Gardening with Wilson

I had been really busy over the past four days of New Year’s holidays to rest as well as spent quite a bit of my time to tidy up the community garden, which kinda become a big mess due to neglect. Whilst working in the garden, I spotted the inflorescence of my Heliconia ‘Alan Carle’. It is small heliconia an erect inflorescence that is yellow in colour.

The inflorescence looks somewhat like the one seen in ’Golden Torch’ that is often planted en masse in Singapore’s streetscape (better term for ‘roadside’ plant). Not suprisingly, both plants came from the same cross – Heliconia psittacorum x spathocircinata. But luckily, ‘Alan Carle’ isn’t as commonly used as a candidate for our roadside plantings, yet.

What’s unique about this plant is the leaves. Unlike many other heliconias, ‘Alan Carle’ has leaves that are curiously splashed with golden spots on the leaves all over. The spots seem to be more evident when the plant’s grown in semi-shade rather than where it is now grown – full sun conditions. Or at least that is what I have noticed.

Also, the perianth of ‘Alan Carle’ is tipped with green.

This hybrid should be more free flowering. But I only got one inflorescence. The reason – lazy Wilson hasn’t been fertilising it enough!