Canna Trial News

24 June 2008, Trial casualties named
After the hurly-burly of planting out large numbers of Canna plants from both our collections and the hundreds of seedlings being grown-on from last year, we have now carried out a census of the plants safely growing in the trial. Inevitabley, there have been casualties, and several simply never grew when planted, and these included Cannas 'Kyneburg', and 'Leprechaun', where none of the rhizomes have survived at all. The remainder of the trial entrants are happily growing in 15 litre pots, watered and fed to the best standards available. Some are growing in the trial polytunnel, others outdoors, depending on their condition and needs. Each is being given individual attention, and is being grown to the best of it's potential. They are all getting regular inspections for aphids, and red-spider mites, the plauge of Cannas indoors at this time of the year. When needed, they are being given systemic aphid protection and the latest chemical treatment for spider mite. Photographs of some of the entrants that have flowered will be posted in the next few days in the trial journal.

17 June 2008, Journal not available
The trial journal is hosted on servers operated by one.com. The server had an old copy of BB2, the bulletion board software, installed, and these people have taken the journal offline, claiming that the server had been spammed by BB2. It has now been removed, and there had not been any spam. The Journal should be available again shortly. Another jobsworth strikes again.

29 May 2008, trial potted and ready for move outdoors
The cultivars entered for the 2008 trial have now been potted up into 15 litre pots witn fresh compost and fertilizer, and are ready to be moved outdoors when the weather in the South of England stabilises. Some of the entries have already started to flower, which is quite impressive in the UK climate, and their photographs will be be posted shortly.

29 April 2008, rationalised the site facilities
Although the feedback and discussion facility has been available since before Christmas, it has not been used by anyone. To make the maintenance of the site easie

21 April 2008, the first trial judge appointed
Ian Cooke, canna expert and author of the book "The Gardener's Guide to Growing Cannas" has agreed to be one of the trial judges. Further announcements will follow in due course, as the organisers are trying to put together an exciting judging team, to do justice to the new cultivars entered into the trial.

1 March 2008, the trial entries get started into growth
Potting up of the trial entries is under way. They are all receiving the same treatment, same compost and same size pot. The pots are all being stored in a heated polytunnel, so that no harm can come to them. Great news: Ian Cooke, canna expert and author of the book "The
Gardener's Guide to Growing Cannas" has agreed to be one of the judges.

1 March 2008, the Turc entry from France on its way
Messrs E. Turc, the leading French Canna hybridists confirm that their entry to the trial is in the post.

29 February 2008, more entries from South Africa
New varieties from South Africa have been entered. Cultivars entered were introduced by Bill Rogers and Mrs Foster.

29 February 2008, more entries from USA
Karen Burch of Louisiana, USA has entered her three new cultivars. They are C. 'Tangerine Traveler', C. 'Pink Lemonaide', C. 'Orange Ballcap'.

28 February 2008, Azriel Assaf submits his entries
Azriel Assaf, from the Saad-Assaf company in Israel, has confirmed his trial entries for this year, they are all unnamed at present, and are entered under their breeding numbers. They are C. 'saad-assaf 06/03', C. 'saad-assaf 02/05' and C. 'saad-assaf 13/05'. More details of these entries will follow in due course.

28 February 2008, Martin Davis submits his entries
Martin Davis, from Gloucester, England, has confirmed his trial entries for this year, they are C. 'Freya', C. 'Kyneburg', C. 'Llanthony', C. 'Marilyn', and C. 'Osric'.

27 February 2008, another entry from Poland
Bogaslaw Kucharski from Poland has entered, at the last minute, another of his new cultivars. This is Canna 'Emile, another welcome participant to our unique Canna trials.'. This is in addition to his previous entry, C. 'Alice'. The cultivars entered into the trial will receive a thorough and detailed critique, from experienced floral judges or Canna experts.

27 February 2008, trial truly International
New canna cultivars for the 2008 trial originate from the USA, Australia, South Africa, Japan, Israel, France, Belgium, Poland,and, of course, England.

26 February 2008, David Stoneleigh enters his cultivars
Mr David Stoneleigh of England has entered two of his own cultivars for trial, they are C. 'Richstone Pink' and C. 'Richstone Red', both have dark foliage and the pink one has Premier Group sized flowers.

26 February 2008, Malcolm McFarland enters even more of his cultivars
Mr Malcolm McFarland, of Western France, has sent through details of even more of his own cultivars that he is entering into the trials.this year, they are Canna C. 'Le Petit Cabaret' and C. 'J. Hollman'. This brings the number of comitted entries to 42, with further entries still anticipated from major growers in Israel and France.

25 February 2008, Monsieur Roger enters more of his cultivarss
Monsieur Raphäel Roger, in Belgium has confirmed that as well as entering C. 'Léopardeau', as he had previously advised, he is entering four others of his own creations into this years trials. They are C. 'La Thudinie', C. 'Compact de Villée', C. 'Biercée', and C. 'Etincelle'.

18 February 2008, Malcolm McFarland enters more of his cultivars
Mr Malcolm McFarland, of Western France, has sent through details of more of his own cultivars that he is entering into the trials this year, they are Canna 'Honeybunch', C. 'Petit Panache' and C. 'Malrose'.

29 January 2008, Brian Williams entries come in
Mr Brian Williams of Kentucky, USA, has announced his entries for the 2008 International Canna Trials. He is submitting at least seven entries; the ones immediately available for trial are C. ' Bird of Paradise', C. 'Blue Steel', C. 'Candy Shadow', C. 'Exotic Fantasy', C. 'Romance', C. 'Tropical Fantasy., C. 'Waves'. More details will be appearing on the Trial entries page in the next few days. It is hoped that other Brian Williams varieties may also be entered in due course. This brings the tally of entry names up to 34, with promises of more to come yet. The organisers set an ambitious target of 50 trial entries, and it looks as though we will achieve, or even exceed, that figure if the promises from the larger growers and innovators are fulfilled.

18 January 2008, New trial rules
Following an expressed concern that seed may be retained by the trial organisers, visitors and genetic transfer, the rules have been altered to state that no seed will be collected at the trial. All flowers will be removed when the blooms are spent.

02 January 2008, Monsieur Roger enters 1 cultivar
Monsieur Raphäel Roger, the leading Belgium Canna Collector and Breeder, has confirmed that he will be entering one new cultivar in this years Canna trial. It is called Canna 'Léopardeau', and its details will be following shortly.

30 December 2007, More entries received
Martin Davis, the well-known Canna breeder from Gloucester, England, has been in contact and confirmed that he will be entering some of his cultivars in the trial. The details will be following shortly.

30 December 2007, Alta Vista employed everywhere
We have now aded the AltaVista translation facility to all of the pages, other than the Journal and Feedback.. This means that all of the pages on the site now get an automatic, elementary translation into any of the eight languages. of Russian, German, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, Portugese and Spanish.

27 December 2007, Feedback ready for use
The Trial Feedback is now installed and ready for regular use. This is a regular discussion area where we hope to be able to discuss the various trial events and issues. Trial web visitors can stay as Guests and just read the postings as they occur, or can register and join in the discussions. Also, we would like to end next year with formally defined Canna Groups, and the Claines Canna Groups have been added to the feedback topics as a starting point.

27 December 2007, Journal ready for use
The Trial Journal is still being tested, everything seems OK, except that the E-Card feature is not creating the card image properly yet, but that should be resolved shortly and Guests are welcome to peruse the journal. Registered users can vote on the pictures in the album, as well as being able to send E-Cards of those photographs. Any good Canna photographs will be exhibited in the Pre-Trial Album, and all contributions will be gratefully accepted.

24 December 2007, first entry from Poland
The first entry from Poland is from Boguslaw Kucharski, who is entering the best cultivar he has created so far. It is called Canna 'Alice', and the trial offer is gratefully received. The entry details are available in the [Trial Entries] page.

19 December 2007, further entries from France
Malcolm McFarland, from Western France, has indicated that he he hopes to enter further cultivars into the forthcoming Canna Trials.. Having seen some of Malcolm's creations first-hand, they are very welcome in the trial.

16 December 2007, entry from Israel
The UK agents for Agrexco confirm that they are interested in entering cultivars into next years trial. Further details to follow.

6 December 2007, more entries from Australia
Bernard Yorke has written to say that he is pleased with the way the trial promotion is progressing, and as a result he will be submitting further entries to the trial. If entrants have web sites, then links will be automatically provided to maximise business opportunities for the participants.

3 December 2007, web site live for two weeks
The trial website has only been live for two weeks, and already 28 new cultivars have been entered for trial, and more are expected. The site has already received over 650 hits., and on average each day just over 50% of the site visits are from new visitors , with visits from 17 different countries so far. The site counter only adds the home page hits during each session a visitor has with the site and as Google is pointing people at other pages as well, it is probable that some hits are not being counted. The [Visiting] page is proving popular, and it is expected that many gardening enthusiasts and professional growers are contemplating a visit to the trials next year.

2 December 2007, more entries from Europe
Monsieur Raphäel Roger, Belgium's leading Canna hybridizer and collector, has confirmed that he is entering four of his newest cultivars into the trial. The cultivars are currently being registered with the KAVB and details will be posted shortly, when the names and descriptions are confirmed..

30 November 2007, Yorke entries confirmed
Bernard Yorke, the Canna Wizard of Oz, has confirmed that he will be entering three of his newest cultivars into the trials. They are Canna 'Mazurka', C. 'Polonaise' and C. 'Prelude'. Photographs and descriptions have been received and they are in the [Trial Entries] page.

27 November 2007, more entries promised
An email received from the E. Turc company in France to confirm that they will be offering some of their newest varieties for trial.

26 November 2007, more entries arrive
James Ranger, a leading English breeder, has confirmed his entries for the trials, he is offering four named and registered cultivars, along with a new one, as yet unnamed. The named cultivars are Canna 'Golden Orb', C. 'June Ranger', C. 'Margaret Strange', and C. 'Sundance'. The photographs and initial descriptions are available in the [Trial Entries] page.

25 November 2007, more entries arrive
Bernard Yorke, the leading Australian Canna breeder, confirms that he will definitely be submitting entries to the trials, although they won't arrive until near the final date for submissions, due to the different seasons in the Southern Hemisphere

20 November 2007, Web site goes live
The web site for the trial is made public and received 100+ hits the first night.

November 2007, First entry received from France
The first entry from France has been received at Hart Canna. The entry is from Malcolm McFarland who lives in western France, south east of La Rochelle. Our thanks to Malcolm for making the effort during a house move, which is always traumatic.

November 2007 First entries received from England
First entries received for the Canna trials, a total of twelve new Canna cultivars have been entered by Claines Canna for the Canna trials in 2008.

Summer 2007, Entries promised from five countries
Individual canna hybridisers in five countries have now made pledges that they will be entring new Canna cultivars in the trials being held in 2008..

Spring 2007, Canna trials to be held in 2008
Hart Canna announce that they intend to hold a trial of new Canna cultivars at their premises in 2008. Their premises already host the UK National Canna collection, so a visit is a 'must' for any gardening enthusiast in 2008.