Tuesday 2 September 2008

Revisiting Canna 'Austria'


A medium sized aquatic Italian Group cultivar, equally at home as a water marginal or in the border; green foliage, oblong shaped, upright habit; flowers are cupped, self-coloured yellow, throat red spots on yellow, staminodes are large, edges regular, fully self-cleaning, good bloomer; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are long and thin, coloured white; tillering is prolific.

Introduced by C. Sprenger, Dammann & Co., Naples, Italy, EU in 1893. Announced along with C. 'Italia', and caused much interest as their large flowers were considered to be a major breakthrough. To achieve this novelty, Herr Sprenger crossed C. 'Madame Crozy' with C. flaccida 'Le Roi'.

Synonyms: C. 'Austra', C. 'Canary Bird', C. 'Lemon Zest', C. 'Richard Wallace', C. 'Souvenir de Jeanne'. The blog yesterday featured C. 'R. Wallace', and examination of the photographs makes one wonder how anyone could ever have confused these two totally different cultivars.

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