I've got a heliconia latispatha "Lobster Claw" that will need to be planted in the ground. It has out grown it's pot with all the new pups and I have only room for one of these in a small pot for inside my house. Has anyone had any success planting these outside?
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/633020/
Over-wintering tropicals in Ga
My mom lives in Sandy Springs (just north of Atlanta) and has an orange version. She does not remember planting it at all, and I've never seen it before. Hers is next to a brick wall just outside the carport and is doing great. Whether it will come back or not we don't know, but it appears to be a volunteer.
pins, You forgot the picture.
I wouldn't think heliconia could make it here in the ground but who knows. I wonder if your mom has something else like canna or ginger?
I've had the lobster claw (2 of them) and lost both in a cool greenhouse. The one that cordeledawg is showing can usually be bought around town (HD, Wal-Mart) and I've lost it too but at least it's affordable enough to treat as an annual.
I don't have a picture to share. Sorry. We thought it was a canna with a strange flower, but the flower does look exactly like the lobster claw one.
Thanks, I'll plant some next to the house out of the wind and a few in containers.
Deborah
My MIL overwintered a Bird of Paradise outside last winter. She didn't intend to do so, but it was too big to bring in. She also has shrimp plant and other rather tender tropicals growing in the ground out side. I think with a bit of searching for the right microclimate Cordeledawg would be able to grow that one here. It might need a heavy dry mulch, but our winters are really mild. It is those 18 degree cold snaps in March that do us in,
Beth
I left my giant bird of paradise out last year and it bit the dust but I really didn't want to bother with it anymore. I do move my regular bird of paradise (that I grew from seed) indoors each year - at least it blooms and is a managable size.
Here is lobster claw heliconia at the Queen Sirikit Tropical Garden in Thailand back in July. This is a tad big to move indoors, don't you think?
I'm in 8b and I can almost get away with wintering anything outside. It's dicey though. I have some plants that die down but come back the next year. I got a bunch of tropicals from a hotel that was throwing them out to change their lobby landscaping. It's hard to tell what will live, what will die back and will just flat out die. In my case these were all free so I just planted them in the ground and let them fend for themselves. Good luck, if you really like it don't leave it outside.
It's always an experiment. The experts say dig this up because it won't survive freezing temps, move that indoors before it drops to 50, yet a lot of plants are tougher than the experts give them credit for. PDN (Plant Delights Nursery) is a great research area for pushing the envelope on cold hardiness.
I had an old man cactus that made it through winter only to collapse a couple of days after we had our only snow (in the past 28 years) in early April. I wonder if the sap had started to rise in the cactus and then we got a freak snow which did it in. After all, it made it through nights in the 20's and probably teens with no problems.
Then I left agaves outdoors two winters ago because they were suppose to be hardy plus dyckias. I had severe damage on a lot of the agaves and lost some of the dyckia. I leave one agave outdoors now but keep it on the porch so it will stay dry.