I'm frustrated- have owned my heliconia for four years, and it has never bloomed. I keep it in the winter under metal halide lights, and bring it outside in the summer, giving it at least 4-5 hours of sun (afternoon). I have fertilized it with special tropical flower fertilizer I found on a trip to hawaii, but still, no flowers. Usually, by the end of the winter, it gets kind of "cruddy"-looking, but have tried keeping the stalks going in hopes of getting flowers. I don't know that I want to go through the trouble yet another winter.... Any ideas?
Heliconia Rostrata
Well, out of its warm natural habitat, it can take a lot longer to bloom. I know someone in CA (who is in a technical zone 10A, but CA zone 10 and FL zone 10 are not really equivalent) and his took over 7 years to bloom, in the ground (and it never froze)
Perhaps it needs more sun. I have mine where it gets all day sun. It is in a pot and I bring it in a greenhouse for winter. BUT, a couple of years ago Ieft it outside too long and it was damaged in a freeze. It has taken it a couple of years to recover enough to bloom, but it does have one this year. Maybe your growing season just isn't long enough, because mine (both rostrata and voright) are just now blooming.