Tropicals & Tender Perennials: 'Phoenix' bird or paradise, 1 by pk33635

pk33635 wrote:
Hello DG community,

After a visit to St Maarten in the Caribbean last winter, we saw and fell in love with the Caesalpina Pulcherrima; Pride of Barbados.

Imagine our pleasant surprise when we found it could grow here in Tampa, and that we were in need of doing some serious landscaping at our new home at the time. It's really what started the gardening bug in me!

Fast forward to May, I ordered some seeds for the red/orange, of which I've successfully managed to get 4 healthy 2 foot plants to date. (no blooms yet) Being impatient for that wonderful color, I also ordered a few mature plants which arrived and went into bloom literally weeks after arriving (in INTENSE may/june sun and heat here)

Through further research, I found the pink, lemon lace, and yellow varieties and thought I had died and gone to heaven, that is until the yellow I ordered turned out to be the C. mexicana. pretty, but not Amazing like the others.

Then, I started to see the Phoenix bird of paradise, and was awestruck by the deep orange/yellow/gold almost sunset color to them. With 2 spots that still needed 'something' in the yard, I began my search for them. Is this plant the most difficult thing to find here in FL or what? I have been in contact with growers in AZ, and none ship here, and the plant seems to be some kind of secret that Arizona wants to keep to itself. (???)

Question (long way around, I know) Is it truly different than the 'flava' and 'aurea' cultivars with just a fancy name? Are the colors truly as different, or are they all one in the same?

All plants in this family seem to be scarce around here, as i've only seen the Royal Poinciana trees around, but not any of the dwarfs.

Any comments/suggestions are welcome, and thanks for reading this long post!

Phil

Image attached not mine, but fair use from internet sites.