Originally Posted by aruzinsky

Suppose that there was a plant in the banana family that looked like a banana plant with beautiful variegated foliage but, it was very difficult to grow well? Would you even try to grow it?

I call your attention to heliconia 'rubricaulis':





The species name is confused, usually indica, illustris, or spectabilis. To buy it, you will have to show an image to a grower, e.g., one in Hawaii. It is very cold sensitive, has a weak root system and is an unstable chimera.

Here is it's introduction to western civilization in 1883:



This is heliconia 'spectabilis' which is relatively easy to grow:


There are many other solid red leaved heliconia but a unique characteristic of spectabilis is that the leaf margins are wavy with a period of about 0.25 inches.