Zone Ten Nursery Heliconia Page
HELICONIA page last updated October 20, 2007.
Note: Size and blooming seasons depend greatly on climate, soil and growing conditions.
Please check for availability. We can e-mail our current offerings and a price list in Excel format to you upon request.
Heliconia X hybridum 'Demitri Sucre'
This spectacular deep red-flowered Heliconia that blooms spring and summer with flowers up to 12 inches high. Foliage grows to 8-10 feet with a tight clumping (rather than sprawling) growth habit. Cut flowers last a week or more. Medium growth rate. Zones 10-11
Photo by Ian Maguire
Heliconia latispatha
Provides an abundance of cut flowers. Blooms on and off all year. Full sun to partial shade. In our beds they typically grow to 6 - 9 feet, but they can get much larger in the tropics. A reliable bloomer.
Photo by Ian Maguire
'Love bird' is probably a H. psittacorum hybrid, with flowers 4-5 inches tall and 5 inches wide of green, orange and yellow. It is a herbaceous perennial and blooms spring through summer. It grows very well in our soil here in south Florida and grows to a height of about 6 feet in a tight clumping manner. It has medium drought and salt tolerance.
Photo by Ian Maguire
Heliconia X 'Rauliniana'
A very scarce hybrid of
H. marginata and H. bihai. This plant grows to about 10 feet in our rainforest area, which is pretty shady, but is said to get much taller.
They
bloom better with more sun. Ours begins blooming in the spring, but they are
usually considered to be fall - winter bloomers. You can never
tell with heliconias. It is fascinating to watch the inflorescence form, as it
twists around and changes back and forth between erect and pendant forms ending
up with a sort of spiral effect. One of our most spectacular, rare and unusual
large-bract heliconias. The cut flower bracts can last over a week.
Photo by Ian Macguire
Heliconia x 'Jacquinii'
This is a cross of H. caribaea x H. bihai. Large, erect bract is red and yellow. Grows to 12 feet. Dependable and prodigious bloomer. Full sun to 40% shade.
Photo (right) by Tom White and (left) by
Ian Maguire
Heliconia 'Sunset Opal'
The origins of this cultivar are unknown, but it is probably an interspecies hybrid. The abundant bracts appear almost all year long and have a cool peach to red coloring. The plant grows to about six feet. This is a terrific cut-flower heliconia. Full sun or partial shade.Photo by Ian Maguire
Heliconia subulata
Prodigious quantity of red and yellow bracts in late winter through summer - excellent for cut flower arrangements. From Ecuador & Argentina. To about 6 feet here in Miami in rocky soil. It thrives in full sun to 60% shade.
Photo by Ian Maguire
Heliconia stricta 'Rising Sun'
This is a musoid, erect type heliconia cultivar from Costa Rica with large red bracts. It is semi-dwarf, and it grows to about 5 feet. It likes full sun to 50% shade.
Photo by Ian Maguire
Heliconia rostrata
A heavy-blooming, fast growing heliconia to 8 feet from Argentina and Peru. Full sun to 80% shade. Likes regular watering but well-drained soil. We recommend that you plant it in a protected area away from wind, as the foliage tatters easily. Zones10-11
Photo by Ian Maguire
Named
after a famous plantwoman this showy, lush, rare
H.
stricta
has with large crimson bracts tip in pale green. The foliage has a dark red
stripe. It will bloom spring through fall and sometimes into winter. One
year we still had flowers in January. It grows to 6 feet in
full sun to 50% shade.
This is one
of our favorites. Zones 10-11
Photo on the left by Tom White and photo on the right by Ian Macguire.
Background photo-painting by Tom White.
A NOTE ABOUT COLD HARDINESS: We are growing these plants in zone 10a outdoors with no cold protection other than overhead or microjet irrigation. Sale plants in containers are in a shade house with windbreak on north, east and west outer walls during the winter. We sometimes get a few nights during the winter with temperatures as low as 28 degrees Fahrenheit for eight hours or more. We irrigate continually during these episodes and we do not lose plants. Cold burn on leaves does occur on some plants under these conditions. However, it should be noted that these plants are unabashedly tropical and we do not recommend ground planting outdoors in areas outside of the sub-tropics or tropics.
Click on the roots to learn the secrets of dividing and growing tropical plants from rhizomes and corms!