Count Your Blessings!

With love and passion, everyone can have a nice garden...Elaine Yim

Count Your Blessings!
Count The Garden By The Flowers, Never By The Leaves That Fall.
Count Your Life With Smiles And Not The Tears That Roll.
..... Author unknown.

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Malaysian Flora USDA Zone 11
Welcome to our exotic world of everlasting summers and tropical rainforests!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Heliconia rostrata The Hanging Lobster Claw


Heliconia rostrata, also commonly called the Hanging Lobster Claw is the regarded as the most beautiful and it is also the most popular species of heliconia grown in home gardens here. "Rostata is a Latin adjective for beaked, curved or hooked and this refers to its likeness to a parrot's beak.

In my previous post about Heliconia chartacea "Sexy Pink Lady", many people mentioned about the beautiful red heliconia. Perhaps they are mentioning this one.

The above is a picture of  the Heliconia rostrata Ruiz & Pavon "Ten Day" exhibited at Floria 2010.

A budding Heliconia rostrata inflorescence in my sister's garden.

Scientific name: Heliconia rostrata
Common name: Hanging Lobster Claw
Family: Heliconiaceae
Order: Zingiberale
Origin: Peru and Ecuador
Category: Tropical perennial herb



This species can be grown on the ground and in large flower pots. The inflorescences  are pendulous, with the bracts coloured bright red and yellow at the sides. Notice that their leaves look like banana leaves.


A clump of Heliconia rostrata Ruiz & Pavon "Ten Day" exhibit at Floria 2010.

H. rostrata is a medium sized plant that can grow to a height of between 2-2.5 m tall.

Heliconia rostrata The Hanging Lobster Claw”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on November 12th, 2010.



This clump is located at the landscaped walkway leading to the Putrajaya Shangri-la Hotel.
The inflorescences are elegant and spectacular and they last a long time. Notice that H. rostrata and H. chartacea has inflorescences that droops like a pendant. In my previous post on H. episcopalis "Arrow Red Orange Spears", the blooms are erect and pointing up.

They are also excellent as cut flowers. Andrea in This Lifetime is posting H. psittacorum spp today. In her post titled, "Drooping Beauties" and you can view a picture of H.rostrata used very creatively in a buffet table centrepiece.

Now that you have seen both H. chartacea "Sexy Pink Lady" and H. rostrata, which do you think is more beautiful?

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all ?????

This is my entry for Fertilizer Friday, the link is here.

26 comments:

  1. Przepiękne helikonie:-)
    Bardzo lubię te kwiaty.
    Pozdrawiam.

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  2. Those clumps are spectacular. Wow!

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  3. Oh, they ar absolutely wonderful! It looks much warmer at your place than here in Sweden;)
    Take care,
    Charlotta

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  4. Lovely! They're two of my favourites. Mainly because they grow and bloom so well here.

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  5. The flowers are so beautiful and festive, looks like someone hung decorations. Amazing!

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  6. They certainly are a stunning plant when they're in bloom. Your photos show just what incredible blooms they have.

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  7. Both are beautiful. If I live in the tropics again I would certainly grow both of them.

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  8. Goirgeous tropical plants!
    *hugs*deb

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  9. Hi, friends, Happy Morning!

    Yes, like Diane AZ, I think it looks like a hung decoration and in this case like a string of firecrackers ;-)

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  10. I cannot choose between the two, they are both gorgeous. I have never seen anything like these spectacular flowers. Your blog is always educational and inspiring, thank you so much!

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  11. your photos are getting brighter and lovelier. I can't find my more orderly photos taken in the past, so just make do with what i found, hehe. I recall i have a beautiful orderly clumped plants from the side of a resort but i lost it. I already put a link, but i dont have as many followers as yours, so that is maybe unnecessary.

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  12. I had so many heliconias planted in pots before, so much that I got done with them.
    I can offer you few tips:
    Watch out if you plant heliconias in the ground - they tend to become invasive and you might have hard time removing them later.

    Heliconia flowers in one plant, once the flower dies the primary plant do not flower again but slowly dries up. So its a good idea to trim off the whole spend flower plant as new shoots may appear.

    Watch out for ants - they often invade together with heliconias.

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  13. T are my favourite heliconias mainly because I know for sure they will flower beautifully every year. A lot of the others don't do so well out of the tropics.

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  14. Both are equally beautiful! Your blog post are always educational for me!

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  15. I liked the sexy pink heliconia better.

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  16. hehe, yes Autumn Belle, serendipity maybe, but what about this 'there is no such thing as chance or coincidence'? Just like in One and my messages yesterday, she told me that what we have in mind just appeared in her verification words! Was that serendipity again? hahaha, intertwining thoughts. Pls remember thought is energy!

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  17. Very difficult to choose amongst the two yeh???? both are pretty... the H. rostrata is vibrant, the H.chartacea has subtle pastel elegance. Thx for sharing info on both the varieties.

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  18. Looks like Heaven is here too.

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  19. I like both the 'lobster claw' and 'sexy pink' although we have plenty of 'lobster claws' in our garden. We're still propagating the 'sexy pink' I'm a heliconia lover I guess.

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  20. Hi, my friends. I have some more pictures of different heliconias species which will be shared later. I hope you all are not getting heliconia overdose at the moment!

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  21. Gorgeous! Don't think I've ever seen the hanging species - very cool!

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  22. It gives me an idea to decorate my garden. Nice blog and keep up your good work pal.

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  23. Theresa, this hanging lobster plant is very common in Malaysian gardens.

    Mr Deen, welcome to my blog and thanks for leaving a comment. Good luck with your garden!

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  24. merhabalar...
    ne hoş bir sayfa bu böyle..
    emeklerinize sağlık.
    bayıldım,görsellerinize.
    izliyorum sizi.
    bende bekliyorum sayfama,
    sevgiler....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Birtutamkekik, welcome to MNG blog! Here's what Google translate says of your comment in Turkish:

      Hi ... What a nice page like this .. efforts in health care. love, your visuals. I'm watching you. waiting for me to my, loves ....

      Delete

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