Dragon's Heart

[Nievesgirl]

I snatched up a 4" pot of this CV  , How fast does this CV grow ?

[Nievesgirl]

I also wanted to know thw parents of heart of my heart

[Charlie]

Dragon's Heart has been blooming a lot this fall. Below is a nice dark bloom at the end of its 3rd day after picking and being brought into the house.

Kerry, DH is medium in vigor in the greenhouse - not slow but not super fast either. Parents are Dragons Breath and Heart of My Heart.

Charlie

[helixturnhelix]

Here is the first bloom on Dragons Heart.  Looks alot like my HOMH blooms back home, nice red color and 4 inches across.  Is this a typical Dragon's Heart Bloom?  It isnt really burgundy, like I expected but sill pretty.

[Nievesgirl]

Hi chris my first bloom of DH was not as dark as I expected either. It has yet to bloom again so I am waiting for it to bloom this summer.

I like your bloom better than the one I had. Mine's was way lighter than what you posted.

[Charlie]

I see that we need to add some photos and edit the descriptions of Dragon's Heart that appear in the gallery and store. That was put together based on the info we had at the time, but it has not turned out to be entirely accurate. Dragon's Heart does change with the conditions, the hotter it gets the lighter the red color.

I always have to be alert to the fact that winter greenhouses give us fantastic but somewhat misleading flowers due to the unique conditions inside such greenhouses. Bright, hot days and cool to cold nights bring out flower colors that are not usually seen in other growing environments. Dragon's Heart is turning out to be one of those - great colors of dark red and burgundy for the long winter season in the greenhouse but turning into more of an intense dark red rather than burgundy outdoors and in summer. In some conditions it will even become a lighter red.

Below is a photo from a few days ago that show the type of intense red that I am used to seeing from Dragon's Heart except for flowers in the winter greenhouse. Chris's bloom is close to this, too, based on the photo. The red shows the blackening effects that come from Dragon's Breath and is seen even more in Black Dragon.

Charlie

[helixturnhelix]

Interesting about Dragon's Heart.  Mine is outside now, with day temps in the 70's and night temps in the high forties/low fifties, I am hoping to see that dark maroon coloration. 

[Charlie]

I hope that does it, Chris. The conditions you describe are good for some pretty flowers of any cultivar, but not quite what happens in a greenhouse. When it's overcast outside, a greenhouse will easily warm up to the 70's (assuming outdoor temps are not really cold) but give it part sun and the temps will soar into the 80's. With mostly sun the temps go up into the 90's or higher while the nights can still be in the 40's. It's that difference between low night and high day temps that causes unusual flower color not seen in natural conditions.

Below is a sort of interesting comparison between a Dragon's Heart photo taken on Oct 17 when it's hot here, and another taken Nov 27 when winter weather has started.

Charlie

[davidwood]

My Dragons Heart has no buds whatsoever and i was wondering if that maybe because it needs some cooler weather.The problem is we don't get cool nights here,the nights and days are the same [90+ in the shade or dark].I can of course give it cooler nights by bringing it in the bedroom where i have air/con [about 70f].Would this work and do you think it would be a good idea.

[Charlie]

David, you are breaking new ground as far as my experience goes. 90F at night!!! Is your Dragon's Heart a new one that has not bloomed before? If so it could just be that it needs more time as this variety is slow to bud up but then buds up all over the plant at once. At least here that is how it behaves. You could try bringing it indoors at night but I probably wouldn't unless this is a plant that bloomed before and has not continued to do so.

Charlie

[davidwood]

Ok Charlie i will just leave it out and yes it is a new one.The heat is certainly not affecting the growth of the bush as it looks wonderfull.The nights are a pig here,at least during the day the blazing sun lowers the humidity where at night in can be very uncomfortable.
I am still getting a few buds opening on my other cv's which is nice,they are all small and only last a day so roll on September.Then for 4 months when the temperature drops i will have some lovely flowers.

[helixturnhelix]

Here is Dragon's Heart and bush, also a mini flower at 4.3 inches.   Charlie, do you find that DH blooms as a mini often?  All my blooms have been mini flowers on this plant. 

[davidwood]

Wow!!! that is a lovely photo,it looks even better than the one on the website.The temperatures are starting to fall here so maybe i will have a flower soon.

[helixturnhelix]

I'm glad you like the pic!  I also want to note that the bloom is all black due to part sun.  This is looking like one of those varieties that looks best when grown with only 2-3 hours of full sun a day. 

[Darkhorse]

I'm liking this one the more I see it.  How's DH's bush?

[davidwood]

I'm glad you like the pic!  I also want to note that the bloom is all black due to part sun.  This is looking like one of those varieties that looks best when grown with only 2-3 hours of full sun a day.  

.Thats lucky, I have this one in part shade and getting only 2 to 3 hours a day allready, so hopefully soon.

[blupit007]

How big are these blooms supposed to get?

[helixturnhelix]

All of my Dragon's Heart blooms have been around 6 inches.  They can get up to 8, but it seems like thats a bit of a rarity in under my conditions.  The color though is why you want this CV, dark burgundy and perfect form.   

[Charlie]

This variety combines Heart of My Heart (small intense blooms) with Black Dragon (large dark blooms) and the result was very much of an average in that the size falls between the 2 and the color also is pretty much a blend of the intense red of HOMH with some blackening contributed by Black Dragon.

Charlie

[davidwood]

What a surprise this cv has turned out to be, for 12 months it did nothing in a 8inch pot, then I decided to develop more the bottom corner of my garden, I mainly did it for P's Purple which was just getting to big, I put that in a very big pot and in behind I put a Palm Tree to sort of fill in the space, to get the Palm I wanted I actually went into the jungle and dug it up, it all looked nice when I had finished but there was enough room in the big pot so I put in Dragons Heart at the front, at first it stayed small but after a few months it just grew and as you can see its quite big and could if it carries on growing at the same rate end up being bigger than the Palm, the photo's show how it has changed in just 5 months, P's Purple is also growing as allways like crazy
Just the one bloom today but I have had 6 blooms at once and my camera cant capture the wonderful deep maroon color, it really is a beauty and people who visit my garden are drawn to it straight away.

[LJG]

That's not a palm tree, it is some type of Dracaena.

I found that Dragons Heart did not like pots. I almost tossed it but chance would have it my Matador plant in the ground for two years never bloomed and was wasting space so I dug it and planted this one since the flowers were close. Once in the ground it took off. It really is a pretty flower.

I have been coming to the forums for a while and never noticed you were from Na Trang. I was just there in November.

[davidwood]

That's not a palm tree, it is some type of Dracaena.

I found that Dragons Heart did not like pots. I almost tossed it but chance would have it my Matador plant in the ground for two years never bloomed and was wasting space so I dug it and planted this one since the flowers were close. Once in the ground it took off. It really is a pretty flower.

I have been coming to the forums for a while and never noticed you were from Na Trang. I was just there in November.

Thanks for that, I have been treating it like a Palm, now I will research to see if that's ok. It seems that Dragons Heart really does appreciate space, mine is now thriving.  Hoped you liked Nha Trang on your visit, not sure if you would now its the rainy season and am so glad my garden is on the roof.

[LJG]

I just cant capture how dark the colors are. Here is a bloom next to Sweet Sixteen.