Heliconia schiedeana not flowering and a little yellow...

We planted this Heliconia last spring along with a Alpinia purpurata (red ginger) as plants we purchased in the fall of 07 from Tropical Vibe nursery in Newport Beach, CA.
The Alpinia didn't do well during the winter, it curled up and seemed to dry up so we cut it down to the soil and left in a black plastic trash bag to store until we planted it in April of 08. This was as per instructions from the nursery's owner.

The Alpinia never did sprout again, but the Heliconia seems to be holding its own but not necessarily thriving. It does show new growth however.

It never did flower this year and now its yellowing. Should we give it some fertilizer or maybe some ironite as winter is approaching?
We were hoping for some of those gorgeous Heliconia flowers this year but didn't get a darn one.

this is prolly a result of the onset of fall, although the weather has been exceptionally warm and dry for this time of year. 81F today!

but the good news is there does seem to be new growth with the Heliconia. Haven't given it any miracle grow or any other fertilizer for at least two months, we were kind of neglectful this year in our backyard with regular feedings. It's been such a tumultuous year that sometimes the yard gets the last of the priorities, time-wise!

THis is just my take, based on the fact that I used to live in So Cal, and also based on what other people have told me who still live in So Cal.

Alpinia purpurata is most likely a lost cause, even in the (usually) frost free area you live in. It doesn't thrive because even though technically you are in Zone 10b based on the fact that you don't get much freezing weather, your normal year round weather is not warm enough on a cumulative basis to help a ginger as tropical as A. purpurata thrive. It needs a lot of heat, long days of hot weather and nights not much below 55-60F. EVen here where I live, where it does freeze, A. purpurata planted in the ground still comes back every spring, but we never see blooms because this particular plant blooms on old canes, 2 years or older. The only blooms I get are on specimens that are overwintered in the greenhouse. This ginger will bloom quite well in a container, so you wouldn;t have to plant it out there, but you would need to keep it warmer at night.
I have an acquaintance who lived in Culver City, Los Angeles area (where we used to live) who has had great luck with Heliconia schiediana. CC is only 6 miles from the beach, so its pretty warm there, his Schiediana does not seem adversely affected by the cool 40's and occasional 30's they get in fall and winter, and his blooms well.

I have Schiediana planted out here, it has been in the ground for over 6 years and does not bloom, because again, most heliconias also bloom on old canes (like A purpurata).

This is pretty much the wrong time of year for you to think about fertilizing your heliconia, it needs to harden off now for the cooler night to come.

I agree-I think the heliconia-while supposedly the cold hardiest of them all, is going into dormancy because of your winter. It isn't a good time to fert. Heliconias also take a few years (at least one full one) to bloom in your climate. I would mulch the roots heavily this fall and in the spring hit it with fert and keep the soil moist through the spring/summer and see what happens. I have had a few in containers that come into the grhouse and they still have never bloomed-some of them are 3 yrs old. While most of the other types of heliconias (all small types) have bloomed like crazy this summer. Including a sharonii-that was both surprising and exciting!

I think Ca may be a tough climate to grow heliconias in-except for the psittacorums because of the lack of humidity that you experience

The heliconias that have proven to be the most suited to the CA climate, even up in the Bay Area of SF, according to folks Iknow that are growing and blooming them, are the latispathas. The champeianas (I know I misspelled that, LOL) Like Maya Gold, Maya Blood and Splash have also met with some success in So Cal, and there are other 'higher elevation' heliconias that have been bloomed well there. You should do a little bit of research and I think you might come up with some others that you could try.

Heliconias fall into 2 categories, the lowland tropical rainforest varieties that are all about heat, sun and water, and the highland higher elevation more 'cloudforest' types that thrive in cooler temps and lower light.

thanks for the comments. Now I know a little bit more about these two... I'm considering the ginger a lost cause but I think the Heliconia will make it. I'll do what tigerlily says and hopefully it'll flower up next spring. I've got a pretty nice microclimate here and if it gets really cold I can turn on the pool heater and that seems to help the whole backyard when it gets REALLY cold (down to 28F in winter of 07).

So does that make the schiedeana fall into the first category, the tropical rainforest variety? In the plantfiles, palmbob states, "This is one of the most cold hardy of all the Heliconia, surviving fine in zone 9a with minimal damage, and regrowing from 8b frost (freezes to the ground). It is a nice, tropical looking plant for those colder gardens and the flowers are beautiful, upright, zig-zagging bracts of red to red-orange, each filled with an ornamental yellow-green flower. From the mountains of N Mexico. This is the Heliconia species you see in all the arboretums around Southern California and now easy to find at nurseries."

That's one of the reasons I bought it in the first place, that it was supposed to be so cold hardy.

This message was edited Oct 26, 2008 11:53 AM

It is the most cold hardy ( I shouldn't have used the word "supposedly"), but we are talking about a plant that while it will live, and even bloom some in your climate, is never going to perform as well as in a zone 11 climate-where it will grow fast and bloom profusely and easily.
I agree with gothqueen in that there are other varieties that may bloom better for you-in other words, they bloom faster without having to be established as long as this one. The latispathas and the psittacorums are some of the fastest to bloom. I would assume-with heavy mulch in the winter, that they might do well for you.

The psitticorums are not very cold hardy at all, but they have the plus of being fastblooming, as tigerlily says. Heliconias fall into 2 types as far as "bloomability" goes...those that flower on new growth (The psitticorums, choconiana, and some of the latispathas like Red/Orange or Yellow/orange Gyro, and the psitticorum x spathnocircinata hybrids like Golden Torch, Golden Torch Adrian and others) and those that require 18 months-2 years or more to set blooms...the Caribaeas, Bihais, most of the Strictas, Rostrata, etc.

The "straight" psitticorums (like Andromeda, Lady Di, etc) usually die here in a freeze and don't come back at all. We are in a zone 8B/9A climate. Its warmer mostly than 8B, but not by much. They are sold as annuals here and that's good, because they are really really cheap. So you can afford to use them that way.

The psitts x spathnos are somewhat hardier. They will freeze to the ground and come right back, and if the winter was pretty mild and they only got knocked back once or twice, they will go on and bloom.

Rostrata is very very rhizome hardy here, an 8 ft plant will freeze to the ground and grow back to be 8 ft again the next season, but because it requires "old canes" you never get blooms. Luckily, it blooms pretty readily in a container.

The latispathas have the advantage of having the ability to bloom on first year canes, and bouncing back from being frosted to the ground. And they have a nicer (larger overall) flower than either Schiediana or most of the psitt x spathnos hybrids.

There have been people who have gotten Rostrata to bloom in So Cal in the LA and San Diego areas, but it has taken appreciably longer than the normal 18 mos-2 years...one person's took over 7 years to make its first bloom.

Schiediana is very very RHIZOME hardy heliconia, and does reportedly bloom well in SO Cal in frost-free locales. It does come from Mexico, at a higher elevation where it has reportedly survived being snowed on.

Several years ago there were some people trying to sell a "new" cultivar of Schiediana that they were calling "Fire and Ice" and they were showing photos of it growing and blooming in snow. They were calling it a separate plant from "regular" Schiediana and trying to market it to people in zones 7-8a. But a lot of heliconia growers kind of quickly denounced this ploy as what it was, an attempt to put a new name on the same plant to sell more of them. Schiediana is the species, there is only one Schiediana.

Thanks for all that info gothqueen. Didn't know much about Heliconias, now I know a little more!

I guess it's wait til next year for mine... This will be its first winter in the ground.