Dwarf Cannas

In 1895, the U.S. Department of Agriculture introduced a canna named 'Black Beauty' and although the red flowers were small and insignificant, the beautiful leaves of dark, shining purple were a novelty in cannas. This canna was used to produce many of our present day bronze or purple-leafed varieties. The "Futurity" group exhibits that deep burgandy leaf trait in a dwarf canna, with the exception of 'Yellow Futurity' with green foliage. Another quality bred into most of these varieties is the totally self-cleaning characteristic which eliminates hand pruning and dead-heading.

William Pfitzer of Stuttgart, Germany began hybridizing cannas in the late 1800's. This group was dwarf, vigorous and grew in a wide range of conditions. These cannas reached the U.S. in the early 1950's and began to replace and supplement the tall growing varieties in many of today's landscape needs.