Revisiting Canna 'Purpurea Floribunda'

A tall Foliage Group cultivar; purple foliage, large, oval shaped, spreading habit; round stems, coloured purple; spikes of flowers are erect, self-coloured redcurrant, staminodes are long and narrow, edges regular, petals red, fully self-cleaning; fertile both ways, not true to type, self-pollinating; rhizomes are thick, up to 7 cm in diameter, coloured purple; tillering is prolific.

Synonyms: C. indica 'Purpurea', C. 'Purpurea'

Introduced by A. Crozy, Lyon, France in 1887. The earliest recorded reference is the Wilhelm Pfitzer Catalogue of 1890.

This hybrid has been the sire/siress of many great foliage plants. If you want to discover the pleasures of creating new Canna foliage plants, then this one is a great starting point.

Revisiting Canna 'Nepalensis grandiflora'

A medium sized Foliage Group cultivar; glaucous green foliage, lanceolate shaped, upright habit; spikes of flowers are erect, orange-yellow with red spots, staminodes are narrow, edges regular; fertile both ways, not known if true to type, not self-pollinating. Introduced by A. Crozy, Lyon, France in 1866. This was the first Canna variety that he introduced, although he had been introducing new rose varieties for a number of years previous.

Subtropical Gardening - Robinson 1868 stated: "Has the same habit and foliage as the type (C. 'Nepalensis'), but is a dwarfer variety with better-shaped flowers of a sulphur-yellow, sometimes dotted with red."

Admiral Courbet - not a wilting flower

An interesting heritage cultivar was created by Monsieur Antoine Crozy in the mid 1880's, named for Amédée Courbet (1828–1885), who was a French Admiral, and was particularly active in Asia.

Courbet was born in Abbeville, France in 1828 as the youngest of three children. His father died when he was nine years old. After education at the École polytechnique, which is a higher education establishment run under the supervision of the French ministry of defence, he joined the French navy and gained rapid promotion. He was appointed governor of New Caledonia from 1880 to 1882, then commander of the Naval Division of Tonkin in 1883. He established the Protectorate of Annam after shelling the Annamite imperial capital at Hué during a succession crisis and compelling the new Emperor to submit to French authority.

He was put in charge of all French armed forces in China in 1884, and led the Sino-French War. He destroyed the newly-built Chinese Fukien fleet in the 1884 Battle of Foochow and organised the invasion and blockade of Formosa (Taiwan) capturing the Pescadores and occupying Keelung from 1st October 1884 to July 1885. He died two days after having obtained peace with China and its famous Black Flags on the ship Bayard anchored outside the port of Makung on 11th June 1885.

Pierre Loti was an officer ("Enseigne de Vaisseau") under Courbet. He wrote:

“He was very careful not to shed French blood. His battles were highly organized, worked in advance with so rare a precision that the result, often decisive, was always obtained by losing very little of ours; and then, after the action which he had undertaken with total absolutism, he became again another man, very soft, making the visit of the ambulances with a generous and sad smile. He wanted to see all the casualties, even the humblest, to hold their hand, and they died more content, more comforted by his visit.”

Newspaper of the day showing the Bayard, flagship of the French Navy in China.

Three ships of the French Navy have been named in his honour, including the stealth frigate Courbet, presently commissioned.

The Canna introduced in honour of the admiral is a medium sized Crozy Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, spreading habit; round stems, coloured green; clusters of flowers are open, yellow with carmine spots, staminodes are medium size, edges irregular, petals yellow, fully self-cleaning, low bloomer; 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 A. Crozy, Lyon, France in 1888.

Our earliest reference to this specimen is the RHS awarding a First Class Certificate (Cannell 1888). Still being grown in both Europe and Australia.

Canna 'Fulfillment'

New introduction

A small Crozy Group cultivar; dark green foliage, oval shaped, spreading habit; flowers are open, pale pink with a narrow ivory margin, staminodes are large, edges irregular, stamen is gold speckled with old-rose, style is gold, petals red, 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 pink; tillering is average. Breeding Canna 'May Vince' x C. 'Maudie Malcolm'. Introduced by Malcolm Dalebö, Claines Canna Collection, Worcester, England, EU in 2007.

The craze of 1889

Garden and forest. / Volume 2, Issue 93. [December 4, 1889, 577-588]

Notes
One of the most interesting and valuable results of recent French horticultural effort is found in the new race of dwarf Cannas, with large and brilliantly colored flowers, produced by M. Crozy, of Lyons. A large bed of these plants in the the Trocadero, in Paris, was surrounded all summer by crowds of people. Too much has not been said of the beauty of these plants and of their value for decorative purposes, whether planted in the open ground or grown in pots or tubs. The colors of the flowers of some of the varieties are surprisingly brilliant.




There seems no good reason, however, calling the plants "dwarf," except that they begin to flower when they are not more than twenty inches high, for they grow, especially in this country, when generously treated, to a height of six or eight feet. Seventeen of the new varieties exhibited at Paris for the first time, which, on the whole, are no better than those sent out by M. Crozy during the past two years, are described in a recent issue of the Revue Horticole. No one who has not seen a collection of M. Crozy's Cannas in good condition, can form the faintest idea even of the beauty and the brilliancy of the flowers of the plants.

England can only watch on

Garden and forest. / Volume 7, Issue 323. [May 2, 1894, 171-180]

CANNAS.-Mr. George Paul, the Chestnut nurseryman who has paid special attention to the improved race of garden Cannas, read a paper upon them before a recent meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society. He dealt chiefly with their cultural requirements and points connected with their improvement; the paper is, therefore, a useful supplement to that read before the same society in the summer by Mr. Baker, of Kew, which treated upon the botany of Cannas.

The principal breeder of these plants in recent years, Monsieur Crozy, of Lyons, informed Mr. Paul that he began to breed them about twenty years ago with C. 'Warscewiczii' and C. 'Nepalense grandiflora', and raised from them C. 'Bonnetti', a variety much appreciated at that time. Since then he has gradually improved the Canna in habit and size of flower, and by the time he raised and distributed the variety called C. 'Madame Crozy', one of the best ever raised, he had 1,500 seedlings from which he obtained many good varieties in nearly all shades of color.

Recently he has paid special attention to the seedlings with shades of rose and carmine in the flowers, as well as white. Monsieur Vilmorin, Herr Pfitzer and Mr. Paul himself have raised seedling Cannas, but he modestly disclaims having produced anything to rival Monsieur Crozy's seedlings. The value of Cannas for summer gardening is certainly very great. In England they have become a prominent feature in most good gardens, the London parks and Kew growing them largely. They are most effective when grown in large beds on lawns, and I think they look best when only one sort fills each bed. In greenhouses they are equally useful, and they grow and flower perfectly in a tropical house. The most effective plants I have seen were growing in the Victoria tank at Glasnevin last June, the perfect foliage and large richly colored flowers being charming over the water.

Cannas are emphatically everybody's plants. Mr. Paul gives the following list of the best varieties hitherto raised.

Crimson-purple: Sophie Buchner, L. H. Bailey, Alphonse Bouvier, Miss Sarah Hill, C. A. de Choiseuil, Victor Hugo.

Salmon-red: President Hardy, Professor David, Cronstadt, Souvenir d'Asa Gray, Thomas S. Ware, The Garden.

Crimson-yellow: Henri L. deVilmorin, Count de Ganay.

Yellow-edged: Paul Sigrist, Marquise d'Aigle, Admiral Gervais and Madame Crozy.

But the greatest advance, in Mr. Paul's opinion, is in the gains of the last two years in the new yellow-spotted varieties. The best of these are Comtesse d'Estoile, Progression, Antoine Barton and L. H.
Bailey.

London. W. Watson.

Red foliage cannas

I was always under the impression that early canna cultivars had green foliage, and much later crosses introduced the dark foliage; a feature that so many love in Cannas. However, my reading has revealed that cannas with red foliage have been in evidence since the early 1800's. Rubra is the Latin word for red, and we have several interesting cannas in our collection that carry that name.

The first is a species called Canna rubra (Willd.). Johnson's Dictionary of 1856 describes it has having "Red flowers indoors in December, originating from the West Indies and first introduced to England in 1820." Modern taxonomists have treated Canna rubra as being a synonym for Canna indica, and at least one authority feels that it was probably a duplication of Canna indica var. indica Warscewiczii. That same species was used by Monsieur Crozy in his development of the floriferous Crozy Group of cannas.

The earlier reference to flowering in December was due to the fact that in those days, in England, Cannas were grown indoors in glass buildings, with heat provided by coal heated stoves, hence the name given to Cannas, and other expensive tender imports, at that time of stove plants. Cannas were considered to be too tender to grow outdoors at all, and only people with wealth could consider growing them.

Rather than using glass houses, Monsieur Théodore Année and the other French hybridisers quickly adapted the technique of lifting and storing rhizomes in the winter months and growing out again next spring, once the threat of frost had receded. The rhizomes descended from Canna indica and C. glauca proved to be amenable to that process, and so we remain today. That technique is now used by most Canna growers resident in temperate zones. As we all know, Canna 'Annei; was the first canna cultivar, but Monsieur Année went on to produce many more cultivars, amongst them were some with dark foliage.

We have early records of three Foliage Group cultivars raised in the mid 1800's, the first was Canna 'Rubra Perfecta', (perfect red) raised by Théodore Année, Passy, France, EU in 1861. In Subtropical Gardening, Robinson 1868, it was described as having stems dark-red, from 5 ft. to 6½ ft. high. Leaves dark-red, rayed with purple. The flowers are of medium size, orange-red. Rootstocks are dark-red, and conical. It seeds freely.

Canna 'Rubra Superbissima' (superb red) was another new cultivar from Monsieur Année, also in 1861, and Robinson described it as having stems dark purple-red, very thick, from nearly 6 ft. to 6½ ft. high. It’s leaves are broad, round, purplish-red, with a metallic lustre. Flowers of medium size, light orange-red. The rootstocks are brownish, very thick, conical, and crowded together. It was stated to be one of the finest metallic-red-leaved Cannas. In addition, Thompson's Gardener's Assistant, edited by Thomas Moore, 1892, described it as being 5 to 6 feet in height; leaves very broad, of a rich purplish red colour, with a metallic lustre in the sun. This is a free grower, and one of the best of the red-leaved kinds. At that time in canna history the floriferous cultivars from Monsieur Crozy were the fashionable rage, so the mention is all the more remarkable as Moore obviously felt that this was an outstanding specimen.

Finally, Canna 'Rubra Nerva', (red ribbed) was raised by E. Chaté and sons, sentier Saint-Antoine, Saint-Mandé, Paris, France, EU. in 1862. It was described by Robinson as having stems dark-red, from 3½ ft. to 5 ft. high. Leaves long and narrow, lance-shaped, reflexed, dark-red rayed with purple. It had large flowers, of a cinnabar red. The rootstocks are dark-red, very long, conical, and cylindrical. Robinson went on to say that this cultivar resembles a weeping willow.

This strongly resembles our own cultivar, C. 'Russian Lance' (left), which was a seedling from C. 'Russian Red'. We are growing C. 'Russian Red' next to C. 'Rubra Superbissima' for comparison this year, as there seems to be no difference between them. We also intend to supply a specimen of the latter to the National Canna Collection, so that Keith and Christine Hayward can make a judgement as well.

References:

1. Le Canna - E. Chaté et fils, 1867
2. Subtropical Gardening - Robinson 1868
3. Thompson's Gardener's Assistant, Edited by Thomas Moore, 1892

Comparison of Crozy and Italian Groups

We have two old prints to illustrate the differences between the Crozy Group and the Italian Group of Cannas. The prints date from the late 1800's when these two groups were being created and perpetuated.

The two prints together illustrate so well the difference between the Crozy Group and the Italian Group that followed. The first print shows the narrower petals of the gladiolus-type French canna and the right shows the so-called, orchid-type 'Italian Job', with petals (really staminodes) that are large, showy, crinkled edges and inclined to be a little floppy (flaccid), showing their descent from the USA species C. flaccida. In addition, the lip (labellum) is larger than the petals.

Comparison of the two basic canna types Character Crozy Group Italian Group Cultivars Crozy, Alipore, Gladiolus or French Dwarf cannas, x generalis. Italian, Iris, Orchid, Burbank, or Giant flowered cannas, x orchiodes. Flower Diameter: Medium to large, less than 12.5cm Very large, 12.5cm to 21cm Colour: Many Bright yellow to deep red striped or splashed. Not pink or clear white. Petals: Narrow, erect or ascending. Reflexed after about the first day. Tube: About 1.25cm cm. long, not longer than sepals. About 2.5 cm. or more, much longer than sepals. Staminodia: Narrow to broad, mostly erect or strongly upright, well separated in outline. Space between staminodes. Broad and soft with flowing outline, lip funnel-form at the base. Staminodes make a full circle when formally arranged. Fertility Pollen: 50-80% 40-60% Seed: 1-19 seeds per capsule Sterile

References

Khoshoo, T.N. & Guha, I. - Origin and Evolution of Cultivated Cannas. Vikas Publishing House.