Web Review Of Victorian Canna Hybrids

Great progress began in 1870 in the hybridizing of thetropical leaves with stalks of glowing flowers worked
canna lily by a combination of genetic materials fromwell. These Italian canna introductions were planted
the wild canna species that had been collected fromand grown throughout much of the European continent.
around the world, leading to the production of theThe Grand Opera Series of canna cultivars were
'Madame Crozy' cultivar. A great interest developed intagged with names of the well known operatic
canna lilies as a colorful garden plant that previouslyperformances of Aida, La Boheme, La Traviata,
had been grown chiefly for the fast growing, tropicalMadam Butterfly, Rigolletto and Der Rosenkavalier
foliage, since the wild canna blooms were mostly small(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- The Opera---with acanna introduction laid the foundation for a canna
group of hybrid flowers. These new canna hybrids,hybrid industry to rapidly evolve, since the flowers
likewise, caused a sensation in the garden lovers world,were colorful and large and all existing flowers of
and the possibility of the commercial production ofknown wild canna species had produced small
canna rhizomes made it possible for gardening Italiansinsignificant flowers. All interest in growing canna as a
to reasonably afford to plant the brightly coloredgarden subject had previously come from an eclectic
tropical leaved plants in their yards. The brilliant idea ofinterest in the exotic tropical leaves, not from the
associating the beloved Operatic titles with colorfulflowers.