mnorell

Thanks, MediaHound, for the warm welcome.

Steve--

I'm not buoyed by your observation that 'Distans' won't make it over the winter here. Have you tried it in multiple positions and drainage/soil-mix combos to be sure? It seems odd to me that the taller latispathas would be root-hardy but this one not. Though perhaps it’s a natural hybrid with a more tender species? I'm going to test mine in two places this winter and see what happens, but I'm taking your comments to heart and will report back...we're about 3-4 degrees cooler on average in winter, I think, than you are, so it may be a real struggle for these guys. We're consistently about 2 degrees cooler than Baton Rouge in this downtown area of Natchez near the river. And usually very similar minima at my house in this downtown Natchez microclimate and at BTR airport. Typically one or two nights of low-to-mid 20s per year (last three winter lows have been 24/27/23), but as you know the whole region can suffer much worse in a killer winter. And then there’s that often-lethal sustained chill of December-January-February with rain. Dang!

Here are those I’m trialing this winter in the ground:
H. aemygdiana
H. angusta ‘Holiday’ (am hoping for a stray October/November bloom on this one and some root hardiness at least)
H. aurantiaca (a weak grower so far, and I believe a winter-bloomer so don’t hold out hope)
H. champneiana 'Maya Blood'
H. collinsiana
H. latispatha 'orange gyro'
H. latispatha 'red-yellow'
H. latispatha 'distans'
H. lingulata 'red tip fan'
H. lingulata 'spiral'
H. richardiana 'Little Richard'
H. rostrata (I really don’t hold out hopes for a bloom on this one)
H. schiediana
H. subulata

and Hybrids:
H. collinseana x bourgeana 'Pedro Ortiz'
H. psitt. x spathocircinata 'Guyana'


I have most of these in protected south/southwest exposures in raised beds with plenty of sand amended to the soil.

What is your experience with subulata? These can supposedly take a good amount of chill, and I’m assuming they will bloom on a single season’s growth. Mine are finally taking off (I have two clumps). Aside from ‘Distans’ and subulata, I know that most of these are second-season bloomers, but I’ve been told that an established clump of latispatha can throw blooms in one season. Also lingulata. And I’ve heard from a number of S.F. Bay-area growers that there’s a good group (including some of the above) that will tolerate their wet, chilly winters, on a par with what we have here. But at least our chill lasts only three months, not five or six.

I do know that the psittacorum types are not root-hardy here…when visiting from California, and then upon moving here to Natchez a few years ago, I was amazed to see the huge clumps of blooming psittacorum outside every McDonald’s in South and Central Louisiana (who’s responsible for that?), and assumed that these behaved like root-hardy perennials. I’ve now learned that they’re annuals only! Eric Schmidt at Leu Gardens says that none except perhaps ‘Andromeda’ are reliably root-hardy even in balmy Orlando. But at least we can have them bloom all summer and into fall for the price of some rhizome sections or a relatively inexpensive plant at a nursery/big-box store.

I’ve also heard that hirsuta, mathiasae, spissa and vaginalis may be candidates for surviving a chilly winter, and some of the high-elevation species like lankesteri—and if I can find them, they may constitute next year’s trials. Perhaps you’ve had experience with some of the above and can give some advice…would love to hear your experiences in more detail, and how you site them, in what soil, etc. Have you never found any root-hardy Heliconias that would flower in a single season?