Heliconia Planting

This morning I will be planting heliconias. The weather is fine and sunny. These including tall heliconia varieties like H.charteace (my favourite)- scarlet; tempress; H. carribea; H pupurea; H colliasiana; H Black Magic; H.rauliania; H.borgeana pedro oritz; H.barbados flat. Later I will be panting Siam Tulip (3 varieties).

Initially I have planted 4 heliconias and 2 gingers . These include H. charteace; H.nickerensis; H . jamaican dwarf; H.orthoctrica -She and Eden. They are starting to flowers now. The gingers include red ginger and hydechium are flowering. One of the good point is that the hydechium has very good and sweet smell from its flowers.

Recently I have done fertigation on Hydechium coronarium which is very succesful through tissue culture. We have modified MS solution and these explants are planted in controlled environment.

I will be adding somemore exotic varieties including H.mutisiana; H.emerald (Green heliconia); Prince of Darkness (POD); Globba winitti etc.

My observations was that insect attacks are more prone to heliconias than gingers. Heliconias have bigger leaves than gingers. I have discussed with my fellow friends to extract these ginger chemicals to make bioinsecticides through extraction method.

I have written a paper in Bahasa Malaysia TANAMAN HELIKONIA DAN SEKUTU NYA DIDALAM PERLANDSKAPAN or "Heliconias and its allies for landscaping' Its abstract is here.
Heliconias are one of the fastest growing segments in the diversified horticulture industry in Malaysia. The presence of heliconia and its allies adds up flower diversity and distribution in a landscape area. H. psittacorum cultivars are very popular in the landscape industry due its fast growing, bloom all year round and low maintenance. Some general cultural practices pertaining to heliconia growing such as propagation, irrigation, fertilization and shade requirement are being discussed. Related heliconias and its allied species potential for landscaping are suggested.