Tropicanna Black Put out Its First Bloom

I like the color--vermillion, I think best describes it--a bright red tinged with orange.

I am not yet overly impressed with the foliage color.

It's pretty much just a plain old black leaf. In my opinion it's a little boring to be called a "Tropicanna". Sometimes the foliage color improves with age, so I am reserving the right to change my opinion.

I am used to the gorgeous leaf coloring of my other Trops. Somewhere I read that the original Tropicanna was the "Howard Stern of plants". It's so outrageous that it makes people stop to take notice. I liked that description.

I did bring in some of my own original Tropicanna tubers to add to this container, but so far nothing is coming up. I think the mix of foliage and flower color will be much more impressive (as any container with Tropicannas should be!)

This particular container will dramatically improve once the other trailing plants have filled out. I have designed it as a contrasting foliage container. There are very few flowers. I am waiting to show the full container until I feel it's worthy of world wide web viewing. At the moment, it's not. So shape up, baby! Your big audition time is drawing near! (Sometime I have to speak a little harshly to get these guys to behave!)