Canna Humbert Group

Canna 'Roi Humbert 1er'

(Humbert Group)

This is a new canna group that is dedicated to the Italian Group somatic chimera cultivar, Canna 'Roi Humbert 1er' and its many mutations over the last 120+ years.

Canna 'Roi Humbert 1er' is the result of an F2 crossing involving C. 'Madame Crozy', C. flaccida and C. 'Italia'. Its' rhizomes are heavily marked with maroon and have the shape of the indica side of the family, as do the leaves. The colour of the flower comes from the Crozy side, but the petal form is heavily influenced by the thinner and larger flaccida blooms.

Dr Khoshoo established that this is a triploid family, meaning that it is seed infertile and has a very low pollen fertility, if at all.

Canna 'Asia' (Italian Group)

As there is a somatic mutation involved, it is not realistic to treat the subsequent descendant names as mere synonyms, as the mutation could have happened many different times over the years, and with different DNA results. Therefore this new group has been created so that the different commercial names can all be acknowledged. Once again, the use of groups is shown to be the sensible way forward.

In addition, the chimera has a a habit of reverting to look like either of its different ancestors, 'Roi Humbert' and 'Asia', or both! But even then is not stable, and can again re-revert! Rather than try and describe this phenomena with pseudo-scientific names, we just state that it is one of the Humbert Group and leave it like that.

The new (Humbert Group) name replaces the elder multiple group list of (Italian Group)(Chimera Group)(Sport Group)(Variegated Group)(Heritage Group), but if you wish to add any of them, such as (Heritage Group), then the ICNCP (Cultivated Plant Code) allows for that as well.

Canna 'Queen of Italy'

The breeder, Herr Sprenger of Damman et Cie of Naples in Italy, stated that, "King Humbert will surprise the horticultural world.", and it has certainly done that, earning the RHS Award of Merit in the first year it was introduced, and with its countless, eye-catching mutations over the last century or so, of which we accept that we only know categorically to a couple of hand-fulls.

The initial members of this group are:

• Canna 'Roi Humbert 1er'
• Canna 'King Humbert'
• Canna 'Ambassador'
• Canna 'Black Cleopatra'
• Canna 'Black Knight'
• Canna 'Cleopatra'
• Canna 'New Red'
• Canna 'Paddy's Red'
• Canna 'Queen Helena'
• Canna 'Queen of Italy'
• Canna 'Red King'
• Canna 'Red King Humbert'
• Canna 'Red Prince'
• Canna 'Ty Ty Red' 
• Canna 'Yellow Humbert'
• Canna 'Yellow King Humbert'
• Canna 'Zulu Masquerade'

We have no doubt that this volatile mutator hasn't finished yet, and we will be adding to that list over the years.

The very simple definition of the Humbert Group is:

A Group of Canna cultivars descending from the cultivar Canna 'Roi Humbert 1er', introduced by Karl Sprenger of Damman et Cie. The  group members are all somatic mutations of the originating plant, and not sexual propagated descendants. 

Luther Burbank's attempt to claim personal involvement with Canna 'King Humbert', and his revolutionary seed germination instructions, even though the plant is seed sterile.