Canna breeding new forms

For the last few years I have been breeding cannas and trying to make new forms that look totally different than what most people think of when they see a canna. I have manly been breeding for foliage rather than flowers. But in most cases with cannas the flowers are still very pretty. I have been lately trying to get larger flowers on my new foliage forms. This years hybrids had some unique looks. My landscape had a totally different feel to it with these new forms. Most people had no idea what they were new colors new shapes and sizes is what I am after. In most cases with just about all my breeding I find myself going after stuff I want personally. I just wonder to the people on the market how alluring are these new hybrids? Do they look like something everyone would be interested or just people like me? Truthfully I get excited about some of the ugliest plants LOL. So for a person with bad taste like me I would like to know do these look like something most people would want? I had a guy here ask about some of my odd cannas in the spring he said he did not want his landscaping to look like it was from another planet with giant spikes of puple foliage that looked more like a coral reef layout rather than a regular landscape design. My question was why not LOL.
So as you can see I personally love all my odd ball hybrids if they are to make it out of my compound the interest in them should be high enough so that its worth my time. So if anyone thinks of these as to tacky for a yard I would love to hear more. I have come to terms not everyone is as tacky and gaunty as I am.

I enjoy clashing colors in the landscape and I believe if you run through the trails fast enough you could suffer a seizure. Anyone else trying to create the same effect?

This one has odd contorted leaves with large blooms of pink to orange on dark leaves.

I named this one Williams Shatner purple and neon orange you just cannot go wrong with that.

Brian,

the plant in the 3rd picture is stunning. The second one, yah, where's Nemo? :)

-Joe

my over achiever! This canna blooms so much you have to rake the dead flowers away each week or you get build up. Nothing like it I have ever seen.

Ooooh, like the over-acheiver! Good name for that variety, actually. :)

-Joe

This one I really like it has bluish gray leaves with purple veins and light pink flowers. It also has a very very upright behavior and grows around 7 feet tall or more.

This one has wine colored leaves with bright pink flowers the flowers have long petals that droop. It was one of my personal favorites this year. I should be interesting to see next season.

This dwarf has spear like dark purple leaves and bright orangish red flowers grows to about 4 feet tall with large flowers. Canna Seductive shadow

Dark foliage with bright bright neon pink flowers that are medium to large size. Grows to around 4 to 5 feet tall

Canna Neo Shadow.

Canna Exotic Fantasy

Purple foliage pink spotted flowers narrow tall grower to about 6 to 7 feet tall.

This is a huge tetriploid hybrid with leaves around 3 to 4 feet long dark purple flowers are small bright orange but the plant can grow to 8 feet or more. The flowers in many cases has double male and female sections for each flower.

Nice Job, Brian. Have you named all of these yet? I like them all, but the second pic, with the purple leaves and pink flowers, is absolutely awesome! That's the canna I've been dreaming about! I would love to order some from you when available or trade in spring. I also like the last photo. Nice size. I saw a photo where you posted a canna with cordyline foliage, that one's really special too.

Job well done. It will be hard for me to sleep knowing that's out there until I can get the "seizure" canna!

Here is what the landscape looked like with the new hybrids growing in it. I am sure next years landscape will have even more. I find myself having less and less green and more darker colors.

I love the one with the droopy pink flowers! And "seductive shadow". Love the bright flowers with the dark foliage! ( I like ALL of them, actually. :> )

Woops, you posted what looks like it could be the cordyline canna-maybe...
Wow, it keeps going on.

I have not named them all yet the ones with names with the photos are done the rest I am thinking about the names for them. I have a few series I am working on and am trying to get them each into one of these series
Exotic
Tropical
Fantasy
Shadow
Love

As for getting the plants I decided I will let Davesgardens be first in line. I will most likely put them up on the AD section when they are ready.

This is the third year with this canna I sure you will hear more come spring. This one has sherbert orange flowers that turn to a light pink with age the foliage is dark bluish purple to gray.
Canna Romance

I am glad many of you like these forms. I know they are not the dwarf with green leaves and bright large flowers. I find I have tons of forms like this in my breeding but they do not do much for me. Their are already a ton of forms like that around and you have to have something extremely special to compete with what is already out their. A few years ago when I looked at my landscape I had a ton of dwarf large flower cannas and I thought about what would really look interesting was some tall dark foliage things spread out within the landscape. I have had a blast breeding these and I am sure not to stop each year I breed more than I can work with so I am sure new stuff will be showing up for next season. The problem is I breed more than I propagate with most my plants. I am personally always looking for something new and propagation takes time and space which I have very little of either in the summer. So the ones that you guys show the most interest for I will try to propagate as much as I can.

Brian, that second one is so ugly you need to throw it away NOW.
...what's your address, btw? ;)

Seriously # 2 is also my dream canna!!! Someone above asked about it, too, but I would love to be on a list for a piece of that! It's just incredible. All your cannas are incredible, actually. Make that all your plants! When I can afford it, I think I'll be a very good customer at your website. (I also love the artwork on the site.)

~Gina

I want that huge purple tetraploid. There is a spot in my garden just crying for it.

Brian I just think some of us are "green meatball" people and some of us are foliage people. To say cool foliage and contrast is tacky is absurd! Love all the colorful and striking leaves, I feel sorry for the guy who doesn't.

I'm with azreno.

This guy is crazy: "he said he did not want his landscaping to look like it was from another planet with giant spikes of puple foliage that looked more like a coral reef layout rather than a regular landscape design"

You're making artwork with plants! That's one of the coolest things I can think of. :)

I, too, cast a strong vote in favor of the "seizure" canna, and of the tetraploid--they are both outstanding examples of plants that make a bold statement in the landscape, regardless of their flowers.

Time to build yourself another greenhouse, and get to propagatin' . . .

I'll be glad to be your garbage can!!!! LOL


Hap

Very glad to hear that everyone enjoys the new hybrids. I will be propagating them as much as possible this coming season. It usually takes me 2 to 3 years to build up stock to release new cannas. So some of these maybe a bit of a ways off before they are in hand.

As for my garbage! I do have a ton of left over cannas that I get rid of each year. I am suppose to destroy everything that is not useful in breeding so that only the best genetics makes it to the market. I have not released any of these to the online market as of yet due to this. I also hate destroying plants even if its for my own good. I had two guys last season stop in and were interested in my garbage cannas one was working on a dinosaur creationizm museum in new port KY and the other guy was working on a new zoo in Indiana. Both guys took a lot of cannas with no names manly for foliage plants at very very cheep prices for large clumps. They were happy to get the plants and I was glad not to have to destroy them. They will not be sold to the public and will most likely be grown in the back drops of larger tropical displays. Only problem now it seems is in one years time they got enough for what they needed. I am producing much more than they are interested in taking.

Here is a pic of the garbage patch this year. I am slightly picking through it.

Brian,

That not garbage, that's a garden. You are envied even for your garbage. LOL

Hap

PS, what were You doing up at 3am?

Brian,
I can hear the groans already from folks that would love to paw through your trash, but there are many public and civic organizations that would pay for the cannas for your gardens. Or, you could donate them to schools, parks, or even nursing homes-and get a deduction on your taxes for a charitable donation. It would be a lot of work to dig them up, though. I know it sounds crazy, but my daughter's school is currently begging for donations for landscaping, and I imagine there are plenty of schools in KY in the same boat. I brought some cannas and other plants to a nursing home where someone I know was living, and those people really appreciated it. Every time I visited her, people were meeting me at the door with bloom updates.

OK, that's all I'll say, need to throw a bandage on this bleeding heart...

Don't you dare bandage anything, kw. That's a wonderful idea. I bet they would even come and dig them up.

Hap

It does sound like a good idea. The problem is time and effort usually. I have so much to do specially during the spring I never get what needs to be done with completed. I have yet to destroy any plants LOL. I am a sucker for keeping everything alive but a lot of them have to fend for themselves out in the field. I will keep a ear out for any schools or places that might be interested in the cannas. My main concern is they dont reach the market or get passed around like crazy due to them being less off what I really want to offer as my hybrids. Just lower ends of the gene pool.

As for me being up at 3 AM. I have to put wood on a out door furnace every night at 3 AM. This is one of the furnaces that heats water up to 180f and pumps it into our greenhouse heating systems. We use to use gas which was around 3,000 dollars a month now with wood its completely free besides the splitting it and me getting up at 3 AM to put more on. Here is a pic of my heated floor system in one of the greenhouses the floor is heated up to 70f and keeps the greenhouse nice and warm every night. This is a pic were me and my workers were installing the system.

WOW, now that's a true labor of love.....