Another will this live here question, Heliconia

Lowes has gallon sized Heliconia choconiana for $3.84. They're good size and flowering right now. Plant files say they're good to 20 degrees so I wondering if anyone has any experience with them living outside in my neck of the woods?

No Heliconia I've grown so far has lived through the winter here in the outskirts of Charleston, Core. I have seen some "survivor" Heliconia's in downtown (Peninsular) Charleston, but I haven't been able to do it. I just grow them as annuals. "Well-worth-it" Annuals (I love that plant)!. Lots of other plants "good to 20 degrees" survive quite well here (Barleria, Alamanda, Duranta, etc), but not Heliconia. The only way to find out is to try it. Microclimates are everything in these parts!...

The cold hardiest heliconia is H. schiediana-'Fire and Ice'. It is not in the pstticorum family, but I think it doesn't stand a chance below zone 9, from everything that I have heard from people that have tried it.
However, I have a lot of heliconias that I overwinter and they do well blooming in pots. I also like to plant some of the heliconias outside in the summer-where they grow well, and then dig them up and divide them up into smaller plants for inside the grhouse. I mostly stay with the pstticorum and stricta varieties-they seem to bloom better here

I don't have a green house and for that matter I don't really want to fool with pots. I'm a stick it in the ground and it will grow type of guy. LOL. I might give one a try, they're cheap so why not. You folks don't have my hopes up and it coming back next year.

As a silly fool that has a lot of tropicals that need to come in during the winter-I can understand your sentiments! There are many times, when I am running out of room in the winter, that I wish I had more smarts and restraint-either one would help!

I would try to pick the best microclimate in your yard-on the south side, up against a wall of the house etc, and mulch it very heavily in the fall and see what happens-also a dryer spot-where the roots won't stay wet in the winter. Let us know how it goes....experiments are a real part of gardening to me.

Here is a picture of what my hallway looked like during the winter-I finally just layed down a tarp to put all the palms on that I had gotten from Hawaii in January. lol

Core, I'm stubborn about my zone, I say in z9a (seems to coincide with your hardiness, 20 degrees), it is definitely worth a try. I'm actually going to try some of mine outside (yes, I hear the funeral bell now) this year, and bring a small piece in for insurance. I've been amazed at my luck so far with non-hardy stuff, and I neglect most plants better than I care for them.

If you do try, let us know the outcome.

Tiger I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old. Plus two dogs, I can't even think about what would happen if I brought that much stuff inside. I would like to put a fountian outside but that's another thing that I fear what would happen. I'm thinking an outside fountian would probably look like a combo bathroom, drinking fountian. Yikes.

lol I could only do that because I am the only one to use that hallway-everyone else uses the other hallway-and my kids are older, but I do have 2 dogs but they are used to the grhouses so they just applied the same rules-stay in the path. I was really tired of it though, I must say.

Almost everyone that I know that has a fountain outside finally resorted to making them big planters...

I didn't look at your zone-Tropicanas right-go for it-but give it a fighting chance with the microclimate placing

You're clearly an addict, tigerlilly! Me too.

core, i bought a heliconia today @ lowes as well as some of those curcumas. i bought one for inside just in case, and one to leave outside. i also got a schefflera arboricola, a pony tail palm, and a giant BOP to try outside this yr. maybe you would be interested in some of those to try.
PS i real excited! i goty a L. chinensis, bigger than the ones the sell around here, for $10 as opposed to the $75 a smaller, but comparable one would cost! i was real excited and just had to tell y'all!

That big BOP is a tropical only, all BOP's are not the same. Think that will die outside. I plant a BOP this spring http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/619/ and think that has a chance.

Is your's this? http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2466/

i have both outside next to the house. i was going to test them here because i saw both S.reginae and S.nicolai bloom outside on HHI in the ground. i know its a gamble, but it will be worth it!



in Shipyard next to the crowne plaza

This message was edited Aug 2, 2007 1:09 PM

the size of it outside; about 15'

blooming in Feb on HHI

I have to go look around Crown plaza.

it is on the side of the parking lot that leads to the Shipyard club house. if you are facing the ocean, it is on the left corner nearest the beach. idk if there is another crown plaza on the island, but this one is in Shipyard. the S. reginae was in the shopping plaza on the island near legendary golf and palmetto dunes. the plant was right outside of Bonefish.