Steve L

I have never tried Distans in the ground but a friend of mine in L.A. says it won't grow for him but Orange Gyro will. One winter night, I left the pot on my covered and protected patio rather than haul it to the greenhouse and it croaked when the temps dropped below freezing. Granted, it was in a pot which makes it more cold sensitive but it was right next to two large pots of Rostrata and they survived and bloomed the following summer.

I haven't gotten Subulata to bloom size; the cold keeps knocking it down to the ground and the growth process just starts over again in the spring. The rhizome mass isn't large enough to get the stalks to bloom size in one growing season but I think you make a valid point about an established clump of Orange Gyro (or any other heliconia for that matter) producing blooms in one season. I have experienced this with Rostrata. However, the blooms are very punky compared to the normal size bloom and the full effect of the whole stand in bloom is lost. Even in years of mild winters, most of these heliconia will at some point during the winter, cease new growth on the old, mature stalks even if they were not frosted and start new regrowth from the rhizome when it warms up. Once the old stalks aborts, then you are out of luck with a bloom on that stalk. Secondly, one of these marginally cold hardy heliconia might get frozen but be root hardy and show new growth in the spring but it is never as strong of a plant as it was before the freeze and will eventually expire the following winter. You mention Hirsuta and that heliconia is a good example of one that will come back but be much weaker and then die the following winter. All of the heliconia I have in the ground are on the south side of my house with an oak canopy for frost protection and surrounded by masses of other plants. I have NEVER gotten a heliconia grown in the ground that survived the winter to bloom the following year; except Schiedeana. That's why I use so many temporary greenhouses.

I've seen those commercial establishments with large Psittacorum plantings and the only thing I can figure out is that the landscaper has a nursery license and buys tissue culture plants. Psitts. and maybe the Distans are the only heliconia that can bloom on one years growth. In some cases, it has taken me three years to bloom a heliconia in a pot.

Steve