Re:Heliconia aff. scheideana 'Fire and Ice'

As an update to the longer message on Heliconias, I
remembered that the variety that Gary Hammer sells
which is identical to Stokes Tropicals' H. aff.
scheideana 'Fire and Ice', and that he introduced into
California, is not H. scheidiana, but H. sp Hidalgo,
which is identical to Stokes Tropicals photo.  This
plant was sent to Stokes from someone in San Diego who
had gotten the plant from Gary...  

I also would take the public relations of Stokes with
a grain of salt, as surviving occasional ice or snow
in southern Louisiana to bloom again isn't the same as
surviving long wet and cold winters of west coast USA,
where the summer heat build up may not be sufficient
to get this plant to bloom.  The shorter periods of
cold weather and earlier warm weather and summer heat
and humidity of coastal Louisiana, Texas and Florida
tends to favor root hardy tropicals such as varieties
of Heliconias spp, Costas spp, Curcuma spp, Globba
spp, Kaempfera  spp, and Zinzgiber spp.  Stokes
Tropicals may list many of these as being suitable for
USDA Zones 8/9, but they will do better along the hot
and steamy summer Gulf Coast USA states than along the
same but cooler summer climatic zones of the western
Pacific USA.

Also, there is a good photo of H. latispatha cv.
Distans in the Stokes Catalogue, for those who might
be interested in this plant, as well as H. angusta
var. citrina(Yellow Christmas) and H. angusta 'Red
Holiday'.  These are all good for coastal southern
California, and would probably also be superb
candidates for the Algarve region, Portugal and Costa
del Sol, Spain.  I didn't see any heliconias while in
these areas, but know that they would do well there,
or anywhere where Thunbergia grandiflora is
successful...  Stokes Tropicals' web site is:
www.stokestropicals.com

Regards, 
David Feix

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