Hi members,

I had heliconia pendula cv Bright Red in pre-flowering stage.

My place is on latitude 37oS, in Thames, New Zealand.

At my place the average winter temperature: 8 oC and average lowest winter temperature: 3 oC, but had went below 0 oC, to -1 oC for 1-3 nights during June to July. 10 frosts a year and frost season: 10th June to 10th August. June to August are coldest wettest months, with June have 15 wet days and 3 frosts, July have 16 wet days and 4 frosts, August have 15 wet days and 2 frosts.

Photoed on 9/11/13.

Look carefully for flag leaves.

Flag leaves are much smaller than normal leaves, and a sure sign that heliconias are about to flower.

These shoots have flag leaves and are in pre-flowers stage.

Congrats on your soon to flower heliconia! We'd love to see the blooms when they appear.

A very good effort for such a southerly latitude.......well done !!

I've got this in my garden in Perth. The stems have gone bright red but no flowers yet. Flowering in NZ!!!! I'm taking this one down to my Albany property at 35S. My Hot Rio Nights has just flowered. I'm ecstatic about that.

My heliconia pendula turned to been a heliconia schiedeana, so I chopped it up and I replaced it with an UNID heliconia.

Edited December 19, 201312 yr by clinton9

Clinton--

Try H. nutans for a hardy, cool-tolerant, pendent heliconia. It grows up to 2200m in its native environment, and I've been told by growers in California that it is quite gregarious even in that cool climate. H. collinsiana, which is probably the next most cool-tolerant, cloud-forest pendent of the commonly cultivated types (H. rostrata is fairly cold-tolerant but really wants a warm, humid climate most of the time) is very iffy in all but the most perfect microclimates in southern California, which is probably somewhat warmer than your own climate. Good luck! If you need to grow this one from seed, try to secure it from a high-elevation form, as a form from the lower elevations (about 700m) may not be as tolerant of your situation.

I don't have h.nutans until May 2014 when wet season arrive in Panama.

But I do have h.griggsiana, h.dielsiana, h.secunda and h.tortuosa doing well outdoor and had suckers today.

Due to this website had breakdown, I am unable to post my seaval photoes on this page, I tried to post the 5 photoes, but this website won't allow photoes.