Too bad you are not close to Lafayette, La. Stokes Nursery on Moss St.(not the internet nursery, Stokes Tropicals in New Iberia, La) has 6 foot tall Etlingeras in pots. Not in bloom but magnificant looking.

Steve

I used to live just south of Lafayette- of course they never had anything good or out of the ordinary when I was there LOL! There were a few nice nurseries around but most just had run of the mill stuff.
I think Stokes Tropicals had the most unusual plants out of all the nurseries in that area but I didn't see any Etlingeras there either. You would definitely need a greenhouse or to bring them in for the winter even on the LA coast. From what I've read they don't like to bloom in pots....can anyone else comment on this?
I have seen them for sale on ebay.

Steve do you grow the torch gingers and have you got them to flower?
I know of a few people who have had them planted in the ground their greenhouses in N FL who have had them flower but said they got very tall first. I would love to try to grow these here (9a)
I only keep my gh up half the year. I have other tender zn 10 &11 plants growing successfully here.
~SJN

I grew Etlingeras for a few years in containers. I never got them to bloom but I saw one in bloom in a container in the greenhouse at Stokes in New Iberia. It was in a huge container. What a sight!

Steve

I must of missed the Etlingera in a pot at Stokes. I lived in that area @ 2005/2006 (in time for the hurricanes- yeah-not!) before that I lived in Sulphur, LA for several years. I did see they had several tall AE AE bananas fruiting in large pots at Stokes though. It is good to know that the Torch gingers will bloom in pots. Of course that makes it more tempting to try them lol.
~SJN

It was after 2005 that I saw the Torch gingers at Stokes. They still had the Ae Ae in giant pots though. They lost every one of the Ae Ae a few years ago due to a fungus that transferred from one pot to the next.

That's really a shame that they lost all those AE AE nanners!
Geez I miss LA, especially the food. :P
~SJN