Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Migrating Bird, 0 by BlissfulGarden

BlissfulGarden wrote:
There were quite a few threads about Bird of Paradise, so I didn't want to start a new thread with this... but I wanted to post a thank you to Jomoncon and htop for their help with my birds. Our Uncle Zach lived in New Orleans and had a BOP that he had brought back as a small plant from Australia back in the 50's (when you could still literally carry the plants on the plane with you). He also brought home a small staghorn fern. They were both gifts from his cousins (who still live in Australia), so he prized them. Both plants had grown huge in size over the many years, with the staghorn requiring an industrial chain for suspension. When Uncle Zach passed away post-Katrina, we split out three roots of the BOP to plant in pots at our house in Baton Rouge and cut off a start of the staghorn. The mama staghorn was donated to the Botanic Garden at City Park in New Orleans (look for it in the Train Garden... it's by far the largest one there!). Annnnyway, the BOP's hadn't bloomed at all since their move and finally had set a bud on one of the plants a few weeks ago... just in time for our weather to turn to frost. I contacted both htop and Jomoncon for advice on how to protect the plants and encourage the bloom. They were both kind enough to respond, which I very much appreciate! So, here's the long awaited bloom... 3 years in the making! I just had to take a photo of it when we first got home and saw it had opened (at night). I didn't want to take a chance that something might happen to it before I could get the shot!!! =P