Usha, you are correct. This is a dwarf haliconia. I don't grow them here, but I used to live in Hawaii and we grew them there. They were pretty easy to grow there. We just threw some water on them occasionally, but I dont' know about how they would do here. Virginia

I've been planting Heliconia for several years now. Unfortunately, I haven't had success growing them. Psittacorum "Lady Di" lasted the longest. I've been able to get Rostrata rhizomes to shoot several times, then after two leaves, they turn brown and die off. Their requirements are supposed to be similar to bananas, except they prefer some shade from the Arizona sun.

My mistakes so far are:
1. Planting them in un-amended, nitrogen deficient, dense clay soil.
2. Planting them in full sun.
3. Growing them indoors with too little light.
4. Planting them in regular potting soil that stayed wet for two weeks after watering them.
5. Overwatering
6. Underwatering.

I've just planted another rostrata in amended soil shaded from late afternoon sun. We'll see how it goes. Don't be discouraged by my experiences, difficult plants have been easy for me to grow and common, easy plants have been difficult. Good luck and please let us know how they do.

Here is a link that might be useful: Desert Tropical page on Heliconia

ah yes, common errors.

My method is to add alot of perlite to a good potting soil- that helps it drain and not sog up so much.

Heliconias generally grow naturally in aerated soil, that drains pretty fast, but is also rich.

Rostrata is a funny one. Its rarely ever a good looking plant.. the leaves always seem to tatter up and get burnt edges, etc. But it will still bloom.. just generally kinda sick and ratty looking.

I was at the phoenix zoo today looking at plants. They had a plumeria growing in a spot that gets am full sun- seemd to be doing ok but no blooms.

I looked and looked for a heliconia, but didnt see any. I did see alot of completely FRIED tropicals. just cremated monstera deliciosas, cycads and philodendrons.

Finally I found a spot that had a heliconia, and suprisingly it looked alot better than some of these other plants. It was in pretty good shape actually- I'd say 80%-85% of what it looks like at peak conditions..

Didnt know the variety- it looked like a midsize one.. probably not rostrata as the leaves were wider than R.

I made a careful notation of the spot and noted that it was pretty much 100% shade with maybe a little dappled sun coming in through the leaves overhead. ALSO the spot seemed to be the tail end of a water runoff area that sometimes had water filling up in it- "upstream" a bit was a large group of alocasia/colocasia in a semi-soggy soil.

So the humidity was up, and the moisture was up, and the sun was turned way down. It was hot as heck in that spot still, and not as "sweaty" as in my yard in FL but it seemed to be making out OK

Here are pictures of my yard/garden in Melbourne beach, Florida.. alot easier to grow helis there, so long as the wind doesnt get them..

http://www.tiki-shirts.com/gallery/album43

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.tiki-shirts.com/gallery/album43

Hi tiareman,

I've made my mistakes with heliconia, that's why I haven't given up on them yet. I've paid for the learning experience and I figure I will eventually get there. If the latest rostrata doesn't work, I'm going to switch to cactus mix. With our hot summers, it has been difficult to balance fast draining soil with moisture retention.

I'm envious of the garden you had in Florida. Even more so after I saw that you could grow a Tacca and get it to bloom! Did you bring any bambusa lako with you?

There's a plumeria growing at the Maricopa County Extension office. The tree is 12 to 14 feet tall, against an East facing wall and it was in bloom last time I saw it. You might want to stop by and see it. You can tour the rest of the demonstration gardens while you there too.

usha - what exposure does your plant have and what is the soil like that it is planted in?

I've been thinking about heliconia in AZ a bit more and it seems that the big issue is that it may be so hot and dry here that the plant literally gets its moisture sucked right out of it through its leaves.

Being a plant from humid conditions, its probably too "wide open" when it comes to transpiration, and would explain why your had withered off once they started to leaf out.

So the trick would be to create a microclimate that reduces this evaporation/transpiration as much as possible. I got the idea that this spot at the Zoo was doing just that, since it was under tree and bamboo canopy, and was located near an area that has water draining to it, if not even lightly standing. (Rostrata btw, is one heliconia that can take some occasional standing water)

There are a few tricks that come to mind that could help create a heliconia-friendly zone:

1) Overhead/side canopy that cuts down the hot sun significantly, and creates a trap for moist air. I'm getting the feeling that the sun is so intense in AZ that its really not necessary to have a heliconia exposed to much more than dappled sun.

2) A good source of air moisture to minimize transpiration and keep local humidity up- a mister system immediately comes to mind. I was standing under a mister at Home Depot the other day, landing on some hibiscus in next to full sun- the "feeling" in that area around the misters was alot closer to my backyard in Florida than the rest of the nursery- so I got the impression a heliconia would like that type of environment. I think that overwatering shouldnt be an issue with a mister so long as a good draining mix is used.

Other ideas would be to have a large body of water nearby- for example a pool, water fountain, stream, etc.

3) A good mulch. In florida I use cypress mulch, oak leaf litter, pine bark nuggets, stuff like that. It forms a good layer of decomposing loose material on top that traps in alot of moisture. Here in AZ I have mostly seen people using "gro-mulch" but I'm not sure that will be enough- the heli I saw at the zoo was planted in a good layer of leaf litter from trees and bamboo- it was decomposing and had a nice swamp-ish black/brown color going.

4) Perhaps experiment with an anti-transpirant such as WILT-PRUF to help keep moisture in the plant. Wilt-pruf sprays on with a hand sprayer, and forms a natural mositure barrier on the plant surface. Its derived from pine trees. I've used it with success to protect delicate plants from Florida's dry/cold winter season. It also works well on rooting cuttings to prevent moisture loss. It might help a heliconia in this situation once it leafs out a bit.

RE: the FL plants, no I didnt bring any lako with me .. yet :)

The lako just got planted this year, so its getting its first new shoots now. I'll probably wait until next year to try and divide some off- perhaps even the year after that, as I really need the WINDBREAK hahaha

after two hurricanes in a row last year, I decided the yard really needs something renewable to cut down on wind damage for the rest of the yard.. so that lako is my privacy hedge and my sacrifice to the wind gods :)

The Tacca plant I've just had good luck with. I've had the black batflowers as well and bloomed those, but I found the bigger (and cooler looking) white batflowers to be easier actually.

I think that if you got a good microclimate going, a good moisture-trap, you might be able to flower a white bat. Not sure how cold it can get here, but I'd probably protect it or bring it in if your were to start seeing temps below 30- so far my yard has seen tempsin the high 20's, but the tacca is around the pool and inside a 20/20 screen enclosure which traps moisture and heat in the winter, as well as cuts down on drying winds. The tacca is also located under a large Queen Emma lily, some Lime Zinger Xanthosoma and some 5-6' heliconia, so its fairly protected.

Whats funny is that on occasion they sell black bat plants at the Home Depots out there!

I know what you mean about the balance between drainage and moisture retention.

I tend to feel it would be best to lean towards giving tropicals alot of water so long as they are in a rich (but light/aerated ie: perlite) mix. I really feel the best way to deliver this water is probably through a mister system running during the day than just hosed or dripped onto the ground. This will keep the leaves moist and some humidity in the air.

I get this impression from just seeing how MASSIVELY wet it is at my house right now (wettest June in years) and how much everything has exploded. Even with the humid air and rainfall there, I still have a sprinkler spraying the pool area plants for 10 minutes 2-3x a week to make sure they dont dry out too much.

Of course, you don't want all that water to runoff all the fertilizer too. I use milorganite on a monthly basis as well as some time-release granules about every other month to 3 months (i use a good palm fert with manganese/ magnesium/ iron and sulphur) This is in addition to an occasioanly foliar feed with 20-20-20 PETERS (it has minors) and maybe some superthrive/fish emulsion thrown in.

Here is an example of what I mean about Rostrata looking a bit tattered-

http://www.tiki-shirts.com/gallery/mckeegardens/aau

this is a plant in Vero beach at McKee gardens. As you can see, it looks a bit beat up, but still flowered plenty. The leaves just always seems to do that- shred up, burn and lean over. I think thats just its habit.

That being said, this particular palnt would still look alot better if it werent in full burning hot sun, and had some protection and maybe even more moisture going to it. It also looks a little bit under fertilized to me. Mckee is a neat garden, but it kinda lacks in heliconia :)

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.tiki-shirts.com/gallery/mckeegardens/aau

Thankyou Tiareman and RR19 for your help. I have mine in a container under an overhang facing North. It gets little bit of late evening sun which causes minor leaf burn but otherwise doing well. I am in love with this plant and can't wait to find the ones with red flowers. I found some ginger plants at HD which I bought and put them under paloverde trees next to a pool on North side of garden. So far it is doing well too.

I'm in Scottsdale and so far I have had no problems with helliconia. Bananas, part of the genus, are growing a foot a month, some of the psitticorum, have more than quadrupled in size, when I got them from the nursery they were disasters, now the leaves are specimen. They grow on river banks, so they like to be wet, and in the Arizona sun they need water lots of it, The soil is nothing new, the usual Arizona clay, but I use a slow dissolving food stick in the area. They will spread at their own pace, and I plant them in low lying areas where the water collects. I just planted some red ginger and some rattlesnakes from rhizomes, which seem to be taking now. All are in full sun, and the dead blooms are removed daily. Also I tend to leave the lower dead leaves, shading the base.

How long have you had yours? Sun exposure? and where do you get your heliconias from?

I've tried them once before but they couldn't take the summer here. Spring and fall weather they'll survive but the hot dry summers just kills them. I have no problems with Canna lilies and bananas in my yard though.

I have a number of different heliconia in the yard. They are river bank plants, and they like water, at lot of it. In the height of the summer they get 45 min of water 2x daily, and do well. No problem with full sun. Add citrus fertilizer, high in nitrogen and they grow. Nothing particular done with the soil, they seem to adjust, as long as new risers can come off the rhizomes and break the surface. So far good luck with costas, alpinia, and psitticorum. Seed starts need to be under the foliage of an adult plant.

Nathine, I'd like to see your heliconia's growing here in the AZ area. I'm in Chandler, and tried a variety a few years ago, but it didn't last longer than about a year. Thanks in advance..