Pierre Antoine Marie Crozy (1831-1903) [also called Crozy aîné—French for "elder"] was a nineteenth-century French rose breeder. He was a partner in the French firm, Avoux & Crozy, La Guillotière, Lyon, actively breeding roses from the 1850s to 1860s. From the early 1860s until his death in 1903 he was also hybridising Canna species, and introduced many hundreds of new cultivars. The largest Canna Group today is still called the Crozy Group, and many of those cultivars are still being raised.
France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.
A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae, or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be erect shrubs, climbing, or trailing, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers vary in size and shape and are usually large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows and reds. Most species are native to Asia, with smaller numbers native to Europe, North America, and northwestern Africa. Species, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and often are fragrant. Roses have acquired cultural significance in many societies. Rose plants range in size from compact, miniature roses, to climbers that can reach seven meters in height. Different species hybridize easily, and this has been used in the development of the wide range of garden roses.
Lyon is the third-largest city and second-largest urban area of France. It is located in the country's east-central part at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, about 470 km (292 mi) south from Paris, 320 km (199 mi) north from Marseille and 56 km (35 mi) northeast from Saint-Étienne. Inhabitants of the city are called Lyonnais.
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The most famous of the cultivars introduced by Crozy was Canna 'Madame Crozy', and this was later used by both Carl Sprenger in Italy and Luther Burbank in California to cross with the species Canna flaccida to produce the first of the Italian Group Cannas.
Canna 'Madame Crozy' is a medium-sized 'Crozy Group' canna cultivar; green foliage, large, ovoid shaped, branching habit; oval stems, coloured red; spikes of flowers are open, scarlet with a narrow gold margin, throat gold with vermilion spots, staminodes are medium size, edges regular, petals red, fully self-cleaning; fertile both ways, not true to type, self-pollinating; rhizomes are thick, up to 3 cm in diameter, coloured purple; tillering is prolific. It was introduced by A. Crozy, Lyon, France in 1890 and was named in honour of his wife. It was awarded the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM), in 1890.
Carl Ludwig Sprenger was a German botanist, born on 30 November 1846 at Güstrow, Mecklenburg and died 13 December 1917 on the island of Corfu (Kérkyra).
Luther Burbank was an American botanist, horticulturist and pioneer in agricultural science. He developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career. Burbank's varied creations included fruits, flowers, grains, grasses, and vegetables. He developed a spineless cactus and the plumcot.
Crozy was succeeded by his son, Michel Crozy (1871-1908).
