Berte Dalebø

Canna 'Berte Dalebø'

(French Group)

 

Origin DALEBØ Thor
Parentage C. 'John Layden' x C. 'Baby Pink'
Height Small, under 3ft/90cm
Foliage Dark
Form Branching
Flower Orange
Blooming Outstanding bloomer
Flowering Early summer to frosts
Tillering Good
Available Specialist growers

Introduced by Thor Dalebø of Normandy, France in 2008, Canna 'Berte Dalebø' is a small Crozy Group cultivar; dark foliage, elliptical shaped, acute apex, branching habit; clusters of flowers are open, self-coloured salmon-orange, staminodes are large, outstanding bloomer, flowers in early summer until frosts, blooms open in the early morning; fertile both ways, not self-pollinating or true to type, capsules globose; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured pink and purple; tillering is good.

Canna 'Berte Dalebø' is available from specialist growers; breeding is C. 'John Layden' x C. 'Baby Pink'.

Thor's thoughts: My aldermor (Norske: elder-mother, English: great grandmother) Dalebø, born Berte Jensine Helene Eliasdatter Flåte on 23 September 1856 on her fathers farm, the Flåte farm near Skodje, in the Møre og Romsdal district of Western Norway. She died on 2nd November 1951, at the family home in Ålesund, Møre og Romsdal, Norway, having survived WWII and the German occupation, and burying her husband 9 years earlier.

Although I met her as a boy, I have no memories of her, but everyone spoke kindly of a good-hearted, distinguished lady who did much work for the Seamans Mission most of her life. 

The canna that I named for aldermor is particularly attractive, with the salmon-orange flowers fading to a baby pink as the days pass.

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