Canna 'Soudan'

A medium sized Italian Group cultivar; dark foliage, large, ovoid shaped, branching habit; flowers are open, self-coloured orange, staminodes are large, edges lightly frilled, fully self-cleaning, average bloomer; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured purple.
It had been asserted that this was just a synonym of C. 'Wyoming', but Malcolm McFarland has researched this and provided photographic evidence of the differences between the two, clearly showing this to be a distinct and separate variety, although very similar to the Burbank introduced C. 'Wyoming'.

Hide that junk.

Just like to share this solution for hiding a pile of junk stashed in a rellies backyard corner. Spotted yesterday whilst imbibing some Christmas cheer in northern Victoria, Australia.

Canna 'Wyoming', one of the Italian-type cannas raised in the USA by Luther Burbank, and released in Australia in 1911, is truly magnificent when well grown. Pictured here, it provides an effective screen for an old car awaiting restoration for the past five years. Who knows, it could even save a marriage! The rest of the yard was immaculate and groomed to within an inch of its life.

These flowers gave me a crick in my neck trying to photograph them up close. They were at least 3 metres (10 feet) tall and we are only in the early part of our Canna season.

This stand receives no manuring and only occasional watering in our long hot summers. The rhizomes have never been lifted or divided but remain in situ year in, year out, as is the custom in our equable climate.

Brian Williams excellent year

Mr Brian Williams reports that he has had an excellent year in creating new seed crosses, and has spent more time breeding Cannas in 2008 than all previous years combined!

Brian also attempted some far fetched hybrid crosses and was fortunate enough to get a small number of seeds from some unlikely, but very interesting parents.

Canna 'Wyoming' is an Italian group cultivar and is considered to be seed sterile, yet Brian produced 4 seeds from it and all of them were solid and had a good weight to them. In previous years Brian has produced seeds, but they had no embryos.

The four seeds were despatched to a friend who is germinating them in a TC laboratory, but, as yet, there is no word on how they are progressing.

Canna 'Bengal Tiger' is another Italian Group cultivar that is considered to be seed sterile, yet Brian was also able to produce 4 seeds. One seed did not fully mature due to the cold snap at the end of the season. The other 3 seeds looked very healthy and last week Brian scarified the surface of the seeds and planted them in trays. One has already germinated, but has not yet produced a full leaf. It will be interesting to see how that progresses, and the first question is whether the seedlings will inherit the variegated foliage of the seed parent.

Canna 'Pink Sunburst', aka 'Pringle Bay' has also produced around 15 seeds, which have all been planted. We have ourselves grown seedlings in the past from this cultivar, but they have all had a poor pink flower and mundane green foliage; however Brian has a habit of producing surprises so we will watch with great interest.

Brian has promised to publish some photographs as these seedlings grow-on, and we will watch out for them with interest.

Brian's Botanicals

Visit Canna 'Orange Julius'

A small Italian Group cultivar; dark foliage, oval shaped, maroon margin, branching habit; oval stems, coloured purple; panicles of flowers are open, self-coloured orange, staminodes are large, edges lightly frilled, petals purple with farina, fully self-cleaning, low bloomer; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured purple; tillering is slow.

At times, looks like a smaller version of C. 'Wyoming', however that one is orange with red markings and variations, whereas this one is orange with golden-yellow tendencies.

Nothing seems to be known about this cultivar, it has not appeared in any research information I have seen, and never featured in any of the garden catalogues from the early 1900's. My guess is that the name has been given to an unnamed specimen in more recent times. Maybe the Mühle book will throw up some clues when we get that translated from early German to English.

Revisiting Canna 'Soudan'

A medium sized Italian Group cultivar; dark foliage, large, ovoid shaped, branching habit; flowers are open, self-coloured orange, staminodes are large, edges lightly frilled, fully self-cleaning, average bloomer; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured purple.

It had been asserted that this was just a synonym of C. 'Wyoming', but Malcolm McFarland has researched this and provided photographic evidence of the differences between the two, clearly showing this to be a distinct and separate variety, although very similar to the Burbank introduced C. 'Wyoming'.

New Italian Group cultivar

While most Canna breeders have been concentrating on developing new cultivars from the Crozy originating stock or even crossing back to species, Mr Bernard Yorke, in Australia, has also been experimenting with the Italian Group (what used to be called x orchoides) material. The picture below is a reminder to us all that we should not forget about the other possibilities.

The picture above has a distinct resemblance to Canna 'Wyoming'. The pollen parent is either C. 'Wyoming' or C. 'Pretoria', as experiments were made with both as pollen parents at the same time. Mr Yorke commented that "The leaves are just a shade lighter than C. 'Wyoming', but the flower is remarkably similar. Where the interest lies in this seedling is the fact that this is probably the first published large floppy orchoide type bred in the modern era of Canna breeding. The modified petal-like staminoides seems particularly large too. Even larger than the old hybrids of this type produced by Dammann & Co. and Wintzer a century ago."

[Ed. The only recent cultivars of this type appear to have been mutations. Whilst the diploid Italian Cannas are all seed sterile, the pollen is still fertile, although less fertile than that from the Crozy types, and is still a practical proposition that offers different possibilities. The colour range available from Italian cannas is restricted, but they still have interesting possibilities.]