I've seen the same thing you're talking about- a big I dunno here.

BTW I got Suttgart from bulbmart on ebay. I have seen bad things about their stuttgarts and one of my bulbs did not make it, but the other is a winner. I need to get some epsom salt on it, though (keep forgetting!). It takes a while for the variegation to come out on a dormant tuber and it does seem to need a good amount of sun although certainly not full sun (not in AZ anyways). You have to really get it established to have what you see in the photos.

Oh, and the tubers came labeled "canna striata- stuttgart"

Most folks who have dealt with cannas have experienced your dilemma. The simple fact is many canna cultivars are sold under different names. Even worse, some growers and suppliers use the same name for two or more different cultivars. There are Ârules of nomenclature concerning this situation but since there is no enforcement ability the situation continues. In some cases it is simply a result of the grower or supplier location in different areas of the world.
ÂPretoria has numerous familiar names including ÂBengal TigerÂ, ÂStriatumÂ, malawienis variegata, ÂPanache (in France) as well as others. ÂPanache is a very different cultivar introduced by a hybridizer in the US.
Bob Hayes of the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens discovered canna ÂStuttgart (unnamed) growing in Germany. He proceeded to name the cultivar ÂStuttgart and distribute it to a few select individuals. Within a couple of years, a large Dutch firm located a strain of ÂStuttgart growing in a different location. They had access to a much larger number of plants. For the first year or two they marketed this canna as ÂStriata and later listed it as ÂStuttgartÂ. Other sellers have continued to use the ÂStriata name.
I think it is important to note that both ÂPretoria and ÂStuttgart are chimeras. This means they are one of the rarer forms of plants that contain two or more genetically different tissues. Some chimeras are very stable like ÂPretoria while other forms are somewhat to very unstable such as ÂStuttgartÂ, ÂStriata or the cultivar ÂCleopatraÂ. These less stable forms are very capable of loosing their variegation and developing a single color leaf strain of the cultivar. I suspect the original ÂStuttgart is a more stable strain than the cultivar sold as ÂStriataÂ.
Regards, Kent