i planted a strelitzia reginae outside as an experiment this spring, and i have noticed that it's leaves are shrinking, as well as the stems. is this a result of being planted, or is it getting ready to flower?
Strelitzia
it sounds like it is either too dry or it is in shock still from the tranplanting.
oh dadgum it i as hoping it was fixin to bloom. we planted it above a leaky irrigation line, so it shouldn't be lack of water...
Maybe it is too much water then, mine get by without much extra water. I have them in pots and they seem to be able to get pretty dry without suffering any ill effects so if it's by a drippy irrigation line that may be too much for it.
maybe... how do you recomend getting it dried up w/o digging the plant up?
Fixing the leaky irrigation line seems like the logical thing to me, hopefully if the area's reasonably sunny and your temperatures are reasonably warm the area should dry up fairly quickly after you remove the water source. Otherwise if you can't fix the irrigation or if the area doesn't dry out quickly, then there's really nothing else to do besides dig up the plant.
Is strelitzia hardy in SC? I know they have tremendous roots but I always bring mine indoors for winter. I let my white BOP outside because it was a pain in the rear to move and I knew it would never bloom in a pot so sayonora.
Here is my strelitzia reginae when I trimmed the roots 3 years ago. I sure would hate to dig this out of the ground after it got settled in.
Strelitzia reginae is only listed in PF as hardy to zone 10, but here in 9b there are plenty of people who grow them outdoors, and I had one in a pot that came through our extreme cold snap this winter just fine (a couple weeks of nighttime lows hitting 18-20F), so I would think planted in the ground in 9a it would probably be OK. The white one S. nicolai is a bit less hardy.
yes it is hardy near the coastthere is one on hilton head island that was blooming in feb. unprotected, and there are many s. nicolais that are on Hilton Head. one bloomed this spring at the Crowne Plaza in Shipyard plantation
may 12 07
this is how close it is to the wall
february flowers... i was shocked
another angle
ardesia had one bloom in her neighborhood on neighboring saint helena island
I never knew SC had any zone 9 areas (most maps show zone 8a and 8b along the coast). I went to my daughter's graduation from Marine boot camp on Parris Island in Feb over 10 years ago and it was so bitter cold (teens) that they had the ceremonies indoors (a rare event they said). But then I've seen huge agaves growing on the putt-putt golf courses in Myrtle Beach (but then PDN claims they are hardy in Raleigh, NC too). We get in the 20's here overnight for a week or two at a time and it killed the S. nicolai in a huge glazed pot (good riddance to it).
yeah we grow queen palms and things like that... even some hawaiian ti's can grow here. i never go by the usda maps... they are out of date. we do have some real cold days though... i think it may be global warming?....