Sarah,

A good source of information is the book, "Heliconia an indentification guide" by Fred Berry and John Kress. Amazon has copies for about $19.00. There is a section on container growing, but most of the book is dedicated to photographs of the different specis/cultivars of heliconia plants.

A good website for photos (and for buying plants)is Heliconia Paradise. The link is below.

Here`s a photo of Heliconia schiedeana. Its a cold tolerant cultivar that you might even be able to grow outside in WA with some winter protection.

One thing you should remember is when you get rhizomes in the mail, keep the soil a little on the dry side and be patient. Soil that is too wet will rot the rhizome quite easily.

Here is a link that might be useful: Heliconia Paradise

There doesn't seem to be alot of info on the more cold hardy varities, but here and there you can find tid bits of info. The best info I have found on the cold hardy varities is on this forum(just do a search and there maybe some that aren't out dated).
Cagary is right. H.schiedeana does well for me here on the coast close to the Oregon/CA border. H.latispatha is another good choice, and I'm trying H.sublcata(spelled wrong) as it is the most southernly growing one.
Are you going to grow them inside? Or in a greenhouse? The flowers sell for about 5 dollars here, and it seems like it would be a good business if you had enough heat to bloom them.

Here`s list of high altitude heliconia plants.

The problem is locating a source for them. A few aren`t that hard to find, but I`ve never seen the majority of them for sale any where.

Another thing is that not everyone agrees that all the plants on the list are cold tolerant. My H. virginalis died outside here in zone ten. It was right next to my H. schiedeana and H. monteverdensis. Both of these are doing well.

Here is a link that might be useful: high altitude heliconias

I wasn't planning on growing the cold tolerant types (I doubt they could survive the wet winters here in the PNW). I have my eye on stricta, psittacorum, and orthotrica. Bihai looks appealing but I think it would take out my 7' ceilings (I vetoed torch gingers for the same reason). I'd summer them outdoors and overwinter them under lights. I'm looking for cultural info as they seem to be quite different from bananas and gingers. How much sun? Minimum temps? Rhizome structure? Bloom season? How large a pot for blooming? Prefered fertilizer? etc...

I've had my eye on the above mentioned heliconia book for awhile. It seems to be more focused on IDing infloresences as opposed to growing info. No matter, I just went ahead and ordered it. It had very good reviews on Amazon.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

Sarah

The Heliconia Society International (HSI) site has a number of good links, as well as some of their journals on file. Another excellent site is the Heliconia Society of Puerto Rico (you can google it)-- lots of good photos, and again, their newsletter archives.

Most sites are long on photos (if that) but short on cultural info, particularly for people trying to grow them out of their natural environment. As someone who grows these commercially, I can tell you that they outgrow their pots very quickly, and unless you have them in really big pots, like 15 gallon or larger, you probably won't get them to bloom. This pretty much necessitates having a greenhouse, at least in your area.

There are some smaller varieties, such as H. stricta 'Dwarf Jamaican', that could be happy in a 1 gallon container, but even the psittacorums, which are among the smaller species, will only give you 1 or 2 flowers before they start busting out the drain holes looking for somewhere to spread out.

As far as it being a money-making cut flower crop, not if you just have a few in pots. You need acres in the ground (and cheap labor, no heating costs etc.) to make it worthwhile. Remember that the price per stem you are paying is NOT what the grower gets. They are pricey because they have to be shipped in, and various middlemen (brokers, retailers) have to take their cut. Even if the grower takes them directly to the farmer's market, there is overhead, and a lot of labor involved. Believe me, I know!

Here is a link that might be useful: HSI links page

Sarah,

You can grow and bloom the smaller heliconia in pots with some effort but you will need a greenhouse or similar structure to get them through the winter. Even though you protect them from the cold, it still doesn't mean they will make it unless you can also supply humidity and air circulation for they need both warmth and humidity. Then you have to be on the watch out for spider mites and scale during the overwintering season.

I grow 15 or so different heliconia in containers. Four more are in the ground. I protected a cool tolerant heliconia, Red Angusta, this past winter with a portable greenhouse and small heater and it provided me with wonderful blooms in the early spring. Three others unprotected were frozen to the ground, Rostrata, Schiedeana, and an unknown. They are coming back just fine now, but with these heliconia, they only bloom on old growth (second year growth) so I will not get blooms this summer and will have to hope for a more mild winter this winter.

My heliconia in the greenhouse, even though I supply them with heat and humidity still experience a decline each winter and by March, which is usually the safe time here to get them out in the fresh air, they look pretty ratty. If I am successful in keeping the mature stalks alive, them I get blooms; if I am not successful,usually due to mites or scales, then I start over again since these heliconia I am growning only bloom on old growth. Lisa is correct, most of these heliconia are in 15 - 30 gallon containers but a few can be grown in smaller containers. Here are my suggestions for a few small heliconia that you might try: any of the Hirsutas, Latispatha Distans, Stricta Valentine, Stricta Dwarf Jamaican. Any of the psittacorums will bloom in one summer; you just have to find a source for them. Many of the nurseries here in southwest Louisiana order them from wholesale Florida nurseries and sell them as an annuals since none are cold tolerant. IMHO, they are most difficult to overwinter. Very picky. Good luck, they are my all time tropical favorite.

Steve