southlatropical

I'm getting some of this in a trade and was wondering if anyone else is growing it. It will live in a pot here in zone 9. Any advice or input on how much sun/water/fertilizer it likes?

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valerie@flower

Hi Southlatropical,
I have started some myself, Caribea can overgrow if given enough room. So you may want to keep it in a container. They like morning sun and shade for the hotter part of the day. They like water if you have a well draining soil with sand. They are heavy feeders all year round.

mnorell

I hope you have a large pot--was just in Maui this last week and saw Caribaeas 15-20' tall! Yikes! These are not small plants in the least...hopefully they'll grow well and flower in a large pot, but you may be looking at a 15gal minimum pot if you ever want to see flowers. The specimens I saw were in pretty much full-on sun, probably for half the day or a little more. There are some caribaea hybrids I think that are not only smaller but also cool-hardier and would therefore be able to live outdoors longer before you have to drag them in, a good choice since the longer they're indoors the more you risk dealing with decline from dryness, mealybug, whitefly, etc. Good luck and keep us all posted!

southlatropical

It's just sitting in a pot for now. The rhyzome has not shown any new growth, but it's not rotting either. There was a new shoot emerging when it arrived, but it dried out a little on the end and has not really grown yet. If it will start some new shoots I'm going to try it in the ground next spring.

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mnorell

Make sure the rhizome is potted in a mixture of about 60% sand, 40% light peaty potting mix, such as Miracle-Gro Potting Mix. Keep it just barely damp. In heavier, wet soils, it will most certainly rot. Keep the plant warm and I would suggest just misting it occasionally rather than watering; also if it's small enough, you could just put it in a large ziploc baggie to create a mini-greenhouse for it. Put it in a warm window with sun striking the root-zone. I sprouted many rhizomes with this soil mixture in black nursery cans in hot reflected sun last March/April and didn't lose a single one.

Steve L

I tried for years to grow several Caribeas and Caribea x Bihai crosses and never got them to flower. The closest I came was with the Caribea x Bihai "Jacquinii". It put out a flag leaf and then the whole plant suddenly died. It was so tall that it wouldn't fit in my greenhouse. I had it in a 25 gallon pot and it was busting out. Massive rhizome and root system and very heavy. I have a friend in CA that has had a 100% success rate rooting heliconia rhizomes in a bucket of warm water. He puts an aquarium heater in the bucket. Within 5 days, he has roots. I know this sounds crazy but he swears this works. I have not tried it but intend to next summer by putting the bucket of water out in the sun on my concrete patio. I would not water the rhizome at all; do like Michael said, mist occasionally the top of the soil. Good luck.

Steve

STEELVIPER

I get mine to root fast by putting the pot in the sun. Seems to me that the more heat they get, the faster they send out roots and shoots.

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mnorell

Steve--

I didn't realize jacquinii got quite that big! I thought it was smaller than most caribaeas, and it is supposedly much hardier (caribaea supposedly will collapse in a cool climate). I bought a jacquinii a couple of months ago and it's sitting outside in a container, doesn't seem too bothered by the cold weather so far...but I'll keep it in my new greenhouse this winter (I'm frantically trying to finish glazing the thing in my spare time, it SHOULD be completed in the next couple of days if I can get my act together).

I think Heliconia rhizomes just can't get enough warmth while rooting, and I thought surely I would kill mine last spring by placing them on the hot concrete in black nursery-cans. But instead I got 100% rooting. I was also told by a Heliconia dealer in Florida that putting Heliconia in water will stimulate rooting on many types, especially the semi-aquatic types like marginata. But of course it would have to be 80-degree water. The aquarium-heater angle sounds particularly good.

By the way, not only is my angusta 'Red Xmas' (in the ground, in heavy shade under Tetrapanax trees) starting to bloom right now, but my lingulata 'spiral'--which was a seedling in a 5.5" pot in March planted in full sun and now a 6' monster with huge beautiful leaves and several thick stalks, has thrown a flag-leaf! The yellow bulge is now showing just below the flag in the stem. Very exciting for me to see this happening here, and I am hoping we don't get a freeze before it emerges. (Eric Schmidt at Leu Gardens in Orlando says lingulata can flower by June if cut back by a freeze in winter...we'll see if this one can survive the cold, soggy soil to emerge next spring...)

southlatropical

Thanks for all the advice everyone. It is potted in miracle grow potting soil. I have not watered it in a while, the soil is slightly moist. I have a heating pad I could put under the pot from time to time. Would this be a good idea?

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Steve L

Michael,

Jacquinii is more cold tolerant than other crosses. I just didn't have the proper place to over winter such a large pot. My greenhouse is 9.5 x 12.5 and is 8' in height at the apex. Jacquinii was much taller in the pot than 8 feet and also tended to put out stalks on a 45 degree angle making it wide as well. My Red Angusta is sporting many new blooms as well but I think you will find that there won't be any fully opened by Christmas. Mine looks the best around Valentine's Day. I might have to try Lingulata. I'm not too fond on the look of the bloom but if it is one that will bloom on first year growth and survive in the ground, it's worth a try.

Southlatropical,

A heating pad would probably do you good.

Steve

southlatropical

I am also considering buying lingulata next year. This site has 'red fan' and 'yellow fan'.
http://bradsbudsandblooms.com/index....861b0f80cb80d8
They claim it will grow in zone 9a with a little protection.

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Steve L

Since I've never grown Lingulata, I can't say for sure but almost all of the heliconia sold by Brad carry the zone 9 claim. A heliconia can be root hardy in zone 9 but never bloom since almost all heliconia bloom on second year growth. Lingulata may well be root hardy in zone 9; whether it will bloom after a freeze the following summer is something else. I hope it is so; I plan to get a hunk of it from a friend in CA this coming spring.

Steve

mnorell

I'm looking forward to seeing how the lingulata root-hardiness issue shakes out after the coming winter. But I'm pretty sure that what Eric Schmidt says about blooming is not anomalous, as even my plant was just a seedling and it has grown like a rocket and thrown a bloom in its first season, that's encouraging news. Mine is the 'spiral' type and I do have a 'fan' but it's smaller at this point since I didn't get it into the ground until September. But they do love full, hot sun and don't mind the cold so far. The foliage looks great despite a blasting summer and a sudden descent into a chilly, rather wet November. The low here so far has been 35F.

Steve L

Let's all stay in touch on this one. As a side note, our low has been 40 and I have no cold damage on any of my unprotected exposed heliconia. In fact, I think one stalk of Pedro Ortiz is getting ready to bloom. It's very swollen.

Steve

southlatropical

Our lows have been 40 to 58. The highs have been between 58 and 72. We were grazed with a light frost a couple of weeks ago. Just enough to put brown splotches and streaks on the bananas, cannas, and h. rostrata. I have some rostrata in a pot and it was not fazed at all. My white BOP also were not damaged at all. I have three of them, all in different locations.

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formontcalamus

I believe there are cultivars with varieations of yellow and orange. The native grows here in a jungle gully in clumps 8' wide like a community of plants. The flowers are pendent to about 18" long in fantastic crab claw form and abundant, mabe 15 pendants on a "community". High in the mountains it gets cold at night to about 60*f. (dont laugh, to us that is cold!) and three years ago the plants, all the tropicals here withstood 40*f. for two nights. So . . in southern Louisiana you might try Heliconias outside in the garden in a location with protecting foliage around them. Here H. caribea grows only in shaded or morning sun locations.

You will find more detailed info on Heliconias on a friends web-site: . . . . . www. montosogardens. com

I am desperately searching for Gardenia radicans "VARIEGATA'' will trade anything on my list for the variegated radicans. See: plantcollectors .net

Love the Earth, Logos

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formontcalamus

Let me share some of my fourty years experience in propagating with all on the group . . .

First . . Northern temperate species of hardwoods send roots deep into the soil "to reach the frost free zone" about 16" deep. Pine trees and Oaks I remember have "tap" roots to reach unfrozen water below the frost zone. They evolved this characture to survive the cold winters. but Tropicals . . .

The most abundant number of tropical species evolved in rainforests in soil that is lacking in necessary fertilization, often compact clay or sterile sand. The root systems grow "horizontally" at the surface or on the surface and some above the surface where they catch decomposing mulch for nutrition. Every tree in the Amazon basin would blow over if it were not that they grow close with interlocking root systems. The entire Amazon basin is a sheet of roots locked together in support of upright groth.

The relevancy here is that tropicals need high aeration and high humidity.
Any tropicals we are potting can be harmed or inhibited by planting in heavy soil, or gooey mix. Incorrect soil mix is the prime cause of failure for beginers with tropicals. Most of the commercial potting soils are bad for tropicals such as Heliconia, Gingers and Musa. Also we need to consider that a new pup or brused corm or a bare root tropical cannot go into soil of any kind untill it has re-aclimated and formed new roots.

Best materials . . . Spagnum Moss is "antifungal" naturally !! If you add Pearlite (1/4) or natural Cypress mulch (1/2) you can provide a clean mix highly aerated to re-start root groth. I use for rare plants that I cannot aford to loose a mix of Cypress mulch with 1/3 Spagnum in small pot (a pot to small for the plants future) then when roots are well formed, the plant can be moved up to 2 gallon, 3 gallon with regular potting mix, but even then I add Cypress mulch or wood chip mulch for growing on.

Also . . . "Any" tropical seeds will germinate faster and grow faster, cuttinghs will root where all other methods fail, slow palm seedlings will grow faster, etc. in a mix of Cypress mulch with 1/3 Spagnum Moss !!!

Love the Earth, Logos

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Love the Earth, Logos / Wholistic Naturalist / Married / Father of ten Cats / Sexual preference: Anything that moves / French-Greek ancestry / Special interests: Codiaeum (Crotons), Evolutionary behavior / Look to the examples of Nature to understand Humanity.

mskitty38583

thank you. you are very knowledgable. anytime you want to give information, i will surely listen.

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Steve L

formontcalamus,

There is a wholesale nursery here in Louisiana that sells Gardenia Radicans "Variegata". They do not ship. They will sell, on select weekends, to the general public in the spring. Where can I locate your trade list. Maybe we can work something out.

Steve

mskitty38583

do i hear a bid for a catalog? there is an idea.great one to. thanks steve

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