mnorell

Steve—

Thanks for that great info. I’ll certainly post the results next spring with ‘Distans’…as I do still hold out some hope for it.

The trouble with comparing California and the Gulf States is that they are just completely different worlds. I lived in SoCal for the first 42 years of my life, and I can say after three years that this climate is just wildly different. Those three cold months seem to devastate most tropicals, but for the other nine months what’s amazing is how herbaceous tropicals (and woody perennials or self-seeding annuals, e.g. Senna alata) can grow into whopping, lush specimens here, even when frosted back or frozen to the ground completely. In Southern California, most of these plants may limp along but fail to thrive even in frost-free areas unless they have high-elevation provenance and a lot of soil-amendment and watering in the growing season. I wasn’t growing Curcumas and Costus there but my understanding is that many of them don’t perform well there, while many thrive here.

In California, Heliconia schiediana is a proven performer and I had nice blooms every May, but the foliage didn’t like the dry air and wind (and this is why the large stands at the Huntington always look nasty). I could never get my hands on any latispatha in those days; and the Heliconias that I imported from Hawai’i croaked (rostrata died a slower death) with the cool/cold night temps there for so much of the year. There the ornamental bananas grow but slowly and really seem to sulk unless pampered in just the right microclimate. I remember a stand of Musa ornata in Hollywood that would finally start blooming each year about September as temps warmed. Plants were maybe 5’ tall. They would persist since they were in a frost-free area, but they just looked awful. Here I have stands of ornata that are 12’ tall or more with massive blooms. I reduce the mats year after year and they just keep coming back more spectacular than ever. There’s a lot of discussion that many plants can build up a strong carbohydrate-store during the warmth and humidity here and that helps them survive the winters and come back strong the next year. That’s why I’m thinking your friend may have had a bad experience with ‘Distans’ in L.A. But here it may be able to endure the three or so months of cold soil if the water can be kept away from it. I do plan to mound/mulch these with sand. Nevertheless your experience with a potted specimen on a protected porch makes it obvious that it’s not bulletproof by any means, certainly not in comparison with rostrata.

Do you have any experience with the psitt/spathocircinata hybrids, like ‘Guyana’ and ‘Golden Torch’? I’ve got Guyana in the ground, kept it barely alive in a rootbound pot for two years and finally put the last struggling bit of it into the ground. Now it’s almost 3’ tall and a healthy, thick clump. Am wondering if I can expect flowers this year and perhaps whether the spathocircinata blood imparts the possibility of root hardiness to the normally wimpy psittacorum genes.