Thursday 4 June 2009

Introducing Canna 'Tivoli'

A tall Australian Group cultivar; green foliage, large, lanceolate shaped, upright habit; spikes of flowers are pendulous, deep-pink with a wide ivory margin, staminodes are medium size, edges irregular, petals yellow, fully self-cleaning, good bloomer, blooms open in the evening; 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 average. Introduced by Bernard Yorke, Queensland, Australia in 2008.

When writing, Bernard explained that plants of Tivoli are quite tall, (nearly 6ft) and leaves are obviously related to the pollen parent in that they are long green and quite pointed. However, the plants make a good sized clump quite quickly with foliage all pointing upwards. The rhizomes are not creeping like the pollen parent. Flowers are somewhat pendulous but nicely variegated. C. heliconifolia(Omega) is the pollen parent, "I have had some successes with using a species type as one of the parent plants, but a lot of ‘trashy' ones can result before getting the special ones I am after."

"We are now approaching winter in Queensland, and with a lot of recent heavy rain, rhizomes are already showing new growth from the base, and I haven’t yet cut them back to give the plants a rest for our short winter. I still have a moderate show of flowers in the garden, but as I said earlier, our winters are usually short lived, but with climate change, nothing is the norm any more."

Cannas by Bernard Yorke

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