Web Review Of Victorian Canna Hybrids

Great progress began in 1870 in the hybridizing of theOperatic titles with colorful tropical leaves with stalks
canna lily by a combination of genetic materials fromof glowing flowers worked well. These Italian canna
the wild canna species that had been collected fromintroductions were planted and grown throughout much
around the world, leading to the production of theof the European continent. The Grand Opera Series of
'Madame Crozy' cultivar. A great interest developed incanna cultivars were tagged with names of the well
canna lilies as a colorful garden plant that previouslyknown operatic performances of Aida, La Boheme, La
had been grown chiefly for the fast growing, tropicalTraviata, Madam Butterfly, Rigolletto and Der
foliage, since the wild canna blooms were mostly smallRosenkavalier (German.)
and uninteresting. The stockpile of collected, canna wildThe German Canna hybridizer, Wilheim Pfitzer, had his
species were again used to back-cross andown favorite canna names including, Stadt Fellbach.
intermingle with the celebrated hybrid, Madame Crozy.Most of Pfitzer named cannas were given vivid and
The bright bazaar colors and the tropical look wasspecific color names such as: Crimson Beauty,
excitable and exotic for the gardeners of the VictorianPrimrose Yellow, Salmon Pink, and Chinese Coral. In
Age. Several countries including Italy, Germany, France,addition to adding clear colors of pastels, the Pfitzer
and England became actively involved in cannacanna grew into dwarf plants and rarely grew taller
hybridization. Great efforts were made to codify thethan 3ft. This dwarf feature was very attractive for
canna lily as an inexpensive, brilliantly flowered plantsmall metropolitan gardens, where space was limited,
with the tropical, fast growing, garden choice to plantand most of the Pfitzer canna cultivars readily
everywhere, and as often happens, to the unstoppableproduced seed that might grow into even better canna
point of being brashly overdone.cultivars with that personal touch for the backyard
A few of the Victorian Era canna hybrids are stillgardener.
grown today, despite the general opinion of mostItalian interest in hybridizing canna lilies extended even
canna lovers, that they should be buried with the pastinto the Italian Monarchy reigns of King Emmanuel II and
and forgotten except for the historical contribution thathis son, King Humbert. The Yellow King Humbert canna
elevated the wild native hybridization cannais believed to have been renamed by an English
combinations that created new directions for color andgardener as Richard Wallace.
tropical leaf development to explore.The noted French Hybridizer in 1870, Luther Burbank,
The naming of the Grand Opera Series of Canna lilies,the famous American Botanist, noted in his book,
was, a flower hybridizer's colorful idea of associatingFlowers, published in 1921 that the Madame Crozy
an Italian classical musical treasure- Thecanna introduction laid the foundation for a canna
Opera—-with a group of hybrid flowers. Thesehybrid industry to rapidly evolve, since the flowers
new canna hybrids, likewise, caused a sensation in thewere colorful and large and all existing flowers of
garden lovers world, and the possibility of theknown wild canna species had produced small
commercial production of canna rhizomes made itinsignificant flowers. All interest in growing canna as a
possible for gardening Italians to reasonably afford togarden subject had previously come from an eclectic
plant the brightly colored tropical leaved plants in theirinterest in the exotic tropical leaves, not from the
yards. The brilliant idea of associating the belovedflowers.