Is there a good online source that I get get a nice bop from? I want the orange one so I can eventually see a bloom.
Thanks
maureen
p.s. is this an easy plant to overwinter indoors?
Bird of paradise - where can I buy (not the white one)
hope this helps: you probably mean Strelitzia reginae, the Bird of Paradise. The one you don't want is S. nicolai, the Giant Bird; both are used commonly here in Florida as landscape plants and are dramatically different in form. The small one has silver leaves and the giant has deeper green leaves about 8-10' long. I should point out that the white bird flower is lovely, too.
You can purchase them fairly small online. I've gotten one or two that way with good results. But expect to grow it a few years in a very sunny location before you'll have any chance at blooms. My grandmother grew one from seed and has had the plant almost 20 years without any blooms. I think she just had the wrong conditions (soil, water, sun). I brought back a small BOP from Hawai`i four years ago and it grew fairly quickly into a larger plant (mostly indoors in an apartment - or out on my balcony there). Last year when we moved into our house, I was about to give up I'd ever see blooms, so I put it out in the yard in full sun, back on the edge of the woods sunk in the ground a bit - watered it like I did everything else and hardly gave it another thought or any attention.
Come August when I was preparing to bring things in... I noticed a new "leaf" node. Turns out it was the first of two blooms - which wouldn't actually bloom until December. Since then, it put up 6 new bloom stalks, 5 of which will bloom - 4 are currently blooming.
I think the key was a lot of sun, good summer humidity, and a nice amount of water. But most importantly I didn't baby it... I almost neglected it if anything. I think it also enjoys being root bound. Once it starts blooming, it seemingly will keep going. Mine was in a garage all winter under a halide light, and it still kept the blooms coming.
It also wouldn't surprise me if you could find them at places like Home Depot over the summer. They're all over the place out here at places like that, and HD isn't exactly known for selling climate appropriate plants, so it wouldn't surprise me if you could find them at HD in colder climates during the summer as well. Most of the other tropicals like hibiscus and bougainvillea that I find at HD's out here I also remember finding at HD when I lived in Ohio, so it really wouldn't surprise me.
I see BOP at all the garden shops and HD, Lowes, WM every year. I buy the biggest one I can find as far as number of leaves are concerned and I plant them in the ground. They like any kind of soil (ours here is clay, clay, clay and more clay), fertilizer w/a low middle number, lots of sun - all day - and lots of water & don't mess w/them. When they have 5-7 leaves is when they will bloom. Trust me on this. Don't trim off ugly leaves or browned leaves - just leave them on. For some reason the number of leaves is important. Once it blooms it will keep on blooming thru frosts and freezes. Leave them alone!!!! When the clump gets very large or too large for you, try to divide them. This is not easy. I don't now what you call the roots -they are not regular roots and they are not bulbs as I know them but they are thick and really hard to divide and very dense. Heavy, too. Sometimes it is easier and cheaper to buy a new plant. I have grown quite a few of them and they love to be neglected.
Ann
You guys are lucky if you're finding Orange BOP's at the big box stores. For some reason all our local stores only carry the White BOP (Lowe's and HD especially stock them heavily). That's weird how they mix it up like that.
Hi everyone, thank you so much for this info. I did find a while bird at HD -- but I want to see flowers in my lifetime:-) so I want the orange BOP. I've never seen it at HD in NY, but I'll have to look closer the next time I'm shopping. I was hoping to get a decent size one on line somewhere.
You can get them from Hawai`i in 4" pots I believe. That's actually what mine was, and that was 2003 I believe. A lot of folks sell them that size on eBay too. You could probably even get a larger one on eBay if you're lucky. Not sure how soon you want to get one, but I can look for you when I'm in Hawai`i in a few weeks. I plan to ship a lot of cuttings and plants home. Can't promise I'll find anything larger than the 4" size, but I could look.
Gee, had no idea. While in Maui I purchased the seed packet. Still pampering same in the greenhouse. May have all just died before they even began.
Aloha
PK
The seeds would have taken you a while. I have had trouble confirming this, but I've read in some books that it can take up to 12 years for plants started as seeds to bloom. Others have said 6 or so, so in reality who knows. My grandmother swears she started hers as a seed, but I have no idea if she really did. She said my uncle brought it back from Hawai`i in the 70's when he was stationed there.
I was so happy when mine bloomed this year because she'd never seen one bloom - ever. It was rather ironic bc it bloomed on her 83rd Birthday. It was a nice surprise for her.
I would suggest that if you want an orange BOP and plan to go toward south TX -thru Victoria, Palacios and farther south or have a friend, relative, etc down there thoseBOPs are readily available everywhere. Unfortunately I don't recall the names of any of the nurseries down there where you can get them. In Houston, TX Garden Centers have them all the time. I have found them grouped in w/the "exotic" type plants in part sun, part shade but why in that area I don't know because they actually do so much better in full sun (but who can predict what some nurseries do to their stock.) They are NOT expensive - no more than $15 if that.Ann
I started mine from seed (Park seed) and it took 5 years or more for it to bloom. It is a very large plant. I also got the white BOP from HD as a Xmas gift. It became a real pain in the rear to move in and out with no promise of ever blooming with ripped ugly huge leaves so I left it outdoors for old man winter to claim a couple of years ago.
Maureenpm00, I include a picture of the birds of paradise that grow on autopilot in one of my beds. If you wish, I could dig a couple of them and mail you the rhizomes. Here in Southern Florida, they grow like weeds but I wonder how they would do in NY.
They need full tropical sunlight, no cold, quite a bit of water and they are not heavy feeders. Being quite "parental" of my plants, may I enquire as to how you would you care for them? They are absolutely not hardy.
Mine are 8 or 9 feet tall now. The patch is about 8 feet in diameter and they grow as tight as hair. They've been in the ground for a year now. I took them home from a friendly gardener's place as 6 rhizomes in a ziploc bag. I planted them about a week later and they've been doing their own thing all that time, blooming almost constantly.
Sylvain.
Your photo is of a Heliconia isn't it?
I believe she wants the orange BOP
Ok. You've convinced me. Going to give up on the seed. Taking up precious room right now. I won't live long enough for a bloom even if they did happen to germinate. Too many other things to enjoy. I will just continue to enjoy the pictures from those of you who have the proper conditions.
Your picture is lovely, Pu'ole.
Aloha,
PK
PK,
Did you file (nick) the seed covering? I had to do that to get it to germinate.
No, I didn't. Not much on the package.
I don't have the orange bird of paradise anymore. Somehow they wouldn't thrive here. It's always the same here: they take over the whole property or they waste away. The orange ones took over 6 months to fritter away while the other ones went to town. Such is life.
I am sorry for the mixup. In an effort to help a Northern gardener with tropical ambitions, I selflessly and (I believe) generously offered to mail some rhizomes, that's all. Maureen, you're still welcome to them if she should decide she wants to give them a try.
Christi and you too, Keonikale are welcome to some rhizomes if you'd like to try your hand with the heliconias pictured above. Just let me know. Aloha!
Pu'ole, AKA Sylvain.
Thank you, Sylvain. Will send d-mail.
Christi
Thanks Sylvain; sorry if I came across as snippy above - didn't mean it that way. How large do your heliconia usually have to be before you see any blooms like that? I've always been worried I'd never see blooms so long as they were potted. Course, I guess I figured the same for the BOP and it certainly surprised me.