Revisiting Canna ‘Porcelain Petals’
REPRINT FROM 2008 Mr Johnny K. Johnson of Kentucky, USA introduced four new varieties in 2003, the last ones he introduced before retiring from hybridising Cannas after suffering a heart…
Revisiting Canna ‘Borneo’
Canna 'Borneo' revisited.
The never-ending war with slugs and snails
Canna enthusiasts are well aware of the damage that slugs and snails can cause in their plants, and although the use of chemical slug repellents is a possible protection option,…
Germinating canna seeds
For those who live in the northern hemisphere and have not grown Canna from seed before, this may be a good time to start giving it some thought. The best…
Eating your canna
It is often forgotten that Cannaceae is a vegetable, that was turned into a garden cultivar by early horticulturists.
More polyploidy in Cannas
Fertility Fertility in Cannas is affected by the chromosome number, and the following table and comments were published by Dr Khoshoo following his research in India in the early 1960's.…
Polyploidy in Cannas
Each cell of a canna plant naturally has 18 chromosomes, or 9 pairs of chromosomes from the seed and pollen parents respectively. These plants with their paired chromosomes are termed diploid, from the Greek word for "double".
Théodore Année – the first Canna hybridist
Théodore Année, a wealthy, retired French diplomatic consul in South America, returned to France in the mid 1840's and settled in rue des Réservoirs, Passy, Paris, where he devoted himself…
The Life of Karl Sprenger
In an article delivered to the International Dendrology Society by By Councilor Bern. Sprenger, the writer described the life of his cousin Karl Sprenger. Karl Sprenger was the creator of…
The Lombard group of Cannas
An extract from the 1890 catalogue of the German horticultural giants Wilhelm Pfitzer.