Pesticide link to honeybee deaths

The Soil Association has urged the government to ban pesticides linked to honeybee deaths around the world.

The chemicals are widely used in UK agriculture but have been banned as a precaution in four other European countries. Last week the Italian government issued an immediate suspension after it accepted that the pesticides were implicated in killing honeybees, joining France, Germany and Slovenia.

Peter Melchett, the Soil Association's policy director, said: "It is typical of the lax approach to pesticide regulation in the UK that we look like being one of the last of the major farming countries in the EU to wake up to the threat to our honeybees."

The pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, are approved to kill insects on a range of crops in the UK including oilseed rape, barley and sugar beet. Their use on oilseed rape is of particular concern to beekeepers as the crop's yellow flower is very attractive to honeybees.

Germany suspended sales of the pesticides in May after 700 beekeepers along the Rhine reported that two-thirds of their bees had died following the application of clothianidin. In France, imidacloprid has been banned on sunflowers since 1999 and as a sweetcorn treatment since 2003, after a third of honeybees were wiped out. The Soil Association is calling on the environment secretary, Hilary Benn, to ban the pesticides in a letter sent today.

Imidacloprid and clothianidin are produced by a division of the chemical manufacturer Bayer. Imidacloprid is its bestselling pesticide and is used in 120 countries. Bayer has always maintained that neonicotinoids are safe for bees if correctly applied. "Extensive internal and international scientific studies have confirmed that neonicotinoids do not present a hazard to bees," Utz Klages, a spokesman for Bayer CropScience, said recently.

The National Farmers' Union said it was opposed to any ban on pesticides. Paul Chambers, NFU plant health adviser, said: "Banning pesticides using the precautionary principle is not based on good science. Pests and disease are the problems facing honeybees in the UK. The government needs to put more money into researching honeybee health."

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs also attributed the decline in honeybee populations to a variety of factors. A Defra spokesman said: "There are no plans to ban pesticides."

Beekeepers worldwide have reported catastrophic losses of from 30% to 90% of their honeybee colonies during the last two years. Two-thirds of all major crops rely on pollination, mainly by honeybees.

At Claines Canna we have been monitoring the pollinators feeding on the Canna collection, and in the vegetable plot, and we are of the opinion that the majority of pollinators this year have been bumble bees and wasps.

Visit to the Canna Trials

It has been a hard year, the weather has not helped us at all, every task taking much longer than normal. It took Margaret and I up to this weekend to visit the Canna Trials ourselves. We had entered 12 of our recent cultivars for examination. The trials are being conducted at the home premises of the National Collection holders, Christine and Keith Hayward at Farnborough, Hampshire, in England.

We had good weather and no rain interrupted what turned out to be a very pleasant day out. Not many of the Trials Cannas were in bloom, but I was particularly impressed with C. 'Leopardeau' and C. 'Bird of Paradise'. Two totally different Canna types, but both new varieties deserving of praise.

C. 'Léopardeau', raised by Raphaël Roger in Belgium, is a very sophisticated, modern Premier Group, small cultivar with unique markings on the flowers, reminiscent of the spotting on young leopards, hence its name! [Click on any of the photos for larger images]

This is an exciting, new type of marking that has a great potential with other colour combinations if we can exploit its potential. In my opinion, Monsieur Roger deserves a round of applause for his efforts.

C. 'Bird of Paradise' is a large Foliage Group cultivar,with lance-shaped nicely marked foliage and a delightful small flower. Of course this is grown for its foliage primarily, but the smaller, minimalist flowers are pleasing in their own right, being only marginally smaller than the early Crozy Group.

Congratulations are due to Brian Williams for raising this beauty. It proves that the architectural Foliage Group are just as important to us, going forward, as the cultivars developed for the Garden Centre bench.

Others that were in flower when we visited were C. 'Eden', C. 'Honeybunch', C. 'Panama', and C. 'Sadd 2.05'. They all impressed as quality plants that could be grown for commercial sale with reliable results. Remember that they are mainly without virus infection!

We saw all of the other trial entries without flowers, and we saw much good, strong foliage. It left us wishing that we had been able to attend the trial earlier, and enjoy what the other entries had to offer.

The trial has received about 150 visitors and received many complimentary comments, in spite of the extremely poor weather conditions experienced this year which obviously affected the number of flowers and foliage, and possibly the number of visitors as well.

Raphaël Roger web site
Brian Williams web site

Revisiting Canna 'Chouchou'

A small Crozy Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, branching habit; oval stems, coloured green; spikes of flowers are open, yellow with pink spots, staminodes are medium size, edges irregular, petals yellow, fully self-cleaning; fertile both ways, not self-pollinating or true to type, capsules globose; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white.

Introduced by Ernest Turc, Angers, France, EU.

Revisiting Canna 'Chaumes'

A medium sized Premier Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, spreading habit; oval stems, coloured green; flowers are open, self-coloured yellow, throat yellow, staminodes are medium size, edges irregular, labellum is yellow, stamen is yellow, style is yellow, petals green, fully self-cleaning, average bloomer; fertile both ways, not self-pollinating or true to type, capsules globose; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white.

It is not clear who introduced this desirable cultivar, and assistance will be appreciated.

Revisiting Canna 'Liebesglut'

A medium sized Italian Group cultivar; bronze foliage, oval shaped, branching habit; panicles of flowers are open, self-coloured deep-crimson, staminodes are large, edges lightly frilled, petals purple with farina, fully self-cleaning; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured purple; tillering is average.

Cannas get headaches as well!

Plants facing stressful conditions like drought produce their own aspirin-like chemical, US researchers say.

The chemicals are produced as a gas to boost the plant's biochemical defences, say scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.

They suggest that monitoring this could give farmers early warning of possible crop failures.

However, they also say the chemicals could affect pollution levels by combining with industrial gases.

Thomas Karl, who led the study, said the chemical triggers "the formation of proteins that boost their biochemical defences and reduce injury".

"Our measurements show that significant amounts of the chemical can be detected in the atmosphere as plants respond to drought, unseasonable temperatures, or other stresses."

Ability to communicate

Writing in the journal Biogeosciences, the researchers said they found the chemical accidentally when they were monitoring emissions of volatile organic compounds in a California walnut grove.

Mr Karl said the chemical - methyl salicylate - could act as a "warning signal" allowing farmers to take action against pests much sooner.

"The earlier you detect that something's going on, the more you can benefit in terms of using fewer pesticides and managing crops better," he said.

The researchers believe it may also help plants to signal danger to one another.

"These findings show tangible proof that plant-to-plant communication occurs on the ecosystem level," says Alex Guenther, a co-author of the study.

"It appears that plants have the ability to communicate through the atmosphere."

My only comment on this scientific revalation is that there must have been a high number of Asprins produced in our Canna beds over the last 2 years!

What happens next?

Last year we experimented with some of the collection and moved plants into the polytunnel before the frosts hit, planting them directly into well fertilized soil. This gave them time to recover from the move and start developing roots, and they ticked over quite healthily over the winter, emerging from the soil when the temperatures warmed up sufficiently and we had some splendid foliage growing by the time we planted them outside at the end of May.

A lot of it was tender foliage, which was promptly rubbished by high winds, but if it had been a normal year, whatever that is, it would have hardened of quite nicely.

We are minded to do this to the whole of the collection this year, and to that end we have built a third polytunnel to give us the space necessary to plant 200+ Canna specimens in the ground. The construction of the polytunnel has been a battle of epic proportions, taking 2 months to complete, as so much time was spent dodging heavy rain.

The tunnel is 30' long by 14' wide, and it has net doors, windows and sides, specifically to stop the aphids carrying Canna virus to get access to the treasures contained within.

The new polytunnel waiting for its first winter

I will long remember the feeling of fear as my polythene sheet took of up into the air when a freak gust of wind appeared out of nowhere on a quiet day, and I hung on to it as it thrashed the air fourty feet above me. Luckily my physical build makes me a good anchor, and I was not lifted into the air, but I confess that I was expecting a free flight!

Those little gremlins hide everywhere, and when they see us getting self-congratulatory, they step in and bring us back down to earth, or into the air as the case may be!

However, the effort involved in contructing the tunnel has proven worthwhile and we now are up to date with our jobs at last!

Seed at last

Here we are on the last day of the summer, and we have just collected out first Canna seed! Normally, by now we would have a tall pile of seed envelopes, but so far only C. 'Gaeity' and C. 'Champion' have given us seed. Just two seeds from Gaeity and then three seeds from Champion.

Then I went and dropped one of the Champion seeds! In desperation I crawled around on my hands and knees, but to no avail. I had no option but to accept that I had just lost 20% of this seasons seed harvest! And that from a collection of over 200 plants!

There will be some more seeds shortly, but we have now arrived at the time of year where there is not enough time left for new flowers to create and mature further seed, so what we see maturing on the plants is all we can expect this year.

The degree to which the rains had affected us can be realized when seven days after the last heavy rain I walked on a grass path that was still springy to the step. The ground had become totally saturated and could not hold any more water at all.


The months of rain also meant that all of the fertilizers we spread and dug in during spring and planting-out time have been leached away, so on Saturday I applied a liquid feed and we are just hoping for some decent growth and flowers in the next few weeks. However, the temperature overnight dropped to 6 degrees Centigrade, and that will start inhibiting further free growth.

So, a liquid feed weekly and keeping the plants well-groomed, that's all we have to look forward to for the last part of the season, oh, and a few more seeds!

Revisiting Canna 'City of Gloucester'

A medium sized Crozy Group cultivar; green and purple variegated foliage, oval shaped, maroon margin, branching habit; oval stems, coloured green + purple; flowers are self-coloured pale pink, edges irregular, labellum is pink with yellow markings, stamen is pink with yellow markings, style is yellow with touches of pink, petals light-red, fully self-cleaning; fertile both ways, not self-pollinating or true to type, capsules globose; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white and pink.
Introduced by Martin Davis, Gloucester, England, EU. Synonym: C. 'Cog'

Revisiting Canna 'Childsii'

A small Crozy Group cultivar; light green foliage, oval shaped, branching habit; spikes of flowers are open, yellow with crimson blotches, staminodes are medium size, edges regular, petals red, fully self-cleaning, outstanding bloomer; fertile both ways, not self-pollinating or true to type; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white and pink; tillering is average.

Introduced by Childs Nursery in 1895, and originally marketed as "The Tiger Canna".

Revisiting Canna 'Chesapeake'

A medium sized Conservatory Group Cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, branching habit; oval stems, coloured green; panicles of flowers are open, self-coloured cream, staminodes are large, edges regular, petals yellow, fully self-cleaning; fertile both ways, not self-pollinating or true to type, capsules globose; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white; tillering is average.

Introduced by R.J. Armstrong, of Longwood Gardens, USA.

Revisiting Canna 'Cherry Red'

A medium sized Crozy Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, branching habit; spikes of flowers are open, self-coloured cherry-red, staminodes are medium size, edges irregular, labellum is cherry-red, petals red with farina, fully self-cleaning, good bloomer; fertile both ways, not self-pollinating or true to type, capsules globose; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured purple; tillering is average.

Introduced by W. Pfitzer, Stadt Felbach, Stuttgart, Germany, EU. The old family nursery of Wilhelm Pfitzer, established in the 1840's, did not use it's name as a prefix when naming it's cultivars, this appears to be a marketing ploy by some nurseries in the USA, where the respected name of Pfitzer added prestige to the humble name given by the originators.

Synonyms: C. 'Pfitzer’s Cherry Red'

Revisiting Canna 'Champion'

A medium sized Crozy Group cultivar; green and purple variegated foliage, oval-acuminate shaped, branching habit; oval stems, coloured purple; spikes of flowers are open, salmon and rose-red, throat gold markings, staminodes are medium size, edges irregular, labellum is gold, fully self-cleaning, average bloomer; fertile both ways, not self-pollinating or true to type, capsules globose; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white and pink; tillering is prolific. Introduced by Ernest Turc, Angers, France, EU.

There is a previous cultivar with this name, it is a medium sized Italian Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, branching habit; oval stems, coloured green; flowers are yellow with red blotches; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white and pink. It featured in the 1908 RHS outdoor trials at Wisley. Also, listed in the Standardized Plant Names, 1942, and is still being grown in France, EU.

Revisiting Canna 'Chameleon'

A medium sized Crozy Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, white margin, branching habit; spikes of flowers are open, yellow heavily spotted with red, staminodes are large, edges regular, petals yellow, fully self-cleaning, good bloomer; fertile both ways, not self-pollinating or true to type, capsules globose; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white and pink; tillering is prolific.

The earliest reference is the RHS Journal of 1894, and also featured in the 1908 RHS outdoor trials at Wisley. Appeared in the Standardized Plant Names of 1942. Still being grown in Austral-Asia, and now in the EU.

Synonym: C. 'Chaméléon'

Revisiting Canna 'Aphrodite'

A medium sized Premier Group cultivar; dark (137A) foliage, oblong shaped, maroon margin, spreading habit; round stems, coloured purple; panicles of flowers are open, self-coloured salmon, staminodes are large, labellum is pink (51A), stamen is pink, petals red, good bloomer; fertile both ways, not self-pollinating or true to type, capsules globose; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured pink and purple; tillering is average.

Introduced by P. Schmid. Awards: Royal Horticultural Society, England – Canna Trial 2002, AGM after trial at Wisley 2002, submitted by Hart Cannas. A.M.-B.C. 1971.

However, Brunning's Catalogue, of 1906 describes an earlier cultivar with this name, it was described as broad green leaves, immense trusses of bloom, golden yellow, with large salmon spots, inner petals salmon. It feautured in the 1908 RHS Outdoor Trials, and was described in Das Geschlecht der Canna, by Árpád Mühle in 1910, with the bredding being attributed to C. Sprenger, Dammann & Co., Naples, Italy, EU. It was also mentioned in Standardized Plant Names, 1942.

It is rumoured that the original cultivar is still grown in Austral-Asia.

Revisiting Canna 'Allemania'

A medium sized aquatic Italian Group cultivar, equally at home as a water marginal or in the border; green foliage, oval shaped, branching habit; round stems, coloured green + purple; panicles of flowers are open, salmon-red with a gold margin, throat gold, staminodes are large, edges irregular, labellum is salmon-red, petals purple, fully self-cleaning, good bloomer; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are long and thin, coloured white and purple; tillering is prolific.

Introduced by C. Sprenger, Dammann & Co., Naples, Italy, EU in 1897.

Still being sold in the USA in 1950, the Inter-State Nurseries Catalogue of that year offers it for sale. Still available in the EU.

Awards: Introduced in 1897, earning an immediate Award of Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. Also featured in the 1908 RHS outdoor trials at Wisley, England, EU.

Synonyms: C. 'Alemannia', C. 'Cattleya'

Revisiting Canna 'Albino'

A medium sized Premier Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, transparent margin, spreading habit; round stems, coloured green; flowers are open, cream with rose-red spots, staminodes are medium size, edges regular, low bloomer; fertile both ways, not known if true to type, not self-pollinating; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white.

The name was in use in 1942 when Kelsey and Dayton included it in their work "Standardized Plant Names".

Revisiting Canna 'Alberich'

A small Premier Group cultivar; glaucous green foliage, mucronate shaped, maroon margin, branching habit; round stems, coloured purple; flowers are open, pink (RHS 38A) and salmon, staminodes are large, edges lightly frilled, labellum is streaked with pale yellow, stamen is markeded with pale yellow, petals purple with farina, fully self-cleaning, good bloomer; fertile both ways, not self-pollinating or true to type, capsules globose; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white and purple; tillering is slow.

Introduced by W. Pfitzer, Stadt Felbach, Stuttgart, Germany, EU in 1949. The leaves are distinctively cupped at the tips. Overall, the plant has a wide combination of colours that make it stand out uniquely.

Synonyms: C. 'Albéric', C. 'Albèric', C. 'Alberick', C. 'Albricht'

Revisiting Canna 'Aida'

A medium sized Premier Group cultivar; green foliage; flowers are old-rose tinged with salmon, staminodes are large, edges lightly frilled, stamen is marked with gold, good bloomer; fertile both ways, not known if true to type, not self-pollinating; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white; tillering is average.

One of the Opera series of Canna bred by Howard and Smith Nursery of Los Angeles, USA in the 1930's. This series were added to by Wayside Gardens Nurseries in the USA by including C. 'Rosenkavalier', bred by the German house of Wilhelm Pfitzer.

See illustration below from the Henry Fields catalogue of 1969.

Revisiting Canna 'Africa'

A tall Italian Group cultivar; bronze foliage, ovoid shaped, branching habit; panicles of flowers are open, self-coloured orange-red, throat gold, staminodes are large, edges lightly frilled, petals purple, fully self-cleaning, average bloomer; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured purple; tillering is prolific.

Introduced by C. Sprenger, Dammann & Co., Naples, Italy, EU in 1898.

Research indicates that the first mention of this heritage cultivar is in the RHS Journal of 1898, the last record is Tropical Plants and Gardening, H.F. MacMillan, 5th Edition, 1954.

Hurricane Hanna to hit UK

The tail-end of a hurricane is set to batter Britain after a killer storm at the weekend claimed eight lives and caused millions of pounds of damage.

Howling gales and a month’s worth of rain lashed the country in just 48 hours, but last night Met Office experts warned that after a short respite worse is to come.
The remnants of Hurricane Hanna, blowing in from across the Atlantic, is expected to hit Britain on Thursday.

More than 100 flood warnings are already in place across the country and forecasters fear the next belt of torrential rain and high winds will leave even more areas under water – costing many more householders their homes.

The destructive power of the storm at the weekend brought widespread carnage, particularly to the South-west, North-west and the North-east of the country.

But more, perhaps worse, is to come for thousands as the storm which began thousands of miles away as Hurricane Hanna hits the UK.

But with many areas of the country already under water, further torrential rain is expected to cause chaos for the emergency services as flooding spreads.

At its height, Hanna caused widespread destruction, particularly in Haiti where more than than 500 people were killed in floods triggered by torrential rain.

NOT AGAIN! More summer floods at Worcester

Once again the heavens opened, and it rained, and it rained, and it rained! The Cannas are standing there looking sorry for themselves and when I inspected them on Sunday I felt like crying.

The ground was totally saturated, it could not hold anymore water, OK, in mid-winter that is understandable, but our Cannas are stood in cold, standing water with no oxygen getting to the roots at the back-end of the summer. Maybe those with aquatic parentage won't object too much, but those that are predominantly Canna indica won't be happy!

Every single plant in the collection had some poor foliage, not a single flower had escaped the steady, unremitting rain with them all hanging down like rags, in tatters, with some even shredded.

It will takes days to groom the collection again, removing poor foliage and flowers, and thinning out down below to allow adequat air-flow.

Up to today, we have not harvested a single Canna seed, whereas, normally we would have piles of envelopes everywhere.

Such are the travails of those of us who enjoy growing tropical and sub-tropical plants in England.

Revisiting Canna 'A. Gasquet'

A small Crozy Group cultivar; green foliage, oval-acuminate shaped, spreading habit; round stems, coloured green; flowers are open, self-coloured pale pink, throat pale yellow, staminodes are medium size, edges ruffled, labellum is pale-rose, stamen is pale pink, low bloomer; fertile both ways, not self-pollinating or true to type, capsules ellipsoid; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white and pink; tillering is average.

Introduced by Vilmorin-Andrieux, France, EU.

It's an ill wind

Britain’s gardens are in the grip of a tantalizing mystery – the case of the vanishing birds.

The absence of blackbirds, robins, blue tits and finches from bird tables has led to thousands of calls to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

The number of inquiries prompted the RSPB to put out a statement yesterday reassuring nature-lovers that all was well.

The birds have merely taken flight to plunder nature’s larder in the woods, where there are plenty of berries, nuts and seeds, it said.

Blackbirds and song thrushes can also find all the worms they need in the rain-soaked woods.

They will soon be back when supplies start to run out. In the meantime, we are urged to continue leaving out a few tidbits.

Although our Cannas are struggling with all this remorseless rain, our birds are able to take a summer holiday because of it!

Revisiting Canna 'Trinacria Variegata'

A small Italian Group cultivar; variegated foliage, oval shaped, white margin, spreading habit; round stems, coloured green + purple; spikes of flowers are reflexed, yellow and white, staminodes are large, petals red; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are long and thin, coloured white; tillering is average.

Eye-catching variegated leaves, with large butter-yellow blooms, marked by this plants signature - a white stripe down the centre of each petal forming a white cross. Variegated leaves of green with pale yellow variegation parallel to the veins. There are several different strains with varying degree of variegation distinction, but the flower type and its size seems uniform between them all.

Nurserymen folk legend has it that in 1923 a consignement of Canna 'Trinacria' rhizomes was despatched to Siam, now Thailand, from a nursery in California. When it arrived at its destination and was grown out it was found to have variegated foliage. A sample was returned to the nursery with a demand for a refund or replacement as it was not what had been ordered.

This mutation was probably caused by the extreme conditions endured in transport from California to Thailand in the days before air travel. The cultivar was examined in the 1960's by Dr. Khoshoo, who stated that this was not a chimeral mutation. The earliest reference is C. 'Trinacria Variegata' in Sydney Percy-Lancaster's book, "An Amateur in an Indian Garden", 1927.

Synonyms: C. 'Bangkok', C. 'Bangkok Yellow', C. 'Bankocki', C. 'Bankok', C. 'Christ's Light', C. 'King of Siam', C. 'Minerva', C. 'Nirvana', C. 'Striped Beauty (2)', C. 'Striped Beauty of Bangkok', C. 'Stripped Beauty', C. 'Variegated', C. 'Zebra Stripe'

Heavy rainfall and strong winds are sweeping across Britain, bringing the risk of flooding.

The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings for Wales and most parts of England.

Some areas could experience the equivalent of more than two weeks of rainfall in 24 hours.

The Environment Agency says there are 26 flood warnings currently in force in south and west Wales and the south-west of England, two of them severe.

There are 48 flood watches in England and Wales and one in Scotland.

Here we are on the 5th September, still summer, and we can do nothing at all to help our Canna collection. Every single flower has been thrashed, foliage is ripped, or still unfurled days after it should have uncoiled, and still no seed ready for harvest.

This year is even crazier than the last, and the so-called experts are yabbering away about global warming!

I think that I might start building an ark over the winter ready for next year, when I'll march the Cannas up the gang plank 2x2!

Accurate weather forecasts

The Met Office will be crossing their fingers that they have got it right after the country’s most senior weatherman admitted that accurate forecasts have been much harder to make this year.

John Hirst, the chief executive of the Met Office, said unpredictable atmospheric conditions in the Atlantic had made things more difficult, despite a multi-million-pound investment in the service.

Last month was the dullest August since records began and one of the wettest because of a temporary shift in the Gulf Stream – the warm Atlantic current from the Gulf of Mexico – and a cooling Pacific current known as La Nina.

The combined effect was to bring damp air to countries bordering the North Atlantic and more unpredictable weather patterns.

Midway through the month, the Met Office gave people a ray of hope by predicting a fine end to August.

But in the end sunshine gave way to heavy thunderstorms and Britain had just 105.5 hours of sunshine in the month, compared with an average of 165.1.

Mr Hirst revealed the difficulties as the Met Office published its annual report detailing how the service had improved reliability for the third year in a row. But it admitted that about 15 per cent of temperature forecasts had been off the mark.

Personally, I watch the weather forecasts daily. The degree of error in the predictions has seemed to me to be much higher than 15%. If persuaded to offer an opinion, I would have stated that double that number of forecasts are wrong, and they seem to change by the hour nowadays.

Trying to plan work in the garden the night before becomes futile, when there is a different forecast the next morning.

An entire month's rain could fall today

Light matters

The previous article described how the average August in England enjoys 165.1 hours of direct sunshine, but this year Awful August only received 105.5 hours.

This is a daily total of just 3.5 hours, as opposed to the average 5.3 hours, and is a drop of one third. No wonder our Cannas are suffering with light deprevation.

We are not talking about periods when the sun was hidden behind clouds, and a reasonable temperature was still enjoyed. We are talking here of direct sunlight, which is a combination of bright light and heat.

Sunlight is a key factor in the process of photosynthesis, which is a series of steps for the conversion of light energy from the sun into chemical energy by our Cannas. Its initial participating components are carbon dioxide and water; the energy source is light (electromagnetic radiation); and the end-products are oxygen and (energy-containing) carbohydrates, such as sucrose, glucose, which are formed into roots, stems, leaves and flowers, or into starch which is stored in the Canna rhizomes.

Now that we have completed another polytunnel, it may be that we can grow some of our collection indoors during next summer; we are naturually reluctant to do that because of the additional problems from red-spider mite and fungal diseases, but maybe they are the lesser of the evils!

Awful August worst on record!

Last month was the dullest August in the UK since records began in 1929, the Met Office has confirmed.

There were just 105.5 hours of sunshine, far less than the average for the month of 165.1 hours.

This August was also the fifth wettest on record with 139.8mm (5.5in) of rain falling, causing floods in some areas, caused by high pressure around the Azores which usually brings warmer, brighter weather to Britain in the summer simply having not materialized this year.

But the Met Office said forecasters expected autumn temperatures to be above average while rainfall would be below average.

We saw it with our own eyes, as our Cannas struggled to produce quality foliage, many not having the energy to unfurl themselves, and so few flowers that we still have not harvested any seed this year. Nevertheless, there is comfort in knowing that we may have some decent weather in the weeks ahead.

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.

Revisiting Canna 'R. Wallace'

A small Crozy Group cultivar; green foliage, oblong shaped, white margin, spreading habit; round stems, coloured green; panicles of flowers are open, pale yellow with rose spots, staminodes are large, edges regular, stamen is rose-red with small yellow flecks; fertile both ways, not self-pollinating or true to type, capsules round; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white and pink.

Introduced by W. Pfitzer, Stadt Felbach, Stuttgart, Germany, EU in 1906. Awarded the RHS Award of Merit 1907 at the indoor trials, held at Wisley Gardens. Synonyms are C. 'R. Wallis', C. 'Richard Wallace'