I planted a Red Bird of Paradise last year. It was small and didn't do much. It had a couple of small blooms on it when I first planted it but never flowered again. This year it has grown a lot and looks very lush and green....but still no flowers! Any ideas why? It gets full sun all day long.
Red Bird of Paradise
For me they bloom later in the summer.
I love them but think they are unreliable bloomers when young, at least for me. The 2nd or 3rd year seems to do better and I also found that a good soaking- not standing in water mind you, but a good soaking seemed to produce blooms- maybe just coincidence, I don't know.
I've had much more reliable blooming from my Caesalpinia mexicana than I have from C. pulcherrima--I don't like the yellow flowers quite as well, but it blooms consistently and seems more resistant to the occasional frosts that we get.
ecrane3 I have 2 mexicana and agree the flowers are not as pretty; I wonder if pulcherrima does well here because of the higher hummidity? Possibly. I actually have several gisellii- think I have that correct, anyway it blooms much more than either pulcherrima or mexicana - large yellow flowers w/ red stamons and has a nice pleasant scent as well. I grew mine from seed, thinking they were pulcherrima- should have known something was up they germinated and grew at a phenominal rate! The leaves are a bit finer and the seed pod is "fuzzy"
I have a C. gilliesii too, just got it last year in the fall and it hasn't bloomed yet but also seems to be doing much better than pulcherrima. I've got my pulcherrima in a pot now, tried it in the ground and the first year it dropped all its leaves and looked dead until about July, fortunately I was being lazy that year and hadn't gotten around to pulling dead stuff out yet because then in July or August I saw that it had started to sprout new leaves. So I put it in the pot and kept in in my pseudo-greenhouse (covered patio wrapped with greenhouse plastic) last winter, no leaf dropping but it hasn't really put out much new growth yet this year. Maybe it does need more humidity.
I think so because the other 2 are often recommended for drier climates and are native to hotter, drier areas while pulcherrima is native to more tropical areas.- in Houston we are VERY humid so I think that's why it does well here. I don't really recall where Dublin is but I can't imagine that you are anywhere near as humid as we are! Lucky you.
I think that you will like gilliesii- I have several in the ground and several in pots- all blooming or about to and most are second summer. The blooms open in evening and the scent is very nice, light, not over powering, just very pleasant.
No, we have pretty much zero humidity during the summer. So maybe I'll try misting it every day and see if it perks up a bit! They sell them at nurseries around here, so someone must have some luck with them!
I figured you were lucky enough to avoid the horrid hummidity- I know they like heat and full sun- I am generally heavy handed w/ fertilizer- nothing special, I am a mix and match sort of person. I have read that these guys don't care if you do or do not fertilize, but it couldn't hurt!
April
Maybe I'll try that too...I'm very lazy about fertilizing and end up doing it about half as often as you're supposed to! So far most of my plants don't seem to mind that much though!