Tropicals & Tender Perennials: The Ho-Hum dreary days of winter, 1 by hcmcdole

hcmcdole wrote:
Jackie,

I don't mind if a plant dies that you give away if they truly tried to maintain it but when they totally neglect it then that is another matter. Why even bother if they won't even give it water or a nice location to thrive?

I grew a bird of paradise from seed several years ago. It has a very hard shell that you may have to nick (use a triangular jeweler's file) to speed up germination. Water lotus (nelumbo) is a similar hard shelled seed that benefits nicking with a file. Mine is quite big now and blooms sporadically but it's still worth keeping. My daughter bought me the giant white bird of paradise (strelitzia nicolai) from HD a few years back (she confused it with a giant dieffenbachia that I wanted). I finally let this monster out in the cold last winter because I was tired of lugging it in and out twice a year knowing that it probably would never bloom. Now impatiens come up in it each year. How can you not like impatiens? They reseed readily and bloom their fool heads off if they get adequate water.

Here is 'Pink Minx' from 2005.