This is my mom's Bird of Paradise plant which is over 25 yrs old. We repotted it to another laundry tub because it was busting out of the old one...LOL...and it was getting ready to bloom while we were putting it into another tub..
There are 2 blooms happening on this plant..on each side..lol...
The other side is just starting to do it's thing..
Side shot of the blooms..
Very nice!
Beautiful ... great growing!
I bought several white birds of paradise last year without knowing how big it could get. When I did a little research on them, I found that they can get to be about 15-20 feet tall. It is encouraging that yours is 25 years old, and is still in manageable size. It gives me hope that they won't turn into monster plants. Maybe the trick is to keep them confined in a pot rather than in the ground??
Keeping them in pots make them rootbound in order for them to bloom..This busted laundry tub had 3 big bloominmg stalks and bunch of pups. So we divided the 3 stalks w pups so the pups can grow as well..lol
Moodene, you could have a forest full of white birds there soon!
Cool weather slows them down. Also limited watering. Mine jump ahead making huge leaves and shooting for the sky in the hot, muggy summer weather here, when it rains a lot.
I have some mature clumps in my 50-yr.old landscape. We've had to cut out 20-ft. stems just to keep them from taking over. But there's a mature clump at Selby Gardens, our local botanical garden, that has to be 40ft. tall. They're next to a big koi pond, so get all the water they want, I suppose. Magnificent!
avoiding 40 ft monsters is what I want. LoL..... I may just end up giving them away to someone who has the space. When I purchased them, I thought they were like the typical orange ones and will max out at 4-6 ft tall. Since I have 3 (they were about $5 each), I'll give away 2 and keep one confined in a pot. Thanks for the info.
Birds of Paradise, Strelitzia reginae, only grow up to about 2 metres high. People often mistake Travellers Palms, Ravenala madagascariensis, for Birds of Paradise. The Travellers Palms grow to about 7 metres. They're both in the same plant family, but the Birds of Paradise have more attractive flowers.
So, Soilsandup, if you're sure they're Birds of Paradise then you won't have any problems with height.
Every year I haul that 1 laundry tub in and out of my garage when the temps go down near 40 something for the last 9 yrs. Now I will have to do 3 tubs..is it worth it..yes..cuz it was my mom's favorite plant before she passed away back in 2005.
Sorry, I must disagree, tropicbreeze. Here's a pic of one of my 4 huge clumps of white birds. They are all about this size. The yellow thing in the pic is the top step of my 6ft. ladder. (just under 2 meters) The tallest stem is brushing the power line to the house, over 20 ft. up there. It's getting lopped next week.
I have 2 clumps of Traveller palms elsewhere in the yard. Their leaf stalks are much longer - 10ft. or so, and trunks of my Travelers are over a foot in diameter when they finally get to making them. They do eventually make flower scapes similar to the white birds but they are much larger!
Strelitzia reginae only grows to about 2 metres. It's very common and popular because of it's coloured flowers. There's another Strelitzia, I think it's called S. nicolae or something similar. I don't know much about it, it's not that common because people prefer the coloured flowered ones. Yours might be that. Some people do think the Bird of Paradise and the Travellers palm are the same, hence the confusion. When small the mistake is understandable. But at the height of yours (in the photo) they're not Bird of Paradise, Strelitzia reginae, but probably one of the others in that family.
I did a plant files search and ended up here http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2467/ which is the page on a rare bird called Strelitzia alba.
After reading the comments I think you are right, what Moodene and I have is Strelitzia nicolai. This is what is known as white bird of paradise here.
Strelitzia reginae is the short clumping one with the orange and blue flowers. It doesn't make tall trunk-like stems.
These flowers are about a foot long. The traveler palm trunk that we had removed last fall had flower scapes that were over 2 feet long, but similar in shape.
I wanted to grow some Birds of Paradise but found out they didn't like this climate. Travellers Palm will grow here but I was more interested in the colourful flowers. And there was too much rigidity in their appearance (Travellers palm that is). But I have collected some Heliconias which, although unrelated, have a similarity about the flowers, particularly the Psittacorum Heliconias. So that became my 'substitute', LOL.
I googled that S. alba and also found references to quite a few others. They're South African plants so that explains why they do better in the cooler and drier climates.
Your photo is of the Strelitzia nicolai? The blue against the white does look quite good. Maybe I could plant a clump of Travellers Palms and paint the flowers different colours when they bloom ;O)
I wish mine would bloom! It's root bound. I bought it several years ago, then it got bit by the freeze two years ago, and now it has put out new growth. It needs repotted. I have no clue what color it is......
What do you feed yours dizzypixxy?
Thanks,
jeanne
Well . . . mine pretty much survive and thrive on neglect. They are in the ground, and were here when we bought the house, so big old well-established clumps. I really don't want them to get any bigger, so I don't fertilize them or water them at all.
All we do is cut down the biggest stalks when they get too tall and messy (as the picture shows they are now! I also need to cut off all the old spent flowers, which I'm doing this afternoon if it doesn't rain. They do put up new leaves all summer, when it pours rain. So probably yours would like deep watering a couple of times a week as long as the weather's warm.
Your plant might be a white bird, if it has really large leaves (about 10 inches to a foot wide and 2 to 3 feet long). If the leaves are smaller, about a foot or so long, and it doesn't make a tall stalk it may be the orange and blue variety. They like to be root-bound and don't bloom until they are in a big tight clump in the ground, or root-bound in a pot. Put up a picture, if you can? We might be able to tell you what color you have.
I think it must be orange. It does have a smaller leaf. I will try and get a picture. It probably doesn't get enough water.
Thanks for the info. Yours are beautiful! WOW!
I can't put mine in the ground as they would freeze in the winter. Maybe I should not repot them right away. They really are root bound.....
Thanks,
Jeanne
Hi Moodene,
I never thought that white bird is going to flower in a pot. My in-laws in St.Pete, Fla has a huge one that is about 12' tall, bloomed many times.
The ones that you divided do you have any idea when they are going to bloom? I am sort of interested because I gave away this plant that I have been carrying around with me for 7 years. It didn't show anything, but leaves. Should have kept it.......:(
Have 5 15 gal pots of the yellow one. They've been blooming every year. Maybe I try the white bird one more time. Thanks for sharing,
Sita
Moodene: That is a beautiful plant! They get so huge, I can't imagine moving something that large in and out with the seasons to protect it from the cold.
dyzzy: Nice plants you have there too ... you are fortunate to live in an area of the state where they do so well.
When on vacation in the San Diego area last year I took this photo of what I thought was Streletzia nicolai ... huge, beautiful plant:
Bloom:
Just gprgeous! Sure wish mine would look like that! Mine have never bloomed. They died back from the freeze and then eventually put out new shoots.
Jeanne
Mine bloomed in the g'house last spring and I was able to make a memorial bouquet for Easter. I tried to keep it in the blue/orange family. Clivia, bouganvillea, and plumbago.
This message was edited Apr 27, 2011 6:54 PM
Very pretty bouquet -- from a technical standpoint, blue and orange are complementary to each other on the color wheel -- so that is why the combo is so pleasing. (That's the old art teacher in me talking...)
Sharon
Anna: That is a really nice arrangement!
Thanks. :>) I really like to share the BOP if I have any bloom.........seems like such a waste for me to hog all the pretty.
Great arrangement! Thanks for sharing!
Gorgeous blooms on your BOP, Nadine! It is wonderful to have plants from people you have lost as a reminder. A couple of weeks ago, I lost my sister to Cancer and I was able to take back some cuttings of her plants. It sure does help.
If the three tubs of BOP's get to much for you, I'm sure that many people here would luv to take some off your hands.
:) Donna
Hi, Thanks for the comments!! My son is keeping all 3 tubs so when he gets home this June, We are making roller wheels for them so all I do is push them in and out of the garage..LOL..
