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Florida Gardening

Is my heliconia dead?

14 years ago

I have a heliconia in the pool deck for about 3 years now. It had survived the past winters fine. It dies to the ground and then comes back even better. This time it has no signs of green at all.

Should I still wait a bit? Or start replacing it

thanks

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Comments (7)

garyfla_gw
14 years ago
Hi
I've been having the same experience!! . First time they died down completely ,several I've had for over 20 years .!! I don't think they're dead but are sure behind schedule.
Even those in the shadehouse went down. I'm going to give them some more time because I have nothing else planned for the areas.
You might dig up the roots to see what's happening they should be at least sprouting by now.
gary
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junglegal
14 years ago
I had one bed completely rot out. When I got in there and dug around, it was a rotted mess. Too wet and long of a winter this year. If you are curious, why not dig up a bit and look for some healthy rhizome?
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cjc45
14 years ago
Don't give up yet, I checked my journal and the heliconia didn't start coming up until about mid May last year. Same time the gingers came back.
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fighting8r
14 years ago
I wondered about mine, but they are showing (minimal) signs of life now. I'd wait, or dig down and see if they look healthy.
Kelly
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annafl
14 years ago
Fagopher, hang in there. Mine are just starting to show signs of coming back. Much later than every other year, and all last year's stalks completely got burned to the ground unlike any other year. I think they will be fine eventually. I have so many bare spots from my large heliconias. I miss them too.

Anna
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stonecrabber
14 years ago
I lost colocasias this year to a similar 'rot'.

My personal theory is the extra cold weather coupled
with the rains we got during the cold equaled rot.
I remember seeing on the news that snow/sleet actually
fell not far from here. We got rain several times during
that cold spell.
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fagopher
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for all replies. I dug and ... confirmed it .. it is all dead. Will have to replace it.

Thanks for the advice
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