momoese

They are getting a little out of control. The heliconia right behind the lemon ginger has leaves that are over 10 feet tall now!

Here are a few different perspectives with different flashes used.

__________________
Mitchel

Worm_Farmer

Whoa! That is the tallest Heliconia I have ever seen.

island cassie

Rostrata grows about that high here - a pain as it needs to be contained and supported to some degree all the time, and with the wind that we get, it often gets bent over. I must get hold of some of the gorgeous minis once I find a source - too many big boys really! That ginger looks nice - like a taller version of Zebrina.

Bananaman88

Nice!!!

lorax

Mitchel - those are gorgeous!

Cassie, if I can get the certificates for shipping corms, (and the Dept. of Agriculture is giving me a hard time right now, but I will figure it out) I can send you some mini (5-6') lobster-claw heliconia if you're interested.

If I can ship out, I have friends with huge weedy patches of
This one and
This one (which is a 2' shortie) and
This one, which is a bit taller.

Steve L

Mitchell,

What is the name of the heliconia you grow? And is there another name for the lemon ginger? I am not familiar with that name. I have a friend in L.A. that grown heliconia and has successfully bloomed several but the most consistent have been Schiedeana and Latispatha Orange Gyro.

Steve

momoese

I think the more common name is variegated shell ginger.

I got my heliconias mixed up so I'm not sure which one is which. I know I have rostrata, red christmas, jamacian red, and red titti? something like that. I have yet to have any blooms though.. I'll have to look into the ones your friend is growing!

__________________
Mitchel

mskitty38583

mitchell
they are very lovely!!!!!!! are you going to thin out your patch???? lmk if you do would love to have some. will pay shipping.

__________________
WELCOME TO THE GATOR NATION
"BCS Champions"!!!!! 24 to 14! boo-ya

Steve L

When I looked at your picture, I thought it looked just like my variegated shell ginger. Nice looking stand.

Regarding your heliconia, Rostrata can get quite tall in the ground. Red Christmas is very short, say 2 to 4 feet and I don't see it in your picture but it could be hiding. If it's going to bloom for you this year, it should be now. Mine is showing blooms. There is a heliconia named Dwarf Damaican that I am familiar with but I don't know of a Dwarf Red. Dwarf Jamaican is even shorter than the Red Angusta "Christmas" and would be suspect in your area from a survival point of view. Don't know about red titti. My friend has also successfully bloomed Rostrata in your area. He lives in Culver City. Is this near you?

Steve

momoese

I want to but I'm afraid of loosing possible blooms. I think if I don't get any by this time next year I'll start replacing them with varieties that are proven to bloom here locally. The only reason I'm growing them is to add some color for my wife, I had no clue they would get this huge. Personally I'd rather grow blue berries or some other edible there.

__________________
Mitchel

island cassie

Thanks Lorax - have pm'd you.

momoese

Yes I have one about 3 feet tall off to the left out of the picture. It just sorta hangs in there without ever looking real healthy. No blooms yet on that one. Maybe it's Red Christmas? I'll get a picture of it for you.

Your friend in Culver City must be the same person Harvey visited on one of his trips this way. I have his number but have yet to find time to call and stop by even though he's only about 5 minutes from me. One of these days!

__________________
Mitchel

harveyc

Hi Mitchel,

I hadn't followed up on this thread until now.

My friend (Bryan of Montoso Gardens of Puerto Rico) did not get to visit his friend's place in Culver City when we were there because of the way everything took longer on our stops, etc. (we didn't get to your place as early as we had hoped on our trip down nor on our trip back up). But I do think Bryan did make another trip there around last June with his wife to give her a quick tour of more of the state before heading back home.

I'm hoping to get an autographed copy of his new heliconia book which he worked on while on sabbatical in 2007/2008. It will be cool knowing that most of it was written while he lived near me!

Bryan is tentatively going to have me do a field trial to test the hardiness of various heliconia eventually. This is a new hobby for me. As of now, I've only got one of the variegated 'Tiger' heliconia growing in a pot in my greenhouse. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't stand a chance of surviving outside.

Your stand sure looks pretty and I hope to get something looking nice like that eventually.

Harvey

__________________

Steve L

Harvey,

If the Tiger heliconia you have is Psittacorum "El Tigre", keep it in the pot. It won't make it in the ground in your zone. If you regularly get to freezing or below freezing temps in your Zone 9, you are going to be limited in the varieties of heliconia you can grow. In my Zone 9 on the Gulf Coast, our low was 29 for a few hours and my Scheideana heliconia got popped again. Scheideana is generally considered the most cold hardy heliconia. I will probably not see blooms again this year. It is completely root hardy here and comes back every spring but Scheideana is one of the many heliconia that blooms on second year growth so when we experience a freeze, the old shoots stop growing. Hence, no blooms. My suggestion would be to plant whatever heliconia you want to trial next to the southeast wall of your house and hope that location provides enough protection to get them through the winter. Good luck and I hope I'm wrong.

Steve

harveyc

Hi Steve, I hope you're doing well. Yeah, that's the one. The only way I'd plant it in the ground is if I end up with too much to keep in the pot. I had another shoot come up about a month ago but it looks like it can handle being in the 5 gallon pot for a while longer.

As for the others, I'll probably plant pretty much whatever Bryan wants me to plant (he'll donate the rhizomes and I'll donate the space and time.

I'm a toasty zone 9, only got done to 30F this year!

I'm hoping to build a large shade structure (30' x 50', approximate) to be able to shade some plants in the hot summer and to provide frost protection in the winter. The little structure over my lychee seemed to work out well as even some young tender growth made it okay this winter (we had about 30 days of frost).

I hope your Ae Ae is recovering!

Harvey

__________________

Steve L

The Ae Ae in the ground has put out its second leaf in a month. Looks like its off and running. Potted pups in the greenhouse are coming around slowly but are ok. How about yours?

Steve

Bob

Ste post some pics if you're able. I can't baby one in a pot let alone survive a hurricane. Glad to hear it's growing.

__________________

Steve L

Bob,

I have a slew of pictures in my banana gallery from last year. I'll try to take some new ones later in the week.

harveyc

Glad yours is rebounding! The larger of my two potted greenhouse Ae Ae has 5 pups, though tiny. I plan to put it in the ground in 5-6 weeks. The smaller one has odd narrow leaves but putting out a new leaf every couple of weeks.

__________________

momoese

Guess I'll be leaving them in the ground now!

__________________
Mitchel