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meizzwang · 08-09-2018, 01:27 PM

If it doesn't get below 30F this winter in your exact microclimate, provided we continue to have warm weather until around late October of this year, they'll almost for sure make it. Challenge is if you lose all the leaves during the winter, I'm not sure what will happen.

My aeae bloomed Feb. 2018, and had about 4 good leaves on it at the time. Come end of May 2018, there were 3 leaf "stubs" left with only about 10-15% leaf material left (the rest turned brown). The fingers at that time hadn't filled in much because there was almost zero growth between Feb-May (this year, we didn't have spring, just winter and summer!) You'd think there wasn't enough leaf material to get those fingers to finish, but they continued to plump up once it warmed up! The bunch could probably be picked now, but I'm going to wait until the first finger turns yellow. Aeae is way less cold hardy than Dwarf Orinoco, so I'm pretty optimistic you'll have success with yours!

Just be sure to keep that soil slightly moist but not waterlogged during the winter months, cold plus wet could rot out the corms. My plants grow on a slope, and the leaf canopy is so dense, very little water gets into the soil during the winter unless it's a very heavy storm. Even if it does, it dries out and drains very quickly, as there's a gravel bed underneath the topsoil layer.

08-09-2018, 01:27 PM	#5 (permalink)
meizzwang Zone: 9b Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 235 BananaBucks : 69,080 Feedback: 4 / 100% Said "Thanks" 647 Times Was Thanked 1,031 Times in 218 Posts Said "Welcome to Bananas" 0 Times	Re: Houston, we have a flower! If it doesn't get below 30F this winter in your exact microclimate, provided we continue to have warm weather until around late October of this year, they'll almost for sure make it. Challenge is if you lose all the leaves during the winter, I'm not sure what will happen. My aeae bloomed Feb. 2018, and had about 4 good leaves on it at the time. Come end of May 2018, there were 3 leaf "stubs" left with only about 10-15% leaf material left (the rest turned brown). The fingers at that time hadn't filled in much because there was almost zero growth between Feb-May (this year, we didn't have spring, just winter and summer!) You'd think there wasn't enough leaf material to get those fingers to finish, but they continued to plump up once it warmed up! The bunch could probably be picked now, but I'm going to wait until the first finger turns yellow. Aeae is way less cold hardy than Dwarf Orinoco, so I'm pretty optimistic you'll have success with yours! Just be sure to keep that soil slightly moist but not waterlogged during the winter months, cold plus wet could rot out the corms. My plants grow on a slope, and the leaf canopy is so dense, very little water gets into the soil during the winter unless it's a very heavy storm. Even if it does, it dries out and drains very quickly, as there's a gravel bed underneath the topsoil layer.