My Orange Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae) got caught out in a frost. They're damaged pretty badly.
Can they recover from this? Anybody have any tips?
Steve
Frost Damage
How unfortunate....I hate winter! I would cut off all the entirely dead leaves. Leave the ones with some green on them, keep them from any stress (drying out ) and put in a place where they get a little bit of shade until you start to see new growth-then lightly fert and move back into full sun-if that is where you had them before.
My large one was hit with a hard freeze and is starting to send out new leaves. Yours should survive.
Thanks, all. It's a relief. I thought that they took a long time to grow foliage, and that they might be goners.
I'll get them into the shade, and make sure they stay moist.
Steve
Steve,Did you slip them out of the pot just to take a look at the roots and see if they look healthy.If they show any new growth on the hair roots I'd put my money on recovery.They produce such deep root systems it would have been a real hard freeze to do it in.Jusy my two cents Don
Don,
I'll take a look at them. The frost wan't a deep one, and just about all my other plants are recovering from it.
Somebody advised me to cut the damaged foliage away - on some of the Birds, it would leave no foliage at all. Think they can still recover?
Steve
I think i can hear them screaming "ouch it burns .... it burns!" hehehe
Poor little plants
Mike
I'd wait and if the roots have those little white hairs still I bet after a few of those afternoons of 80's that will be right around the corner you'll see some new growth popping through.Are your Brugs showing any new growth?I gotta think birds are alot tougher than brugs but much slower growers .Feel the leaves on the birds that got bit and if they are crinkley to the squeeze I'd leave them.If they are not dried out yet I'd probably just snipe of the black stuff. Are you still going to the round up?
Don,
The Brugs got hit hard. The branches and stalks are damaged, and the only new growth is at the base of the plants. The bark on the stalks looks damaged, and it doesn't appear as though they'll recover. I think I can cut them back to the ground, and start again. I'm going to wait a bit, and see if I get any new growth on the branches.
I looked at the roots on the Birds and I think they're OK. They're white, and some of them look like tubers.
Some of the leaves are brown and crinkly - no green to them at all. Nothing turned black, but some of the foliage is definitely dead. A couple of the smaller plants don't show any green in any of the leaves at all.
Don't know yet if I'm going to be able to make the RU - I'd like to, but something else came up.
Steve