I'd love to have even ONE of those...preferably Heliconia orthotricha 'She'. I'd like to have some in my yard, but I don't dare! I don't need another passion...LOL

Have you contacted the Heliconia Society of Puerto Rico or Montoso Gardens in PR. They would probably know where on the island you could obtain this heliconia. Steve

I think a lot of the taller heliconias grow naturally in sheltered (windless) situations. In gardens they often end up more exposed so more prone to falling over. My tallest are 2 to 2.5 metre rostratas which seem to get by even though they're still fairly exposed to wind. But they do have some small trees/shrubs around them which helps. With yours, it would be a personal, value decision. The green stems would still be feeding the rhizomes, so they have a lot of value for the plants. For people it's a matter of aesthetics, if it looks "untidy" they get rid of it. I tend to side with the plants, so my approach would be to tie them up and only cut them out when they become useless to the plants.

Hi I made a mistake of planting in the shadehouse. They grow right through the roof. No matter how much digging I've done they still come back. I planted some among a cluster of white BOP.outdoors Does hold them up but looks so odd as the flowers lean over the BOP. Not surprisingl the flowers in the shadehouse are bigger, brighter, and far more vigorous . Maybe because I regularly water and fertilize the epiphtes in there??lol In Costa Rica they were growing them over a wire tunnel that you could walk through. Flowers hung down into the tunnel . Seemed like a great idea but my whole grow area is only 35x50. There's always the dwarfs??? gary