Canna 'Viva'

A medium sized Crozy Group cultivar; dark foliage, lanceolate shaped, upright habit; panicles of flowers are open, self-coloured vermilion, staminodes are medium size, edges irregular, petals purple with farina, 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 purple; tillering is average.

Introduced by Ernest Turc, Angers, France, EU in 2000.

The Turc Canna Dynasty

An interesting exchange of mails on the International Canna Club revealed details of the French Canna growing industry, that I was not familiar with, so I repeat them here.

The founder of the Turc dynasty was the canna breeder Adolphe Turc. He had 2 sons, Ernest Turc and Adolphe Turc. They each created their own establishments in the early 1960's. The two houses were called Ernest Turc and J.P. Turc et Fils (& sons).

Ernest Turc had 2 sons, Jean Turc and Robert Turc. Robert Turc was the head of the horticultural company Ernest Turc, of Brain sur l'Authion, Angers, France.

Some years ago Robert passed control of this company to the next generation of Turc, of whom there are several in the company, the organisation now being led by his son-in-law M. Velé. However, Robert continued to be active in the company.

Adolph, the 2nd of the originating brothers, had a son Pierre Turc (now dead), who had 2 sons Jean Pierre and Louis Marie, who jointly run the other Turc enterprise, Messrs J. P. Turc et Fils, located at Maze, Angers, France, a much smaller organisation, which also grows cannas.

Canna ahead of its time.

Ahead of its time, we have our first flower for 2007 from a seedling of ours, numbered CC192. I know that others in warmer climates will have experienced new flowers earlier, but we are located up in the English midlands, near the northen limits of Cannas growing range.

The cup shaped flower is a delicate pastel yellow with rays of light orange emulating from the throat. The first spike contains about 20 buds, so it looks like it will be a strong bloomer. The green foliage is ovoid and thick; one for lasting through droughts and hail-storms, like we had only 9 days ago.

We have several hundred other numbered seedlings to trial this year, and because of the risk of virus, we are now growing the collection elsewhere, and using the house garden as the nursery for new seedlings and those that make it through to being numbered.

Normally, only a handful of new seedlings will make it through to being named and registered, but they all need to be carefully monitored, and regularly checked, so that nothing is missed. CC192 looks like a winner, but we have to watch out for things like self-cleaning, good leaf unfurling, and how many spikes each stem produces... then how many stems it produces.

Meanwhile, the collection is growing in size again, after the virus culling of the last two years. Already, Canna 'Viva' is in full flower, and in the next few days we will see flowers from C. 'Orange Punch' and C. 'Bavaria'. This early flowering is lifting our spirits after the poor start to the year. I am starting to look forward to going outside at 6am with a cup of coffee and cotton buds, ready to start pollinating again. So, the annual cycle continues...