Island Series

C. 'Corsica', C. 'Ibiza', C. 'Kreta', C. 'Madeira' and C. 'Tenerife'

The Island Series is a group of Cannas that was introduced in the late 1990’s by Takii of Japan.  All are compact and have green foliage.  The flowers are medium-sized, iris-like (French Group) and freely produced.

The series consists of C. 'Corsica', C. 'Ibiza', C. 'Kreta', C. 'Madeira' and C. 'Tenerife'. Several nurserymen have tried to extend the series to include C. 'Alaska', but that was not a Takii introduced cultivar, and also the state of Alaska is not an island, with the American Continent hanging on to it! 

All five of the series bear remarkable resemblances to other old favourites that have gone before, and I have grown them side-by-side with their doppelgängers and I can see no visible differences.  

• C. 'Corsica' looks like C. 'Antoine Crozy' - pink/yellow edge
• C. 'Ibiza' looks like C. 'Ambassadour' - white
  
• C. 'Kreta' looks like Duke of Marlborough - red
• 'C. Madeira' looks like C. 'Madame Crozy' - red/yellow edge
• C. 'Tenerife' looks like C. 'Florence Vaughan' - yellow/red spots

They were all originally propagated by Takii as meristem culture and distributed as young plugs each spring for growing on by nurserymen;  because of this they were very healthy and free of virus. 

They are all early-flowering and could be programmed to flower in about ten weeks from potting.  

Unfortunately they were removed from widespread commercial production because of problems with tissue culture, but their rhizomes live on with us.