Editing Canna (plant) (section)

=== Horticultural varieties (cultivars) ===
[[Image:Cannaceae Canna L. Golden Gate.JPG|thumb|right|''Canna'' 'Golden Gate']]
[[Image:Canna TheresaBlakey 1061.jpg|thumb|right|''Canna'' (Crozy group) 'Theresa Blakey']]

Cannas became very popular in Victorian times as garden plants, and were grown widely in France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.<ref name=Khoshoo/><ref name=Lancaster/> Some cultivars from this time, including a sterile hybrid, usually referred to as [[Canna × ehemannii|''Canna'' × ''ehemannii'']], are still commercially available.<ref name="Delebo">{{Cite web |title=Canna Ehemannii |url=http://clainescanna.co.uk/canna-ehemannii-2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130820191541/http://clainescanna.co.uk/canna-ehemannii-2/ |archive-date=2013-08-20 |access-date=25 July 2014}}</ref> ''C.''&nbsp;×&nbsp;''ehemannii'' is tall and green-leafed with terminal drooping panicles of hot pink iris-like flowers, looking somewhat like a cross between a banana and a fuchsia.<ref name=Grant>{{cite book|last1=Grant|first1=Greg|title=Heirloom Gardening in the South|date=2011|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|location=College Station, Texas|page=187}}</ref>

As tender perennials in northern climates, they suffered severe setbacks when two world wars sent the young gardening staff off to war. <!-- fluff It took many years for the frugalities of war and its rationing subsequences to change to the more prosperous times of the late 20th century. --> The genus ''Canna'' has recently experienced a renewed interest and revival in popularity.<ref name=Cooke/> Once, hundreds of [[cultivar]]s existed, but many are now extinct. In 1910, Árpäd Mühle, from Hungary, published his ''Canna'' book, written in German. It contained descriptions of over 500 cultivars.

In recent years, many new cultivars have been created, but the genus suffers severely from having many synonyms for many popular ones. Most of the synonyms were created by old varieties resurfacing without viable names, with the increase in popularity from the 1960s onwards. Research has accumulated over 2,800 ''Canna'' cultivar names, but many of these are simply synonyms.<ref name=Synonyms>{{Cite web |url=http://www.clainescanna.co.uk/Index_Synonyms.htm |title=Canna Synonyms |access-date=2008-02-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701032356/http://www.clainescanna.co.uk/Index_Synonyms.htm |archive-date=2007-07-01 |url-status=dead }}</ref> See [[List of Canna hybridists|List of ''Canna'' hybridists]] for details of the people and firms that created the current ''Canna'' legacy.

In the early 20th century, Professor [[Liberty Hyde Bailey]] defined, in detail, two "garden species" (''C.'' × ''generalis''<ref>Bailey, L.H. – Canna x generalis. Hortus, 118 (1930); cf. Standley & Steyerm. in Fieldiana, Bot., xxiv. III.204 (1952)</ref> and ''C.'' × ''orchiodes''<ref>Bailey, L.H. – Canna x orchiodes. Gentes Herb. (Ithaca), 1 (3): 120 (1923)</ref>) to categorise the [[floriferous]] cannas being grown at that time, namely the Crozy hybrids and the orchid-like hybrids introduced by [[Carl Ludwig Sprenger]] in Italy and [[Luther Burbank]] in the U.S., at about the same time (1894).<ref name=Khoshoo/><ref>[http://cannanews.blogspot.com/2007/04/comparison-of-crozy-and-italian-groups.html Comparison of Crozy & Italian Group cultivars]</ref> The definition was based on the [[genotype]], rather than the [[phenotype]], of the two cultivar groups.<ref name=Lancaster>[[Sydney Percy-Lancaster|Percy-Lancaster, S.]], An Indian Garden. 1927</ref> Inevitably over time, those two floriferous groups were interbred, the distinctions became blurred and overlapped, and the Bailey species names became redundant.<ref name="Cooke">{{Cite book |last=Cooke |first=Ian |year=2001 |title=The Gardener's Guide to Growing Canna |publisher=[[Timber Press]] |isbn=978-0-88192-513-5}}</ref> Pseudo-species names are now [[deprecated]] by the [[International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants]] which, instead, provides [[Cultivar Group]]s for categorising cultivars (see groups at [[List of Canna cultivars|List of ''Canna'' cultivars]]).<ref name="ICNCP">International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants, C. D. Brickell (Commission chairman), B. R. Baum, W. L. A. Hetterscheid, A. C. Leslie, J. McNeill, P. Trehane, F. Vrugtman, J. H. Wiersema (eds.). {{ISBN|90-6605-527-8}}</ref>