Steve L

Michael,

I'll try to address each of your questions and comments.

All of my heliconia in the ground are being grown on the south side of a two story house. Golden Torch and Hirsuta Costa Flores are two that are up against the house. They are well mulched; however, there may be a drainage issue and this could have led to the demise of Golden Torch and the punkiness of Hirsuta. Your question of sun is an extremely valid one. Although the live oak canopy protects these plants from frost; since they are further south of the south facing wall of the house, the low southern sun angle in the winter doesn't permit good sunlight to hit them. The soil is definitely sandy enough and the beds are raised. You mentioned Borneo Giant; mine croaked last winter. I also lost Zingiber Neglectum Jewel Pagoda and Hedychium X Kong. I had been growing these gingers for numerous years. We received a tremendous amount of rain during the winter.

The White Bat plant is being grown in a bed on my courtyard up against a south facing wall and under a ligustrum. It is protected on all 4 sides. From what I've read about the growing conditions in India (I believe) is that it grows under the tropical canopy in heavily organic and decaying leaf mulch. Mine is heavily mulched and since I keep the ligustrums trimmed up the branches with about 2 feet of leaves on the top (mushroom looking), the dead leaves are constantly dropping to the ground. Yes, that is my Musa Coccinea in my yard and I have never had a problem with this banana. It is a regular bloomer. It took a big hit last winter when we dropped to 24 a couple of times but came back strong. It is just now putting out it's first bloom; oddly enough on the shortest stalk. The blooms in the fall are more orange. The blooms in the spring, if not killed back, are the typical red color you see in pictures. I really like this banana. Musa Beccarii is a no go for me. It won't make it here in Lake Charles.

I have never tried Collinsiana but do have some seedlings given to me by a friend and I'm going to put them in my greenhouse this winter. Red Angusta begins to show signs of cold damage at 38. It has never bloomed for me at Christmas; more like Valentine's Day. The blooms do start showing up around December but are never fully open. I've never seen blooms in October or any signs of blooms in October. I haven't tried the Yellow or Orange versions but I have a friend in Florida that says the Yellow one is much easier to grow than the red one. Pedro Ortiz, I find is extremely cold hardy. Right next to Schiedeana in my opinion. Maybe its the cross of Collinsiana and Bourgeana, I don't know. It took 24 with some leaf burn a few years ago before I had the large portable greenhouse and bloomed the following summer. At the time, it was planted right up against the south wall, next to my fireplace chimney and received good morning sun that wasn't blocked by the oak trees. I have not tried Lingulata. Latispatha Orange Gyro has the abililty to bloom in one season if the planting is large enough. I've not gotten Subulata to bloom yet; it's a two year old plant but probably doesn't get enough sun. Yes, I've gotten Schiedeana to bloom in a single season after loosing the mature stalks to the cold. The stalks that bloomed were stalks that were already growing but not as tall as the mature ones which actually served to protect them. You can really give any of these heliconia in the ground a huge jump start be feeding them composted chicken manure. I fould this out quite by accident as one stand of Schiedeana is next to my Ae Ae which gets the chicken manure and the run off of the water from the Ae Ae made the stalks of the heliconia near it grow twice as fast as the stalks on the other side of the stand. This stand of Schiedeana is probably 5 feet by 5 feet. I haven't tried Mathiasae or Vaginalis but I did try Fernandezii and had a great stand going of it before it was attacked by a root fungus. It supposedly is very cold hardy and a knock out bloom. I tried it again 2 more times and never had the good results as the first time. My source doesn't carry it any more.

In general, I think it's possible to get blooms from some heliconia on new growth if the stand is large enough and the rhizome and root mass has enough energy, but the blooms don't ever seem to be as large.

Steve