Welcome to Heliconias... Heliconias... Heliconias

This blog is all about growing Heliconias, an exotic plant not native to Malaysia. All pictures shown are digital photos of the actual species in my garden such as Rostrata, Dwarf Jamaican, Latispatha and several psittacorums such as Andromeda, Lady Di, Fuschia, Strawberry & Cream and hybrids such as Golden Torch and Alan Carle.

Heliconia are close relatives of gingers, bananas, birds-of-paradise and traveler’s palms. There are more than 200 (350 including cultivars) documented species of the single genus, with the bulk of them originating from Central and South America such as Guyana, Costa Rica, Berlize, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. You may be interested to note that about 6 species have evolved separately in the South Pacific and Indonesia, and typically have green inflorescence.The name "heliconia" actually comes from Greek mythology after the great Mount Helicon, the abode of the muses of the arts and sciences.

The beauty of the heliconia lies in the brightly coloured bracts that are mistakenly called the flowers. The actual flower is the tiny little flowers that emerge from the large showy bracts. Each stem can only flower once, after which the entire stem deteriorates, drives up and collapses. As such, it is recommended to cut at the base of 'flowered-out' stems.

BTW, this blog has been read by visitors from Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Netherland, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, United Kingdom & United States of America :-)

16th Sept 2009 : 17:30
Showing posts with label psittacorium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psittacorium. Show all posts

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Flowering Heliconias Today

Hooray ! Finally the psittacorum that looked like Lady Di but with Orange stamens instead of yellow stamens ie the psittacorum cultivar known as St Vincent Red decided to flower :-)



psittacorum cv St Vincent Red



psittacorum cv Andromeda


 

psittacorum cv Lady Di


 

Stricta Dwarf Jamaican

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Watching Flower Growth : Andromeda


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21st December 2008

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Watching Flower Growth : Lady Di (2nd Round)

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17th November 2008

Did you notice the yellow perianth between the 2 red bracts ?














16th November 2008

Did you notice the ant on the distal one third of the LH unopened bract ?














15th November

2 bracts clearly visible.













13th November 2008

2nd bract starting to be visible














12th November 2008
















10th November 2008















9th November 2008

Shooting up red and straight...













8th November 2008















7th November 2008

Wow, just spotted a new inflorescence growing on my Lady Di. The previous flower watch did not capture such an early growth. So, I have decide to record another flower growth for Lady Di :-)



Monday, October 27, 2008

cv St Vincent, Heliconia psittacorum


Watching Flower Growth : Fuschia

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8th November 2008

Notice that all the perianths have already fallen off and we can see the blackening of some of the ovaries. Fruiting ?












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1st November 2008

1 perianth left...













29th October 2008
















28th October 2008

2 perianths left...














27th October 2008
















25th October 2008
















24th October 2008
















21st October 2008

3 perianths still visible...














20th October 2008

3 perianths left...














20th October 2008

4 perianths left with bottommost opening...














19th October 2008

5 perianths visible and leftmost perianth has opened ie expected to drop off tomorrow...















18th October 2008

6 perianths visible