Thanks Janet,
I didn't see a pink one, only the red. It was about 4' tall. Actually there were several in different stages of bloom. I wonder if it might grow too large for a container. At least a container you could move around. It certainly is Etlingera elatior. I just read where it native to Asia. I wonder what the history was on traveling to Costa Rica. This one was growing off the beaten path. On an island surrounded by brackish water channels, in fact. No motor traffic there. Fishing was the main source of income there, I think. Thanks again. I've tagged my photo with the name now.
Jean,
I can understand your position. Oddly, it's actually the drought that sent me into container growing. Those plants don't have to share with the trees or any neighbor and I recycle a lot of the water that runs through. That run through water I don't catch is extra for the trees that give some shade so it's not wasted. It's odd to me how well tropicals grow in the warm months. They handle the heat and warm nights better than anything and obviously love the humid days, though here we tend to have low humidity. With lots of containers and under the trees, the humidity tends to be higher in their immediate vicinity. Getting through the winter is the really hard part and I'm not a good caretaker of inside plants.
