Gardening with Wilson

The Lunar or Chinese New Year is around the corner and the colours red and yellow (resembling gold) are highly regarded as the lucky colours by the Chinese. While many individuals are rushing to the nurseries to buy all kinds of potted festive plants such as various citrus and chrysanthemums and cut-flowers such as pussy willow that hail from temperate regions, why not try something different this year?

After having introduced to heliconias and after some ‘psycho-ing’, I have acquired a liking for these plants that hail from the tropical Americas. Heliconias can bear inflorescences that can be erect, pendent or contorted.

Those species and hybrids that produce hanging pendent inflorescences are especially graceful and beautiful. Because most are coloured in the hues of red or orange, these hanging pendents carry the Chinese’s auspicious colour for the Lunar New Year.

Take a look at the pictures I posted below and you should be able to understand what I mean… Some of the pictures have been taken quite some time back at Ang Mo Kio Landscape and Nursery which is well known to stock some exotic heliconias. Some others are taken at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Heliconia longissima

Because the bracts of Heliconia longissima are like almost perpendicular to the ground, don’t the inflorescence of this heliconia look like a string of fire-crackers?

You either like this or hate the inflorescence of this hybrid heliconia. Some people think its awful looking. Some people think it resembles a piece of roasted meat (or pork).

Ah…. The inflorescence of H. vellerigera is one of my favourites. It is unique because it is really furry to touch!

These first three heliconias are considered collector’s items and you don’t see them being planted in Singapore’s streetscape. It is also quite hard to buy cut inflorescences of these heliconias. You are not able likely to just get it at just any nursery. At most, what you get is a rhizome at quite a high price and you gotta wait a number of years (at least two) before you get a mature plant that will flower for you.  

Furthermore, for these heliconias, they are quite large-growing, especially H. longissima and H. ‘Dinosaur’ and hence you need a large garden to grow them. Their size and stature will surely command some attention. Fortunately, they are non-running heliconias. Incidentally, many of the more ‘high class’ heliconias don’t really ‘run’ all over the place.

Now, let me introduce another three heliconias that are slightly more common, but still as beautiful. For the first two, ‘Sexy Pink’ and ‘Temptress’, you can buy the cut their inflorescences from the florist. I don’t think they will go out of trend and people will like to grow them in their gardens.  

Quite a tall grower, H. ‘Temptress’ is a clumping heliconia that doesn’t really run all over the place. The only thing that some people don’t like about this plant is its naturally lacerated leaves. Still somewhat quite hard to find this hybrid in local nurseries.

 

Some like a sister to H. ‘Temptress’, ‘Sexy Pink’ produces pink, pendent inflorescences, a rather rare colour in heliconias. It is also a clumping heliconia and has naturally lacerated leaves. ‘Sexy Pink’ can be found for sale in local nurseries.

Last but not least, H. rostrata is something that we, Singaporeans, are all too familiar with. Its omni-presence in our local streetscape has earned this heliconia a ‘roadside’ status and people don’t really want it to be in their gardens. It can be found in flowering size on sale in local nurseries and is perhaps the most readily available pendent heliconia anyone can buy.

I have been told that there are running and non-running rostratas but I cannot be sure of that. There are several different varieties of H. rostrata and recently, an all yellow variety (oooo… a golden lobster claw eh?) has been found and not easily available and therefore, a collector’s item.