph of our own to accompany this article.