I have a BOP that is HUGE, it is in a circle bed made into the walkway. The bed is 3 or 4ft wide and the BOP fills it completely. It is blooming(it blooms most of the year) and some of the leaves are ugly. It is way over crowded. Can I dig some of it up to give it more room? Can I cut it back to make it prettier?
Here is a picture of it two years ago, it's grown a lot since then.
Susie, that looks like my Haliconia - I don't think you can kill this plant! My B-i-L had these in his yard and they are nearly taking over - they travel by runners and they are into the neighbor's yard and beyond. He sold his house in Florida, but that's what I know about this plant - it's invasive! LOL
hiya Calalily,
In my old house I had a front hedge of mature BOPs, they can indeed be divided if that is the route you'd like to go (advised) and they can also be pruned. At that old home location there was a commercial flower grower that had a field of BOPs about an acre large. They pruned the plants with machetes every four or five years by literally hacking them to 4in tall stubble. I always thought this was a little harsh but his plants came back beautifully and a lot faster than I every thought they were capable of. Division or the hack method will both clean up your plant. Do you get double or triple flowers? I always love those as they do look much like their relatives, the heliconias when they do that.
best to you,
don
No runners from this plant. It makes more plants, but they're right against the mother plant. I think the false BOP(a heliconia) makes runners.
Don, I get a double bloom every now and then. I will try dividing them because my neighbors want some. If that doesn't work, I'll chop it back with the machete! It is taller than me and the leaves are sticking out over the sidewalk.
There is a family of anoles that lives in it. I'll have to be careful not to chop them up too.
Oh, Susie - I want anoles in my plants, too! How cute they are. When I worked as a floral designer years ago, we had some live 6" plants come in from Florida for Valentine's day. In one of the plants was a red-eyed tree frog. I put him in a coffee can, took him home and turned him loose on our concrete patio. That little fella lived there for three years, wintering over in the arm of an old lawn chair. We had a blast going out and spotting him in the evening! Unfortunately, the neighbor's cat decided to eat him - very sad.
AAAw, I want a red eyed tree frog! I was at Roz's house and she had tree frogs. I haven't seen any here. We do have lots of "ground dwelling" frogs and toads.
The anoles are cute, they can change colors and when they get excited the males have a little pouch on their throat that they display. It has red and white stripes. There is one that sits on the gate to my garden and "guards" it. He thinks he's dragon size! He puffs out his throat and sits there like he is saying "This is my gate, you can't pass thru."
I would dig the whole clump up, divide it and clean it up and replant. Then I would send some to me (LOL - postage gladly provided).
You have Strelizia Regina from what I can tell and they do indeed clump as opposed to the heliconias that RUN all over the place. Happy to provide a trade of small orange heliconias LOL. I am incapable of throwing away a plant so when I pull up the heliconias that run into the grass and driveway I put them in pots. I have several pots....
The large white herons here in SW Florida are always trying to catch the anoles in the Bird of Paradise bushes, they are obviously a well-known home for them.
I don't know if I can tackle the whole clump, my neighbor broke their shovel trying to get a piece out for themselves. I will attempt to dig and divide it this weekend, I'll let everyone know how it goes(and I will send you a piece in trade for some heliconia if I am successful)
Wonder if the farm across the road has a backhoe, lol.
You will need help to get that out. It is huge. We have them all over here.
I wish I had an anole. I never have heard of them. Are they lizards?
BOPS are tough to dig out....but it is worth it. We broke up a clump, divided them but didn't prune, except for the ragged leaves. They bloomed quickly.
Kell...anoles are little lizards...they are my insect control in the Green House and they grow fat and happy.
This message was edited Jan 28, 2006 7:34 AM
What is that plant your little anole is on, Carol? We have no cute lizards here, I wonder why.
To make them look less ratty, they can be 'pruned' by yanking out the dead growth- this thins out the clump, but doesn't leave the messy looking stumps at the bottom.. .have to keep up with the yanking, though. Eventually you will need to dig out part of the plant- they are extremely tolerant of digging, normally.
Are you all talking about the white large BOP? Mine are close to 20 feet tall, so I've been wondering how to divide them. They're huge, and getting stuck under the gutter line, and can't always reach out and up to escape it. Some of the stems are at least 3 inches thick, but it's blooming like crazy, so I don't want to kill it.
MerryMary
Mary, mine in the photo is the regular orange BOP.
My white one is blooming but it's not a problem right now. The previous owners almost killed them. They had cut them off at the ground.
My neighbors also had white, a clump probably 15 feet wide and 20 feet tall...an unbelievable specimen. When the new people moved in, they hacked them all down, dug up the huge root stump, and threw it all way. I was devastated! I need a few more around the yard, so would have LOVED to have taken theirs before the trash guy got there, but nope, not fast enough. I just couldn't believe it, and if they knew what the full mature 20 foot tall ones cost at the nursery, they would have died.
I knew I didn't like them when they moved in.....
:D
Calalily - to divide you might have more success using a saw to cut down through the clump into the soil and then dig up the individual clumps. That is what I use on my white BOP also.
MerryMary - I hate it when people throw away/destroy perfectly good plants. I am always on the lookout for houses that get razed because it usually means the gardens get bulldozed too. This is what we got today from a house where the bulldozer comes on Monday.... That was a 20 ft. tall plumeria tree - too big to get in its entirety but at least we got the majority of it.
Dutchlady1....I'd love to know who those willing accomplices are in your pic, I could certainly use them! Some of the huge establised plants are the ones you hate to see bulldozed into mulch-land. Some things take years to start blooming, and you just can't purchase them that far along. So many people don't realize just what they are destroying. I've been trying to drive around and look to see what the really old houses have growing in their yards. Many of the plants, I simple can't find anywher online or at the nursery, they are just "old Florida" flora and fauna....but gosh, they've remained through 50 years of hurricanes, flood, and drought....and thats exactly why I want them! My BOP survived the 3 of 4 hurricanes that went through last year, tattered leaves yes, but alive? yes....
I bought 2 small white BOP, but couldn't believe the prices....I was just afraid to split my big one and keep it healthy and alive.
Wow, look at the size of those branches!
Kell...the little lizard is sunbathing on a Queen Ema Crinum...
Thanks Carol. I thought it might be Cochliostema odoratissimum and I was all excited. LOL
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/90670/
Did you get to see what color that plumie was? I wonder how old it was.
Susie, do you guys have tree plumies where you are? I always wanted a tree plumie. But it is too wet here in the winter. Maybe if I had a real protected area.
Dutchlady, I'd love to have some of that plumie. I tried to dig in the BOP this weekend. I'm going to have to soak that bed with water before digging it. I tried to talk a friend's hubby into helping and he said no way!
Kell, we have tree plumies here, mostly white ones.
Wellllll, don't know how you do it, but I have killed, dead, two BOP.....my large white is about 20' now and lovely, but the other.........(hanging my head in shame)
Hap
uhg Hap.....that's what I'm afraid of! I wanted to take the chain saw, and just buzz the large root ball into quarters and replant, but I'm afraid I'd end up with 4 dead chunks, so I've been very apprehensive....
MerryMary
Any helpful hints about diving Traveller's Trees? Mine has put out two little ones alongside of it and I want to divide them this summer & keep them as insurance because the big ones are very rapidly getting too big for this zone 6 Pa Greenhouse.
I was at Walgeen's nursery the other day and they had 1 gallon white BOP. First time I have seen the white 1 gallon ones.
Walgreens has a nursery?
Oops....Walmart.
the only way i have been successful at dividing babies off white bp/travelers palms is with a sharp knife (hubby is a chef) (happy1 don't kringe) cut at an angle into mother,because you certainly can't kill the mother, and usually the baby has enough roots to plant.
dutch lady you sound like me. when i walk around my neighborhood i now call it shopping because people throw out gorgeous plants. i got around 30 heliconias in a garbage pile. they are now a beautiful hedge.
cass
AAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
happy don't worry i only use the chef knife that i ruined awhile back i am no longer allowed to use any of his knives.
Wow!! That heliconia is absolutely stunning!!
The only way it could look better, is if it was in my garden!! lol!!!!
What a find!! My neighbors only throw out real trash!!
Congrats!!
Janet
I would cut your ears off.....
OUCH Happy! LOL
Gosh Candela, I will admit heliconias have been giving me the come hither look lately. What a find. I am not allowed ot use my dh's carving knives either. He has a big cow when I take them to trim off the huge banana leaves at the base. In fact he gets madder at that than at a lot of the terrible things I do.
Everywhere I go now I see white BOP. Last night at a HD they had a few 20 gallon pots of them. I kept looking, they were $69 and the best one had 3 fans in it. They were over 6 ft.
