Clinton3666

Hi members,
I lives in Thames, New Zealand, in zone 11 with 10 frosts a year, with average lowest temperate 3oC but sometimes go down to -1oC for few nights. Coolest months & wettest months: June to August.

My ornamental banana plants (musa) lives outdoor in my backyard gardens.
musa mannii
m. velutinea
m. siamensis
m. laterita
m. aurantiaca
m. beccarii var beccarii
m. ornata purple-flowered
m. ornata "aurea"
m. ornata red flowered
m. violacea
m. coccinea

My musa velutina, m. mannii, musa violacea, musa coccinea were hardy and had flowered for me for years.
Last year on August & September I had planted musa siamensis, m. ornata, m. auranitaca, m. beccarii var beccarii, m. laterita, in soil of my backyard garden, they all just had their 1st season of growing outdoor and until August last year, they been living inside my hothouse, as seeds, then seedlings. Today they are 4-7 feet tall now, with both musa ornata and musa beccarii var beccarii now 6-7 feet tall. I imported them from Germany as seeds 2 years ago and last year.

I have QUESTION: Are musa ornata, m. siamensis, m. textilis, m. beccarii var beccarii, m. laterita, m. aurantiaca hardy enough to put up with -1oC for few nights ???

I have heliconias inside my hothouse.
h. rostrata
h. rostrata "Orange"
h. rostrata "Misahualli"
h. latispatha
h. spissa
h. subulata
h. lingulata
h. stricta "Dwarf Jamaican"
h. psittacorum x h. spathocircinata "Golden Torch"
h. pendula

I had heliconias living outdoor in my backyard gardens.

h. schiedeana
h. subulata
h. spissa
h. pendula

But I want to add more cold-hardy heliconias to my heliconia collection

QUESTION: Any ideas about cold hardy heliconias ???

I need names of more cold-hardy heliconias

My heliconia angusta red xmas and h.pendula, h. subulata had never flowered for me...Question : How I get them to flower ???
My h. rostrata that growing outdoor in my garden, died each wintertime, but they regrown to 30 c.m. so I stopped growing them outdoor & growing them in my hothouse.

QUESTION: Anyone grown h. rostrata & had h. rostrata & h. angusta red xmas flowered in zone 10 & 11 outdoor ???

Help please needed !


Yours Sincerely

Clinton3666.

Jack Daw

Welcome. You have a very interesting climate. If I should translate where you live into our, European terms, you have Southern France/Croatia summers and Croatian winters (rainy).
That's one interesting and good climate. Not only that you can grow many ornamentals, but also many edibles as well. If I were you I would go ahead with Orinoco (or any other O. variant), Dwarf Brazilian...

Those varieties would almost surely fruit in your climate without any problems and you would have another use for these wonderful plants, besides looking good and fancy.

Sorry, but I can't answer your question about ornamentals.

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Thnx to Marcel, Ante, Dr. Chiranjit Parmar and Francesco for the plants I've received.



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Abnshrek

The P-stem may freeze due to temperature, (I'd cut all the p-stems off and mulch them ), but the corms will come back when it warms up producing pups. I'd just build up some dry mulch to protect them :^)

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