Costa Rica - Heliconias

I have recently returned from a marvellous holiday in Costa Rica. Whilst I was looking forward to seeing all that they had to offer, I particularly wanted to see the Heliconias, and I wasn't disappointed - they were everwhere, both cultivated and wild.

They don't have gardens in the same way that we do. there are no big houses with long borders. And as a result I was informed that Costa Ricans will recognise a genus, but they are not interested in recognising any species within that genus. That was a shame, as there are something like 260 different species of Heliconia, but neither our UK tour guide, and none of our local guides could identify any of them. Luckily I had my trusty book with me.


H.rostrata. This is probably the best know and most often illustrated Heliconia. There is a huge example in the Kew Palm House.


H psitticorum. This is one that I am growing and has flowered for me in the UK. It's probably the most popular species with many cultivars. It only grows to 5 feet or so, making it a good candidate for a pot or a border (in warmer climes).


Mass H. psitticorum, growing in one of the hotel gardens.


H. chartacea. This is another well known one, with a famous cultivar called "Sexy Pink".


H. velerigera. A very strange furry one, but as a result easily identified.


H.wagneriana. Another popular species seen in the hotel gardens.


We now move on to the wild, where we saw lots of different species, but one can only guess at their names. H.caribeae would be my best guess here. It's rather fine though.


This is quite distinctive, and i am inclined to say H. mariae.


I have no idea about the rest.

 

Fantastic array there Peter,

 

Thanks for sharing Peter, they are fantastic

 

Thanks Pete and KFF. The national flower of Costa Rica is actually an orchid, but I feel it ought to be Heliconia.

 

glad you had a nice time. we went last September not a good experience.

 

I was struck by the similarity between some of the Heliconia flowers and Strelitzia. I quick search revealed they are related as both are in the order Zingiberales.

 

Why so - Redstar. I found there were some very good aspects and others not so good.

I have found I like all the members of the Zingiberales, mainly because they are all soft tissued and like the heat and humidity of my conservatory. And in terms of flowers Strelizia and Heliconia seem to be the closest related.

The other members are, of course, Bananas, Cannas, Costus, and Marantaceae. There is also the rather obscure Lowiacea, with a single genus Orchidanthea. You never hear about that one.

 

guess roaming dogs pooping on the beach, people out on the take, roads very poor to the areas of note, ocean water dark . just one country I would not go back to.

 

I can understand that. We went as an escorted tour and were told not to wander outside the hotel premises by ourselves. So we never saw that side.

 

Fantastic photos Peter, I haven't seen Heliconias in the wild for many years.
I haven't got the heat to grow them here, the greenhouse can go to down to 3c in winter.

 

Thanks Strongy. I have recently taken an interest in them, as they seem to be the one tropical plant that you very rarely see or see for sale in the UK. I understand that they can require a minimum temperature of as much as 16C, which is undoubtedly the reason they are so rarely seen. I believe their hardiness varies and I gather that H. schiedeana is the hardiest of all and will actually survive -1C. But this tends to be in places like California where later in the day it can be much warmer.

I have just received 2 rhizomes of H. rostrata (from Himalayan Gardens Nursery in Scotland), which are now on a heating pad. So my fingers are crossed.

 

Never realised it was that kind of place.

 

I didn't see any Heliconias in Madeira, only in the Botanical gardens in Puerto de la Cruz in Tenerife.