Hi Drifter and Welcome !

This is a very good question and I also was told to not cut back the heliconia stalks when my Tagami refused to bloom. So I just cut the leaves off and left the ugly bare-naked stalks.

Then I discovered the plants were putting out new stalks and they eventually bloomed - in the summer and fall. So perhaps it has to do with how old they were, or how big the rhizomes had been allowed to grow.

As for gingers, I cut my shell ginger back and that didn't stop it from blooming, same with Pinecones.

But the Butterfly Ginger, which bloomed as a little guy, didn't bloom after being trimmed. So this year, I dug up my rhizomes (the old dead foliage just came out with a gentle tug) and am now letting them wait til warm weather.

I don't know if my experience is the correct way to do it with these amazing tropicals, so I hope someone will tell us.

Anyways, I hope you'll let us know what happens.

Susie

When in doubt, it's better not to cut.
To encourage flowering in Heliconias and gingers,
water and fertilize during the active growing season.
Stop watering and fertilizing during cool seasons
when temps begin to dip below 50 degrees.
These plants often need extra magnesium and iron
to encourage blooms.
Fertilize 3 to 4 times a year with a palm fertilizer with extra magnesium
or a general fertilizer with extra magnesium.
Add iron if leaves are yellowish.
Dead heading or removing spent blooms
will encourage more flowering.

After last year's cold, my lobster claw heliconia lived but did not bloom. I have found that all gingers are different.
I think the pinecone would live through anything. Others lived, but did not bloom. Plants and places, as well as people, are different.
theo

My Heliconia rostrata came back after last year's freeze, but it did not grow well, and did not bloom. The Costus barbatus took forever to come back, didn't even peek out until May. I only had two stems come back out, and then later, a baby far way from the main plant. It didn't bloom either. My butterfly ginger bloomed like mad, as did my pinecones. Butterfly gingers are cold hardy, actually. I had them growing on the margins of a pond in SC, and they came back every year.

I have one ginger that I got in a trade that has never bloomed, but it looks like a butterfly and it's supposed to be coral colored. Sad that I will never see it bloom.

I was told or read somewhere that most heliconias bloom on the second years growth. So I only cut off the dead leaves. However this time most of them the entire stem was mush, so I cut that off.

For the non-dwarf varities, my heliconias don't seem to bloom until they are about 5-6 ft. tall. If you cut the larger stems, the new growth will take much longer to bloom. It is probably best to leave the dead leaves on until the weather warms. The dead leaves help to insulate the plant if you get more cold weather.