Flora Canton had been named for a beautiful field of flowers her mother saw on the way to the hospital, but Flora herself preferred to call herself “seedy.” With the old Canton farm on 76 as her inheritance, she sought to return the area to its natural state, religiously rooting out invasives while cultivating and selling native plants on the side. It wasn’t much of a living, so she made ends meet by substitute teaching, pet sitting, pet grooming, and human grooming. Even so, if Great-Grandpappy Canton hadn’t managed to pay off the mortgage, there was no way Flora could have afforded even her modest lifestyle.

She was continually in conflict with people around 76 who saw her property as an overgrown eyesore, so much so that a lot of her business is actually conducted through intermediaries, like the Audubon Center native plant sale.

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