Category Archives: Italia

Canna ‘Italia’

Posted on March 21, 2010 | Leave a comment

A medium sized Italian Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, upright habit; triangular stems, coloured green; panicles of flowers are open, self-coloured yellow, throat cardinal-red, staminodes are large, edges frilled, labellum is red, stamen is yellow with a wide red margin, style is red, petals red with farina, fully self-cleaning; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are long and thin, coloured white and purple; tillering is average.
Introduced by C. Sprenger, Dammann & Co., Naples, Italy, EU in 1894. Announced along with C. ‘Austria’ in 1894, these two new cultivars caused a sensation at that time, producing much larger flowers than the Crozy Group had been capable of producing. It is a seedling of Canna ‘Madame Crozy’ x C. flaccida.

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Posted in Carl Sprenger, Italia

Revisiting Canna ‘Italia’

Posted on June 7, 2009 | Leave a comment

I just had to share with you this superb illustration taken from the original May 1898 issue of “The Mayflower”,a magazine that I had not heard of before, but which had 273,082 subscribers that is “devoted to the cultivation of flowers and plants, fruits, vegetables, and to gardening and home adornment in general.”

The illustration clearly shows the colouring and shows that the labellum (lip) is almost all red and has that distinctive notch in its irregular edge.

Other contents include articles and information on “Evolution of the Canna”, “Cannas Austria and Italia”. All round, this is an informative 111 year old gardening catalog for those interested in the history of Canna.

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Posted in Austria, Italia, Mayflower

Canna ‘Italia’

Posted on May 1, 2009 | Leave a comment

A medium sized Italian Group cultivar; green foliage, oval shaped, upright habit; triangular stems, coloured green; panicles of flowers are open, self-coloured yellow, throat cardinal-red, staminodes are large, edges frilled, labellum is red, stamen is yellow with a wide red margin, style is red, petals red with farina, fully self-cleaning; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are long and thin, coloured white and purple; tillering is average.

Introduced by C. Sprenger, Dammann & Co., Naples, Italy, EU in 1894. Announced along with C. ‘Austria’ in 1894, these two new cultivars caused a sensation at that time, producing much larger flowers than the Crozy Group had been capable of producing. It is a seedling of Canna ‘Madame Crozy’ x C. flaccida.

Planting outdoors

The 10 day weather prediction for Worcester shows no frosts in the immediate future, but it still has to be too early to commit the collection to the vagaries of the weather Gods.

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Posted in Italia, Sprenger

Revisiting Canna ‘Bavaria’

Posted on January 9, 2009 | Leave a comment

A medium sized aquatic Italian Group cultivar, equally at home as a water marginal or in the border; green foliage, oval shaped, spreading habit; flowers are open, yellow with red blotches, throat red, staminodes are large, average bloomer; seed is sterile, pollen is low fertile; rhizomes are long and thin.

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

In “Notes on the Orchid-flowering Cannas”. Garden & Forest of 29th September 1897, Prof. F. A. Waugh declared that “Italia is a beautiful Canna, to be sure, perhaps the best one of this class yet introduced, but Burgundia and Bavaria are so much like it that a careless observer would pass them by as all of the same kind. Both new varieties are, however, of smaller stature than Italia and have smaller foliage. The flowers in all three are of a brilliant canary-yellow upon which two shades of rich apricot red are successively overlaid. In Italia the red colors are run together in the throat to make somewhat regular solid blotches bordered with very deep bands of the clear yellow, like an exaggerated Queen Charlotte. In Bavaria there is very little of the darker red shade, while the lighter red is scattered in small dots well out upon the petal-like staminodia.”

Synonym: C. ‘Sunburst’

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Posted in Bavaria, Italia, Sprenger

Carl Ludwig Sprenger

Posted on March 30, 2008 | 4 comments

Carl Ludwig Sprenger was a German botanist, born on 30 November 1846 at Güstrow, Mecklembourg and died 13 December 1917 on the island of Corfu.

Canna (Italian Group) ‘Austria‘, Sprenger 1893

Sprenger lived in Naples from 1877 to 1917, and was a partner in the horticultural house of Dammann & Co. of San Giovanni a Teduccio, Naples, Italy. David Fairchild praised Sprenger, “a brilliant botanist who had established a nursery…he was one of those real plantsmen who both know the names of plants and how to grow them. Sprenger was known to roam mountain sides and meadows. He enthusiastically collected seeds for botanical gardens and freely gave of his knowledge to others.

The eruption of Vesuvius [April 4, 1906] buried his plants under volcanic ash, destroying hundreds of his best specimens.” Sprengers’ life was in ruins.

In 1907, Kaiser Wilhelm (William II) purchased Achilleion, a garden with a palace on Corfu (Kerkyra). Sprenger became supervisor of the Kaiser’s garden.

Sprenger’s life had had no sound; Fairchild wrote that he was “very deaf”. Perhaps he loved plants so much because they spoke in colours, shapes, and scents. In the end, he did not even have flowers. The man who surrounded himself with plants died December 13, 1917, a hostage of war. Being German and living on a Greek island in the middle of the First World War was high-risk, but at 70 years of age he was not prepared to leave behind his beloved plants and move to another country. Nobody was able to establish what really happened, but it is hard to see what threat a 71 year old, deaf, botanist posed that justified his murder.


Canna (Italian Group) ‘Italia’, Sprenger 1893

Sprenger had concluded that by constantly interbreeding the large flowered Crozy varieties nothing novel or more remarkable could be secured, and he, therefore, experimented with some new blood, employing for this purpose the Canna flaccida, a species of the southern USA, of medium height and large flowers, with one specially developed petal. The result was what became known as the ‘Orchid’ Cannas or the ‘Italian’ Cannas. A few years later, Luther Burbank in the USA pursued a similar approach.

  • 1893, Canna ‘Italia’ and Canna ‘Austria’
  • 1894, Canna ‘Atalanta’, Canna ‘America’, Canna ‘Burgundia’ and Canna ‘Allemaniana’
  • 1895, Canna ‘Bavaria’, Canna ‘Britannia’ , Canna ‘Heinrich Seidel’
  • 1896, Canna ‘Pandora’
  • 1897, Canna ‘Edouard André’, Canna ‘Parthénopé’ and Canna ‘Roma’
  • 1907, Canna ‘Wilhelm Bofinger’, Canna ‘Pluto’
  • 1909, Canna ‘Roi Humbert’

Sprenger also created and named 122 beautiful Yucca hybrids in the years from 1897 to 1907.

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Posted in Austria, Burbank, Italia, Italian Group, Sprenger

Assessment of Canna progress, 1897

Posted on November 7, 2007 | Leave a comment

Garden and forest. / Volume 10, Issue 501. [September 29, 1897, 379-388]

The Cultivation of Cannas.

IT is interesting to look back a decade and note the progress made in the cultivation of Cannas. The development of the Crozy type, from which almost every high-class variety has come, is most interesting. In no class of plants can less credit be claimed by the hybridist, for the best Cannas have resulted from careful selection. The arrangements for close fertilization are so complete that it is almost impossible, if fecundation is secured, to thwart Nature.

It was predicted when the large-flowered giants of the Flaccida type, Italia and Austria, were introduced that they would supersede the Crozy type. Both these types are continuous bloomers, but what is lacking in the blooms of all Cannas, durability of texture, is still more lacking in the Italian varieties. The flowers are extremely fugacious, and what I have seen of the half a dozen or more new colors in this section they all have the same defect. The American variety of this type, the Burbank, is no better in this respect; in appearance it resembles the variety named Austria (see left). As pot-plants for foliage effects Cannas are highly effective, and under glass, with shade, the flowers are more durable. This is true of all Cannas; under glass the flowers have better individual development and last long enough to fill out a good round truss.

Canna specialists hesitate to judge a variety by its behavior under glass; the supreme test is out in the open air. Paul Bruant is superb under glass, but of little use under direct sunlight. For a bedding Canna a compact truss is a strong recommendation. Among medium growers, Queen Charlotte and its ” improved ” variety are the finest. The flowers are widely banded with yellow and durable. An effective combination in a circular bed may be made with plants of Queen Charlotte in the middle and Mrs. Fairman Rogers, a fine form of the Crozy type, as an edging.

Mr. Denys Zirngiebel, of Needham, Massachusetts, who makes a speciality of Cannas, considers President Cleveland, a salmon-scarlet, the finest bedding Canna of its color yet introduced. It is very compact, and in vividness of coloring it outshone all others in a large patch containing sixty varieties. It was raised by Mr. Pfister, gardener at the White House. This list comprises scarcely half a dozen first-class varieties, if the dark-leaved sorts are excluded. Bismarck, a recent variety, showed up well; it has a dwarf habit and compact and full-flowered truss of crimson flowers. Robert Christie is a beautiful salmon-red and a splendid pot-plant; Ami Pichon is a good maroon with deeper spots; Leonard Vaughan is a fine dark-leaved kind with scarlet flowers; J. D. Cabos has orange-scarlet blooms; President Carnot has luxuriant foliage.

Wellesley, Mass. – Professor T. D. Hatfield.

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Posted in Ami Pichon, Austria, Bismark, Burbank, Canna, flaccida, Italia, J.D. Cabos, Leonard Vaughan, Mrs Fairman Rogers, President Carnot, President Cleveland, Queen Charlotte, Robert Christie

Pandora’s box of tricks, 1897

Posted on November 1, 2007 | 1 comment

Garden and forest. / Volume 10, Issue 512. [December 15, 1897, 489-498]


More Orchid-flowering Cannas.

PANDORA is another of the Orchid-flowering Cannas from the list of Dammann & Co. We have the variety from the originators, and have been enjoying its blossoms in the greenhouse since September. The plant is dwarf, growing about three feet high. But these are young plants closely potted in the house, so that we may expect a larger growth of strong plants out-of-doors. The foliage is very dark red, splashed with lighter greenish red. The flowers most closely resemble those of America, described in GARDEN AND FOREST, vol. x., p. I78, with the attractive, full-rounded form of those of Italia, with reflexed petals (not staminodia). The petal-like staminodia are bright, fiery cherry-red, heavily splashed and overlaid with a darker velvety red, giving a peculiarly rich appearance. Pandora and America please us the best of all the Italian or Orchid-flowering sorts.



The varieties Bavaria and Burgundia (Dammann) have also been in blossom with us since September 13th. These are both of comparatively dwarf habit, the foliage being smaller and narrower than in the better-known Italia, Austria and Burbank. They both give blossoms of the Italia type, it being frequently difficult or entirely impossible to separate the three, Bavaria, Burgundia and Italia, by the blossoms alone. Bavaria tends to have more solid red at the centre, so that it becomes rather a yellow-bordered flower, of somewhat the same marking as Queen Charlotte; Burgundia is more spotted and looks a trifle more like Florence Vaughan; Bavaria usually has upright petals, while Burgundia commonly shows its Canna flaccida parentage in reflexed petals. We had Italia and Austria in large beds on the open lawn throughout the summer, where they gave moderate satisfaction. Their large growth and heavy luxuriant leaves give a fresh, semitropical foliage effect worth consideration; but the blossoms are not, upon outdoor plants, an item of much importance.

University of Vermont. Professor F. A. Waugh.

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Posted in Austria, Bavaria, Burgundia, Canna, Dammann, Italia

New Italian cultivars

Posted on July 20, 2007 | Leave a comment

An article by Professor F. A. Waugh, University of Vermont, taken from the Garden and Forest Journal [Volume 10, Issue 501. [September 29, 1897, 379-388]

Notes on the Orchid-flowering Cannas.

WE have been greatly interested in the new Orchid-flowering Cannas since their first announcement, and have taken some pains to grow most of the varieties offered for sale. A note regarding the variety America was sent to GARDEN AND FOREST some weeks ago (see vol. x., page I78), and a completer account has been more recently published in the Tenth Annual Report of the Vermont Experiment Station, page 119. Since that report went to press we have brought two new varieties of these Cannas into blossom. These are Bavaria and Burgundia, both from the lists of Dammann & Co., the originators of Italia, Austria and America. We are somewhat disappointed in these two newest varieties, not because of bad qualities, but on account of their close resemblance to Italia. Italia is a beautiful Canna, to be sure, perhaps the best one of this class yet introduced, but Burgundia and Bavaria are so much like it that a careless observer would pass them by as all of the same kind.

Both varieties are, however, of smaller stature than Italia and have smaller foliage. The flowers in all three are of a brilliant canary-yellow upon which two shades of rich apricot-red are successively overlaid. In Italia the red colors are run together in the throat to make somewhat regular solid blotches bordered with very deep bands of the clear yellow, like an exaggerated Queen Charlotte. In Bavaria there is very little of the darker red shade, while the lighter red is scattered in small dots well out upon the petal-like staminodia, giving an effect more like that of Florence Vaughan. Burgundia is almost a medium between Bavaria and Italia, with more of the dark overlying red than the former, and more of the leopard spottings than in the latter. Burbank, the only variety of American origin yet advertised, does not seem to have been noted so much in the horticultural press as its good qualities deserve. It is the equal of the Italian varieties. The flowers have the form of Italia and nearly the coloring of Austria. That is to say their form is the best, and their coloring pure canary yellow with a few faint reddish spots in the throat.


These new Cannas, hybrids of Madame Crozy with C. flaccida, are especially admirable for two qualities, namely, the perfection of form and the richness of color in their blossoms. The type of Canna-flower which we are used to seeing among the French dwarfs, when taken by itself, is singularly inharmonious and unsatisfying in its outlines, but there is a fullness of form and grace of outline among the Orchid-flowering sorts which by comparison is altogether pleasing. Their richness of coloring is remarkable. The comparative size of the flowers has been considerably overstated in the advertisements. They are quite large enough, to be sure, but they are only a little larger in fact than Charles Henderson, Alphonse Bouvier, or dozens of other old and well-known varieties. Several of these varieties we have had this year in quantities sufficient for liberal use in outdoor beds. Their large, luxuriant, Musa-like foliage is quite effective, but there is a noticeable paucity of flowers in comparison with the older French dwarf sorts. The softness and flaccidity of the blossoms detract somewhat, of course, from their usefulness out-of-doors, but not so seriously as we had expected. The flower-spikes, though comparatively few in number, are fairly durable and effective as far as they go.
The Orchid-flowering Cannas-and, by the way, they ought to have a better class name-are certainly attractive novelties for the amateur, but in their present state they are not likely to find great favor among professional gardeners, who are interested chiefly in gaudy red and yellow floral effects.
University of Vermont. F. A. Waugh.

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Posted in Bavaria, Burgundia, Italia