Well, I have made the resolution to NOT cut any more dead leaves off, no matter how scruffy it looks. I hope to see blooms before I die.............LOL (and I ain't a kid anymore.....)
Giant White Bird of Paradise-Do they EVER bloom?
LOL..I hear ya...
Mine just sprouted a new leaf, and the whole plant is enormous. It has the required amount of leaves for sprouting..so I'm hoping before the weather goes south it does something.
It's july and I'm dreading winter already...hmmm
HAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ya oughta live where it is COLD.................I am so not looking forward to 20 below zero weather, snow, blowing, sleet, etc. etc. etc............
Glad to know there are so many of you guys out there!!!!
Since I posted this question on the forum, have had three new leaf growths on mine,
Managed to keep my DH away from it!!!! LOL!!
Still no blooms, but have hope now.
Has now grown past the roof of the house so guess it's doing pretty good.
Anna-Z,
Spent 8 years in Wisconsin, 5 in Michigan, & another 8 in New York, Don't Miss It!!!!
Miss the scenery up there but can't handle the cold any-more! I loved to see the snow when it first fell, it was one of the prettiest sights I have ever seen!!!!
Don't miss the 20 below cold, wind chills to 18 below, so forth & so forth!!!!
arrgh...guess I won't complain about cold...gross..20 below...I have issues at 30F.
My BOP is shoving out another leaf--- right after the newest one..It is really liking this hot 99F weather I think.
Have often said "didn't move far enough south!", but wouln't have met the love of my life if I had!!!!
There are some winters that we get down in the 30's with a wind chill in the teens, but have been pretty fortunate the last couple of years!
My BOP is sending out new leaves like crazy since I stopped my DH from trimming them off. Never seen it look so good.
Maybe one of these days I will see a flower!!!!!
Yeah..same here...winters get to about 33F, although I'm fortuneate to live in an area that is 2 to 3 degrees warmer (near downtown) - has micro climate- I live in an old pecan grove..huge pecan and oak trees keep my garden in the lucky zone...Have Papaya trees, australian fern tree...in fact...the BOP and Fern tree aka LaFern and Shirley ..lol are on a collision course as I hadn't expected success on the fern.
BOP is loving this heat...we are 95-99F every day...getting very dry!
There is only ONE redeeming thing about the cold weather we have here..........it kills all the flies and noxious "wildlife" that creeps around on 6 legs. I HATE FLIES..........LOL
I'd say mosquitos...but..I've lived in Alaska...and the cold there doesn't kill them, hence no redeeming value...lol
It's been raining here almost every afternoon so "The Florida State Birds" are flourishing!!!! (MOSQUITOS) LOL!!!!
Hasn't been cold enough here for the last few years to knock them back. Also have a really bad problem with fleas when the weather doesn't get cold enough or stay that way long enough to kill them.
Not complaining as it also hasn't gotten cold enough for me to loose some of my tropicals & can always battle the bugs!
lol...like I said...the permafrost in Alaska doesn't kill the mosquitos...I have to say I'd never have thought that the two months of warm weather would be plagued with mosquitos...but truthfully, I've never seen them worse than in Alaska..clouds of them..smack, swatt.....RUN!
Would not have thought that the pesky little critters would be a problem in Alaska!!!!!
Knew that when I lived up north in Mich. & Wis.,they didn't seem to disappear.
Does seem to help when the winters get cold enough down here---they don't seem to be quite as bad!!
After the Hurricane, I moved the BOP as it had gone down with the fence. I'm not sure if this is a bloom starting, but it's never grown anything around the area this is coming from...this tree is about 8 years old now and around 17-18 ft tall.
It's just emerging..here are some picts.
First the full tree
Next, the emerging whatever
and location is near bottom left, where that old frond was. I've never seen leaves come out anywhere except the newest leaf at the top, or runners at the bottom.
So what do guys think?
Rj
I bet you think there's no picture...! here it is, almost bottom left,
That's a nice BOP! Looks to me that the shoot comming out from the side could be another plant offshoot, have seen it happen to the larger ones down south.
Had a real nasty winter this year which froze back most of the older leaves on mine. Didn't have much choice but to cut them off so am only down to about two again----guess at this rate, I'll never see it bloom!!!!
One good thing though----have lots of offshoots growing around the base!
so, RJ, did you move yours to full sun? Mine is in part sun, inground. I don't have hopes for it blooming but I like the tropical foliage and I'm not moving it. Gets a little winter rattiness but that's all. I bought it years ago as a "desk plant" and now it is 6 ft tall. ha ha, desk plant.
I probably should repot mine, the pot is pretty small and can't be much dirt in it. Or, maybe I should just add some more potting mix.
Oh, I so bet that's a bloom, it's too far up to be a shoot!
rj, et al, I just came upon this thread today and it is pretty old, I'd say.
Dean: on 5/15/08 you asked what my zone was. It is 8b. If you look closely at the "map" you'll see that the zone line kind of meanders thru Houston and environs.
Lellie: on 7/15/08 you sent a picture of your BOP and it appears to me that it is planted much too deep. This was #5263556 (if my eyes aren't deceiving me).
Since the postings of '08 we have been thru some rough weather but the hurricanes missed us as we seem to be too far west, thank goodness but we did get some cold weather below freezing. My BOP came thru the weather with no harm and has since put out 5 buds. I had it moved a few weeks ago from a big pot to its permanent home near the front door and in doing so I removed the ugly foliage. Now I have to wait until it grows more foliage before it will bloom again, I know. I fertilize and water it just as if it was any other shrub - no really special treatment but I DO NOT put any sort of super bloom (hi mid no.) on it as it is a tropical like a bougainvillea and needs hibiscus-type food. Full sun most of the day.
I had often wondered if the white BOPs ever bloomed because all the pictures from Florida (for instance) show the big plants but no blooms and when I asked if their whites bloomed I was assured that they did only they had never seen one that did outside a horticultural center or whatever. Maybe this is kind of like the so called Century Plant which many thought only bloomed after the plants were 100 years old. Of course that's a myth but it is true that the mother plant does die after blooming but hopefully after having "pups" at the base.
rj, I hesitate to try to give such a guru as you advice but I would recommend that you give that BOP a good dose of Epsom Salts and a really big dose of hibiscus food and then water it well, I also water my orange/blue one very well. You will be surprised at the growth rate of your BOP. MY experience is that the flower buds come up looking like a leaf bud and then dramatically change so you no longer wonder if it is a leaf or flower. I don't know where the leaf and bloom buds come from on the white but I'm sure you know where the leaf buds come on your plant. I would look for bloom buds in the same area. I used to have to wait until July for my blooms to come until I began feeding it so well and now they are in bloom all year long.
Ann
This message was edited Mar 26, 2009 11:03 AM
Thanks, Ann, and everyone..I'm thinking it may be a leaf..it doesn't resemble the blooms, but then not much about this BOP resembles the usual giants...Dave in Hawaii in fact thinks it is an African BOP called Strelitzia caudata that have more banana like leaves. It stands to reason that it may be a leaf as the position of the plant is askew from re-positioning and the top leaves where the new one usually emerges is far off to the left now.
Vosnner it does have more full sun, although this bird doesn't like the full sun. The first two years I had it in a pot so I could move it around and it did not do well in full sun, always had to move it back to half sun.
this is picture of it in 06..notice how banana like the leaves are compared to the usual bop leaves which usually stand up.
mine is hidden in this mess. Good heavens, I need to clear the winter rattiness in that area.
Yes, Randy's plant looks like Strelitzia nicolai (as seen below) but with longer leaves = Strelitzia caudata.
I hope that's a bloom coming out..9 years...it sure is tall though..
rjuddharrison,
Have to agree---totally different plant. Looks more like a banana tree than a BOP, but am not an expert. Not saying it's a banana---just resembles one.
Have seen many BOP's down south, but none like yours! Would love to find out exactly what it is & see the bloom!
Not an expert, but they say there are so many different varieties of plants that we could never possibly identify them all. (i.e.) 14000 varieties of hostas!!!
Just a for-intance, but there are people that do nothing but change the DNA of plants every day to make something else. (Don't know if I woorded that right---but you get my drift!)
"All a weed is----an unwanted plant!"
It's definately a bird of some sort and am agreeing with David after reading about them that Strelitzia caudata is on the right track. I think I'll get my ladder out and see how that bloom is doing!