"The Beautiful and Exotic World of Tropical Heliconias"

Presented by Julia Kornegay, Ph.D., Head, Department of Horticultural Science, NC State University Heliconias are grown throughout the tropics for their beautiful, brilliant colorful flowering bracts. Their breathtaking and unusual flowerheads rise from clumps of banana like leaves that may vary from 3 to 30 feet, depending on the variety. These exotic plants belong to the Heliconiaceae family, which has only one genus, Heliconia, named after Mount Helicon, the seat of the Muses (the nine goddesses of the arts and science) in Greek mythology. Julia Kornegay and her husband, Alfredo Escobar, grow heliconias and other tropicals on their farm in Colombia to export as cut flowers to the United States. She will talk about how they came to own and operate a farm in Colombia and why they decided to grow heliconias. You'll be amazed by the incredible diversity and beauty within this group of plants, and by the people who traveled the world to collect them.