I was at the spring garden show at South Coast Plaza today and my favorite vendor, a guy named Gary, was there with his offerings. Gary specializes in plants from Central and South America. He was selling various varieties of Heliconia rhizomes including H. rostrata and he had color photos of them when in bloom. Another customer was admiring the photos and obviously considering buying some of the rhizomes. Gary's partner was talking with the customer and allowing the customer to think that these Heleconia that came from southern Mexico would produce the beautiful inflorescence. I couldn't allow the customer to be mislead and interjected that they likely would not produce the colorful inflorescence here as we did not have the necessary heat/humidity. Gary's partner had a sheepish look on his face and admitted the same, adding that they are grown here for their tropical foliage. Of course the photos were of the colorful inflorescence, not the foliage.
The customer wandered off and I told Gary's partner that I had a blooming Heliconia that I got from the Huntington Botanical Gardens. As I was talking he interrupted me saying, "Ah yes, you have one from the higher elevations in South America where it's cooler, probably schneeana." He was correct and I asked him if he knew that only the high elevation heliconias were the ones that would bloom here how come Gary wasn't selling those. His response was that the flowers were not as attractive. He was of course correct......but very unethical in my opinion.
