I just had to share with you this superb illustration taken from the original May 1898 issue of "The Mayflower",a magazine that I had not heard of before, but which had 273,082 subscribers that is "devoted to the cultivation of flowers and plants, fruits, vegetables, and to gardening and home adornment in general."The illustration clearly shows the colouring and shows that the labellum (lip) is almost all red and has that distinctive notch in its irregular edge.
Other contents include articles and information on "Evolution of the Canna", "Cannas Austria and Italia". All round, this is an informative 111 year old gardening catalog for those interested in the history of Canna.
The catalogue had a boxed feature called "Two Sensational Cannas". It referred to C. 'Mary Thilow' and C. 'Mrs. Pierre S du Pont'.
The boxed item stated that "These two varieties, owing to the fact that the roots are very difficult to store, will be supplied as growing plants only. These will be ready March 1st."
It has been our experience that the most difficult Cannas to store over the winter are the Aquatic Group. This is worse for the F1 aquatic hybrids like C. 'Ra', and C. 'Wye', but also applies to those F2 hybrids like C. 'Burbank', C. 'Austria', and C. 'Roma'.
I have only read about C. 'Mary Thilow', mentioned above, and it would be interesting to hear from anybody else who has any knowledge of that cultivar in recent times. The description in the Deer's catalogue stated that it has "Bronze foliage and brilliant rosy salmon flowers. 4ft (1.3m)."
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.
Carl Ludwig Sprenger was a German botanist, born on 30 November 1846 at Güstrow, Mecklembourg and died 13 December 1917 on the
Canna (Italian Group) 'Sprenger lived in
The eruption of Vesuvius [April 4, 1906] buried his plants under volcanic ash, destroying hundreds of his best specimens." Sprengers' life was in ruins.
In 1907, Kaiser Wilhelm (William II) purchased Achilleion, a garden with a palace on
Sprenger's life had had no sound; Fairchild wrote that he was "very deaf". Perhaps he loved plants so much because they spoke in colours, shapes, and scents. In the end, he did not even have flowers. The man who surrounded himself with plants died December 13, 1917, a hostage of war. Being German and living on a Greek island in the middle of the First World War was high-risk, but at 70 years of age he was not prepared to leave behind his beloved plants and move to another country. Nobody was able to establish what really happened, but it is hard to see what threat a 71 year old, deaf, botanist posed that justified his murder.
Canna (Italian Group) 'Italia', Sprenger 1893
Sprenger had concluded that by constantly interbreeding the large flowered Crozy varieties nothing novel or more remarkable could be secured, and he, therefore, experimented with some new blood, employing for this purpose the Canna flaccida, a species of the southern USA, of medium height and large flowers, with one specially developed petal. The result was what became known as the 'Orchid' Cannas or the 'Italian' Cannas. A few years later, Luther Burbank in the
Sprenger also created and named 122 beautiful Yucca hybrids in the years from 1897 to 1907.
The 1939 catalogue released by the Inter-State Nurseries of Hamburg, Iowa, USA. has some interesting information. The catalogue features 9 Cannas that year, including Canna 'King Midas''. Inter-State Nurseries were America's largest direct-to-you nurseries, or so they claimed in the catalogue.
The Cannas offered for sale were: Canna 'Apricot', C. 'Eureka', C. 'Hungaria', C. 'King Midas', C. 'Mme. Crozy', C. 'President', C. 'Statue of Liberty', C. 'Wintzer's Colossal', and C. 'Yellow King Humbert'.
The acid yellow flowers open their faces upwards and are crowded on their stems. The throat, modified anther and base half of the lip is lightly lineally spotted with pale red which instantly fades to a pale brownish orange on exposure to sunlight. Each flower only lasts a day or two and is bleached white by strong sunlight. The lip is sometimes split and often entire. You usually have to grasp the stem and tip it forward to actually view the centre patterning. A real star gazer. For this reason the central spotting is often entirely ignored in some old nursery catalogue descriptions.
Not so easy to identify is the very similar Canna X 'Asia'. (Sprenger, Italy). The spotting in the centre is almost identical to 'Austria', being closer to orange than red, but the blooms are better distributed on the head and some face outwards. The shape is distinctly like a Cattleya orchid with the lip cocked up a little at the outer end where 'Austria' is flatter and reflexes slightly. 'Asia' has a split lip (seen in the photo at right), as do many of these Italian-type cannas but may occasionally be found with an entire lip free of the end notch.
Head and shoulders ahead of the previous two as a garden star is Canna X 'Burbank'. (Burbank, USA). Strangely, Luther Burbank in America was experimenting with the same Canna cross breeding at the same time as Sprenger was flicking C. flaccida and 'Madame Crozy' pollen around in Italy. I suspect, from Burbank's notes that he may have taken his experiments a generation or two further than Sprenger before he was satisfied with the outcome. He mentions that it was almost impossible to breed F2 and subsequent generations and so the process of improvement was very slow.
They last longer than those of 'Austria' and fade to white before browning off or shrivelling of the edges of the blooms. One more often sees multi-coloured heads of yellow and white. The red spotting shows little evidence of fading, remaining distinct and bright for the life of the bloom. Another tall grower, yet one does not need to grasp the stem and bend it downwards to see the true beauty of the blooms and the highly visible red patterning is invariably mentioned in the old catalogues. The Cultivation of Cannas.
IT is interesting to look back a decade and note the progress made in the cultivation of Cannas. The development of the Crozy type, from which almost every high-class variety has come, is most interesting. In no class of plants can less credit be claimed by the hybridist, for the best Cannas have resulted from careful selection. The arrangements for close fertilization are so complete that it is almost impossible, if fecundation is secured, to thwart Nature.
It was predicted when the large-flowered giants of the Flaccida type, Italia and Austria, were introduced that they would supersede the Crozy type. Both these types are continuous bloomers, but what is lacking in the blooms of all Cannas, durability of texture, is still more lacking in the Italian varieties. The flowers are extremely fugacious, and what I have seen of the half a dozen or more new colors in this section they all have the same defect. The American variety of this type, the Burbank, is no better in this respect; in appearance it resembles the variety named Austria (see left). As pot-plants for foliage effects Cannas are highly effective, and under glass, with shade, the flowers are more durable. This is true of all Cannas; under glass the flowers have better individual development and last long enough to fill out a good round truss.
Canna specialists hesitate to judge a variety by its behavior under glass; the supreme test is out in the open air. Paul Bruant is superb under glass, but of little use under direct sunlight. For a bedding Canna a compact truss is a strong recommendation. Among medium growers, Queen Charlotte and its " improved " variety are the finest. The flowers are widely banded with yellow and durable. An effective combination in a circular bed may be made with plants of Queen Charlotte in the middle and Mrs. Fairman Rogers, a fine form of the Crozy type, as an edging.
Mr. Denys Zirngiebel, of Needham, Massachusetts, who makes a speciality of Cannas, considers President Cleveland, a salmon-scarlet, the finest bedding Canna of its color yet introduced. It is very compact, and in vividness of coloring it outshone all others in a large patch containing sixty varieties. It was raised by Mr. Pfister, gardener at the White House. This list comprises scarcely half a dozen first-class varieties, if the dark-leaved sorts are excluded. Bismarck, a recent variety, showed up well; it has a dwarf habit and compact and full-flowered truss of crimson flowers. Robert Christie is a beautiful salmon-red and a splendid pot-plant; Ami Pichon is a good maroon with deeper spots; Leonard Vaughan is a fine dark-leaved kind with scarlet flowers; J. D. Cabos has orange-scarlet blooms; President Carnot has luxuriant foliage.
Wellesley, Mass. - Professor T. D. Hatfield.
PANDORA is another of the Orchid-flowering Cannas from the list of Dammann & Co. We have the variety from the originators, and have been enjoying its blossoms in the greenhouse since September. The plant is dwarf, growing about three feet high. But these are young plants closely potted in the house, so that we may expect a larger growth of strong plants out-of-doors. The foliage is very dark red, splashed with lighter greenish red. The flowers most closely resemble those of America, described in GARDEN AND FOREST, vol. x., p. I78, with the attractive, full-rounded form of those of Italia, with reflexed petals (not staminodia). The petal-like staminodia are bright, fiery cherry-red, heavily splashed and overlaid with a darker velvety red, giving a peculiarly rich appearance. Pandora and America please us the best of all the Italian or Orchid-flowering sorts.
University of Vermont. Professor F. A. Waugh.
