Hart Cannas win prize and acclaim

The Hart Canna stand at Hampton Court

Congratulations are due to Keith and Christine Hayward, having just won a silver-gilt medal at the Royal Horticultural Society Hampton Court Flower Show. The theme of the stand was a recent trip that they made to Argentina searching for Canna species and cultivars.

Christine with the President of the RHS

El Christine with Toby Buckland of Gardeners World fame

Christine, Matthew Biggs, Keith

On the first day they had many VIP visitors, including the President of the RHS, along with TV presenters Richard Jackson and Toby Buckland, not forgetting Radio presenter Matthew Biggs (dressed as William Lobb, Victorian plant collector), and editors of 3 gardening magazines, and finally Gerald Howarth, the Government Shadow Defence Secretary (who happens to live in Farnborough, and looked them up). Christine enjoyed herself meeting with them all, and also got them to sign their visitor's book.
King Henry VIII and his 6 wives are also at the show, Keith thinks that they are there all week . Monday was hot, but Tuesday was heavy rain so they were glad to be in a marquee.

Visit the web site at Hart Canna

Revisiting Canna 'Picasso'

A medium sized Crozy Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, white margin, spreading habit; spikes of flowers are open, yellow heavily spotted with red, staminodes are large, edges lightly frilled, fully self-cleaning; 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 average.

Awards: AGM after trial at RHS Wisley 2002 , entered by Hart Cannas. Yellow with red spots, but not what everybody calls ‘Picasso’. In addition, there is no clear history for this cultivar, as we do not know either when it was introduced or who introduced it. Maybe it is just a synonym for the oldie C. 'Gladiator', which vanished out of circulation about the time that C. 'Picasso' began to appear in catalogues. I have no evidence for such an assertion, but it is an interesting theory.

Revisiting Canna 'Champion'

A medium sized Crozy Group cultivar; green and purple variegated foliage, oval-acuminate shaped, branching habit; oval stems, coloured purple; spikes of flowers are open, salmon and rose-red, throat gold markings, staminodes are medium size, edges irregular, labellum is gold, fully self-cleaning, average 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 pink; tillering is prolific. Introduced by Ernest Turc, Angers, France, EU.

There is a previous cultivar with this name, it is a medium sized Italian Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, branching habit; oval stems, coloured green; flowers are yellow with red blotches; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured white and pink. It featured in the 1908 RHS outdoor trials at Wisley. Also, listed in the Standardized Plant Names, 1942, and is still being grown in France, EU.

Revisiting Canna 'Chameleon'

A medium sized Crozy Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, white margin, branching habit; spikes of flowers are open, yellow heavily spotted with red, staminodes are large, edges regular, petals yellow, 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 white and pink; tillering is prolific.

The earliest reference is the RHS Journal of 1894, and also featured in the 1908 RHS outdoor trials at Wisley. Appeared in the Standardized Plant Names of 1942. Still being grown in Austral-Asia, and now in the EU.

Synonym: C. 'Chaméléon'

Revisiting Canna 'Aphrodite'

A medium sized Premier Group cultivar; dark (137A) foliage, oblong shaped, maroon margin, spreading habit; round stems, coloured purple; panicles of flowers are open, self-coloured salmon, staminodes are large, labellum is pink (51A), stamen is pink, petals red, 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 and purple; tillering is average.

Introduced by P. Schmid. Awards: Royal Horticultural Society, England – Canna Trial 2002, AGM after trial at Wisley 2002, submitted by Hart Cannas. A.M.-B.C. 1971.

However, Brunning's Catalogue, of 1906 describes an earlier cultivar with this name, it was described as broad green leaves, immense trusses of bloom, golden yellow, with large salmon spots, inner petals salmon. It feautured in the 1908 RHS Outdoor Trials, and was described in Das Geschlecht der Canna, by Árpád Mühle in 1910, with the bredding being attributed to C. Sprenger, Dammann & Co., Naples, Italy, EU. It was also mentioned in Standardized Plant Names, 1942.

It is rumoured that the original cultivar is still grown in Austral-Asia.

Revisiting Canna 'Allemania'

A medium sized aquatic Italian Group cultivar, equally at home as a water marginal or in the border; green foliage, oval shaped, branching habit; round stems, coloured green + purple; panicles of flowers are open, salmon-red with a gold margin, throat gold, staminodes are large, edges irregular, labellum is salmon-red, petals purple, fully self-cleaning, good bloomer; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are long and thin, coloured white and purple; tillering is prolific.

Introduced by C. Sprenger, Dammann & Co., Naples, Italy, EU in 1897.

Still being sold in the USA in 1950, the Inter-State Nurseries Catalogue of that year offers it for sale. Still available in the EU.

Awards: Introduced in 1897, earning an immediate Award of Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. Also featured in the 1908 RHS outdoor trials at Wisley, England, EU.

Synonyms: C. 'Alemannia', C. 'Cattleya'

Ian Cooke recognised

Earlier this month at the Hampton Court RHS Show, Ian Cooke was presented with an award to honour his lifetimes work in horticulture, the Royal Horticultural Societies Associateship of Honour.

The Associateship of Honour is given to persons of British nationality who have rendered distinguished service to horticulture in the course of their working life. The number of Associates of Honour may not exceed 100 at any one time.

Ian Cooke's award was granted for his continuous committment to ornamental horticulture, landscape design and grounds management. A former holder of a National Plant Collection of Canna , Ian worked at the University of Nottingham until his recent retirement.

Our congratulations go to Ian, who is also judging the 2008 International Canna Trial, and we hope that he will retain his long-term interest in Canna.

Canna sales at Claines

I was planning to follow up the two previous pollination articles with several articles relating to hand-pollination. However, that will have to wait a day or so, as other events have intervened.

As regular bloggers will be aware, last season we suffered a terrible growing year, where we had hardly any worthwhile light during the summer floods, and just enough in the late summer and Autumn (Fall) to start recovering. As a result we had bad foliage on almost every one of our Cannas. The symptoms of stress due to lack of light and Canna virus are identical, as the Canna has a limited vocabulary!

After talking this over, we came to the conclusion that we should not sell any rhizomes last winter, as we had no idea whether they had virus or not. We still went ahead and produced a catalogue of the Collection, but clearly stating that there would be no mail-order sales.

However, we also had the plants from last year that we knew were not affected by virus. These we planned to pot up and sell as growing plants this summer. Over the winter we cleaned and packed about 1,000 rhizomes of these plants. However, during bad weather the electricity supply was cut overnight, and we lost to frost nearly all of the rhizomes we had in our store.

As a result, we have nothing left to sell at present, and all we are left with is the stock plants of the collection, that we are still growing on. We hope that by August we should know what is affected by virus and which is clear, and therefore saleable in the future.

Roi Humbert wins RHS Awards of Merit

On 4 May 1909, the Floral Committee of Royal Horticulture Society meeting at Wisley, England with Mr H.H. May in the Chair, and twenty-six committee members present, announced the winners of its Award of Merit.

The Award of Merit was awarded to Canna 'Roi Humbert' (votes unanimous), submitted for examination by Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., K.C.V.O., V.M.H., and Messrs J. Veitch, Chelsea. It was described as being, "A dark-leaved, orchid-flowered variety, with a bold spike of orange-crimson flowers."

This cultivar has been grown in Nantes, France, Parks Department since first introduced, and visitors there cannot fail to be impressed. It is a tall variety, but at Nantes it is grown on a raised bank, so that it has a commanding position over all the surrounding Canna cultivars. Even near the end of a long, hot summer its distinctive foliage is eye-catching. It was bred by Carl Sprenger who declared, "This plant will amaze the horticultural world."

It is now safely in the hands of Canna enthusiasts and should be generally available in a few years time.

Carl Sprenger in Wikipedia