Steve L

Michael,

I've never tried Aurantiaca nor any of the other species you mention in your last post. I've not seen any heliconia throw a bloom with no leaves on the stalk. I've had Rostrata coming out of winter not put a leaf out on a ratty looking stalk for months and then all of a sudden start growing and flower. Is this what you mean? In that case, I fought the temptation to whack it down just to find out what would happen; in this case it began growing again but not all of the stalks did that and I eventually had to cut down the remaining ugly stalks because they had died.

I don't know what to tell you about your Coccinea. This banana is a very strong grower for me. I did start out with a large 5 gallon pot of it though and maybe this helped. Stokes tropicals sells this banana but I doubt they could ship such a large plant. My good fortune is that they are only an hour away and I can go over there myself and pick out my plants and haul them back to Lake Charles. They have been long time friends of mine.

Steve