Rauliniana Heliconia Heliconia rauliniana

Rauliniana Heliconia carries its flowers upside down at the top of a very tall clump: the heads drop from the ends of the stems and fall past the leaves instead of standing up. Each head is a long chain of large, sharply pointed bracts that twist in a loose spiral as they descend, red over most of their surface with only a thin rim of pale green and yellow. On a mature clump several heads hang at once, and because the plant is so tall they hang at or above eye level, so the colour sits in the line of sight rather than down in the bed.

Plan for the height before anything else: the stems rise straight up in a close clump of long dark green leaves, typically 3 to 4m in gardens. Botanically it is a hybrid, written Heliconia x rauliniana and usually given as Heliconia bihai x marginata, and it has the stature of the big bihai types. Its advantage over many large heliconias is the clump itself: it stays tight, with the stems close together, so it builds height without wandering sideways across a bed.

A screen that flowers

That tight, tall habit suits it to screening better than most heliconias. In a warm garden a row of clumps along a boundary hides a fence or a neighbour's windows and puts flowers at a height you see from inside the house. If the screen needs colour lower down as well, shrubs from Flowering Plants planted in front can fill the space below the hanging heads. It grows right through coastal Queensland and, in a protected warm temperate garden, down to coastal Sydney. On a screen the leaves are what you look at for most of the year, and they stay cleaner where taller trees take the edge off the afternoon sun, though deep shade costs flowers.

The catch is scale and wind. A clump this tall catches every gust, and torn leaves along a screen are on show from every window, so it belongs on a boundary that already has a wall, a fence or taller trees on the windward side. Frost burns it back and a hard frost can finish it, which rules out inland and tableland gardens with cold winters. Leave room in front of it as well: the heads hang out from the clump, and a path squeezed against it means walking into bracts.

Hanging heliconias compared

Beside the Hanging Lobster Claw, Rauliniana is the taller plant, and the heads show the difference: rostrata holds its yellow tipped bracts flat in one plane, like a zip, while these larger, almost entirely red bracts turn around the stem, so the heads look full from every side. For contrast in the same tall layer, pair it with Hot Rio Nights Heliconia, whose red and gold heads point straight up, so the border has flowers pointing both ways.

Keeping a tall screen fed and tidy

Rich soil is the foundation. Dig in plenty of compost before planting, mulch deeply with leaf litter or sugar cane, and keep the mulch clear of the base of the stems. A row of tall clumps takes a lot out of the soil, so spread composted manure over the whole root zone each spring plus slow release granules, and water in a seaweed based liquid through summer. Water deeply in hot, dry weather, when the leaves scorch and flowering stalls if it goes short, and in the cool months water only once the top of the soil has dried. When a hanging head has faded, follow its stem down and cut it at the base, and take out old leaves as they brown, which keeps air moving through the clump and leaves fewer hiding places for mealybug and scale. Cut, a hanging head needs a tall vase or a high shelf so it can hang the way it did on the plant.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 2 sizes, from 300mm up to 400mm, priced from $189.00 to $369.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Every size here is established stock rather than a starter plant, so this line is intended for immediate effect rather than for growing on. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.