I went to UBC Botanical Gardens today and happened across Fascicularia bicolor ssp. canaliculata which is an inland form of the species sometimes growing as an epiphytic in central Chile. This plant has been growing in this location for many years and originally came from an outdoor collection at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh. It was much larger than I expected and the red colour is quite striking.
and the full plant
Very colorful!
It's a beauty - rarely seen in cultivation. The Scottish weather is probably just right, mimicing the native Andes high altitude.
What a beauty. Love it.
Oh WOW.
Incredible.
Huh! according to the AHS A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, F. bicolor shouldn't be hardy in your area..... Of course, seeing a Bromeliad that is hardy in Vancouver, BC (even though you guys' winters are actually milder than ours) makes me want to find out just how hardy this sucker is.....
Hikaro, there is 2 forms of Fascicularia bicolor - the coastal with succulent leaves and less hardy and the inland form which takes more cold. Zones are just guides and don't take into account humidity, summer heat, etc, etc. I'd like to get ahold of a few of these and plant them as an epiphyte in a tree.
I guess I shouldn't have said "snow" as we really have slush like at 7-11 and noone can drive in it. Maybe a week each year.
Ah, that explains it.... The thing is that the AHS encyclopedia said that is was only hardy to Zone 12 (i.e. completely tropical that can't take temps below 50* F, much like the Lipstick Palm)... Then again, they said the same thing about S. minor and S. palmetto (which I know for a fact are all much hardier, the first being able to take sub-zero temps on a fairly regular basis, and the second being good down to about 5* F).
Anyways, where I live usually doesn't get much snowfall, either.... We live about 7 miles downwind from the local mountains (which are about 1200-2000 ft high, not tall by mountain standards, but tall compared to the surrounding terrain), which puts us in a sort of "rain shadow".... sometimes it will snow in the center and Eastern parts of the county, but we'll only get light flurries here. In addition, we have almost zero humidity during the winter, with almost constant wind, making for dry, bitterly cold conditions. Our outdoor cats almost hate being petted in the winter because they're guaranteed to get their noses and/or ears repeatedly zapped by static electricity.
It's kind of interesting to note, but, for the most part, if it weren't for 1-7 days a year, we'd be ZOne 8a... it usually doesn't get below 10 except for those 1-7 extremely cold days where it gets into the single digits or below zero. One notable exception to that rule was the awful winter of '89 when it got to -20, and didn't get above 0 for over a week (that winter still holds the record for lowest all-time temperatures for the area).
