Description
Canna ‘Yellow King Humbert’ is widely regarded as one of the most spectacular flowering cannas ever introduced. This historic cultivar produces large, dramatic bicolor flowers featuring a bright orange center surrounded by a broad yellow band along the outer edge of each petal. The contrast between the fiery orange interior and the wide golden rim creates an exceptionally vivid display that stands out in any garden.
Plants grow vigorously to around 5 feet tall, producing strong stalks that hold the large blooms well above the foliage. The lush, tropical leaves form a dense clump that provides an excellent backdrop for the colorful flowers throughout the warm growing season.
‘Yellow King Humbert’ is believed to have originated as a mutation of Canna ‘Red King Humbert’ and was first offered in 1929. Despite its long history, clean stock of this cultivar has been difficult to obtain in recent decades due to virus issues that have affected many older canna varieties. After many years of searching, I was fortunate to locate clean plants while visiting Costa Rica, and have been carefully propagating healthy stock ever since.
This cultivar is sometimes confused with Canna ‘Florence Vaughn’, which has a similar color pattern. However, the yellow band on Yellow King Humbert is much wider—often nearly twice as broad as that found on Florence Vaughn. Both cultivars are excellent garden plants, but Yellow King Humbert is particularly notable for its dramatic bicolor flowers.
