Mrs. Paco saw a bunch of these cannas growing in a planter outside Mr. Tire, the place in Fairfax where we get our car serviced (which, incidentally, I highly recommend, for both quality of work and honesty in business dealings). The manager kindly told her she could dig up as many as she wanted; Mrs. Paco modestly took only one, but she may go back for more. The purplish leaves and the orange flowers suggest Virginia Tech's colors.
Before we moved from Richmond to Fairfax, a neighbor gave Mrs. Paco a handful of seeds from a plant that I had never seen, but which my wife said produced a beautiful red flower. We planted the seeds, and a plant sure enough grew from them, but for the first two years, there were no blossoms. In fact, I was beginning to wonder if the thing was not perhaps a marijuana bush (the leaves looked ominously similar). This year, however, our long wait was rewarded, and the plant - which we have since discovered is called a Texas star - yielded several big, red blooms.
6 comments:
Awesome flowers! Is this the Mr. Tire right behind The Vitamin Shoppe near where 50 runs into 29?
No, it's the one on Dorr Avenue. Some of the reviews are negative, but we've never had a problem with them. Once they plugged a hole in my tire and didn't even charge me for it. And their recommendations for other specialized work (transmission, painting) have been very satisfactory.
Understand, though, that their work does not carry the highly-valued Paco Enterprises money-back guarantee.
Pretty flowers! You and Mrs. Paco do a fine job of beautifying Paco Command Center.
Too bad I have a black thumb, or I'd grow some myself. The grass always looks like animals use it for a toilet (because they do), and the one tree is extremely hardy. It survives the bi-annual trimming handily, in spite of my ham handed techniques.
Alas, I must stick with what I do best. Which ain't botany.
Jeff: With all the natural fertilizer to be had in Washington and environs, it's pretty easy to grow things.
The famous PACO money back guarantee:
"Once you give me your money, don't look back..."
I've been looking for the name of that canna b/c I want to get it for my garden (which is a tiny track home side yard). I've seen them around and they are by far my FAVORITE!
Your Texas stars are beautiful! Patience really pays of in gardening, doesn't it?
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