I had a friend ID it, it's a cucurma.

I guess I sort of remember buying some fading, unidentified, highly discounted, bulb-type plant at the grocery store at some time in the past.

Interesting, and quite a nice surprise.

Those are very expensive tubers. Glad to hear you got them cheap. The leaves are almost as pretty. I call them Siam tulips. I just love them, because they are so different.

Beautiful flower!

^^ I looked them up, wow, they are expensive. That pretty much guarantees that I did not buy the tubers to start.

^ Isn't it? I've found there are six of them, four in a clump, and two both spaced out a bit more (maybe 6-inches "north" and 12-inches "west").

I am going with the theory that I bought the pot on clearance at the grocery store, thinking it was a lily of some type. What I still have NO idea about is why I would have planted them on top of the cannas.

If you thought they were early lilies, it would make sense to put those in company with Cannas. ...maybe the Cannas have also spread out from where they started?

Hi, sorry to answer so late!

No, these cannas are exactly where I put them originally, centered underneath two windows. So, while your attempt to save me a little bit of dignity is appreciated, I really did plant them right on top of the cannas, and I promise that

--- SCRATCH EVERYTHING!!

I just was Googling them (yes, in the middle of typing the sentence in my reply), because I wanted to see how long seeds took to produce flowers. These particular cannas (under the window), are some that I bought at a yard sale. I thought maybe the "yard sale person" also had these, and maybe some seeds were tucked up in the pot with the cannas. They had simply potted into ground soil, which was very similar to mine, so I hadn't really cleaned the roots off.

But then I found this! The leaves look very much like the leaves on cannas, don't they? Look:
{{gwi:17565}}
(the picture I found originally was apparently from D'sG, and so I can't post it. It, however, was much more like how my leaves look, with the red center vein - it would be "Picture #7 of Hidden Ginger," if anyone wants to search Google images)

I think the very most likely scenario is that they were sold as canna, I planted them, they didn't flower last year (when I bought them and planted them), but did leaf out. And so all along I thought they were canna.

That would explain a lot: why I can't remember getting them, why the flowers are spaced so oddly (five with one "canna" clump and one with another), and why they are RIGHT on top of the "canna."

So maybe I am NOT crazy!

In fact, not only does it make me not crazy, it explains why these came up so much later than the other real cannas, and it means I got a pretty good deal, since I think I paid $5 for both gallon pots of "cannas."

*celebration*

This post was edited by aharriedmom on Thu, May 30, 13 at 6:55

LOL you appreciated it at least! Your explanation sounds likely, and really cool. And hey, you're harried, right? Thanks for the follow-up! I have GOT to find some of these things. Your pics (and others the past week) have me drooling.