Canna 'Preference'

A medium sized Foliage Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, transparent margin, upright habit; triangular stems, coloured green; spikes of flowers are erect, self-coloured orange-red, staminodes are medium size, edges irregular, labellum is orange-red, petals purple with farina, fully self-cleaning, outstanding 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 prolific.
Introduced by Malcolm Dalebö, Claines Canna Collection, Worcester, England, EU in 2006. The flower has an orchid-like shape, with a curled lip and is like a very large species-type flower. A hand-pollination of Canna 'Oiseau de Feu' x C. 'Falstaff'.

Canna 'President' was 'Oiseau de Feu'

The first rhizome of Canna 'The President' that we purchased at Claines Canna was from a British Garden Catalogue in 2001, accession 15 in our collection. The accompanying documentation stated that it was imported from the USA.

We never queried it's origins and simply grew it for several years before it began to dawn on us that this specimen did not match the descriptions we were reading from others and from the old catalogues we were collecting as we learned more about Cannas.

On the 10 July 2004 we purchased a Canna 'Oiseau de Feu', aka 'Firebird', accession 335. Growing the two alongside each other it became apparent that what we had purchased as C. 'President' was actually C. 'Oiseau de Feu'.

Keith Hayward, of Hart Canna, often states that when you buy pre-packaged Cannas you acquire 3 things:

• a rhizome
• a name
• a picture

And the only thing that you can be sure of is that none of them match!

Introducing Canna 'Preference'

A medium sized Foliage Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, transparent margin, upright habit; triangular stems, coloured green; spikes of flowers are erect, self-coloured orange-red, staminodes are medium size, edges irregular, labellum is orange-red, petals purple with farina, fully self-cleaning, outstanding 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 prolific.
Introduced by Malcolm Dalebö, Claines Canna Collection, Worcester, England, EU in 2006. The flower has an orchid-like shape, with a curled lip and is like a very large species-type flower. A hand-pollination of Canna 'Oiseau de Feu' x C. 'Falstaff'.