Migrating Bird

Hi all, we were all ok around here. The damage was awful but no people were hurt. Tops off buildings and trees down and barns destroyed and some trees on roof tops of houses but no one died, thank GOD. He was looking out for us. It moved over fast or there could have been more damage. These things can be replaced and fixed.
I'm enjoying the cooler temps. It went from 90's to 70 all of a sudden after the storm. This is good for me. Didn't do much for the pollen though. I got up to a yellow car and truck. I was hoping that would be gone for a bit but cooler temps. are good. I'll take that.

Duh, I forgot to send the picture of my BOP. That was why I posted, sorry. Here is my baby who made it through the zone 7 winter outside. I thought it did real well for my zone and being outside all winter. It has a spike where it was sprouting a new leaf on top.

You all definitely had someone watching over you to keep you safe. Glad to hear no one was hurt. You're right ... houses, cars ... even plants ... can be replaced, but not people.

Thanks for posting the picture. So was the leaf that is growing start when you covered it for winter, or is that new growth? I'm going to have to try this with perhaps with one or two of my birds. They're probably going to be pot bound soon anyway, and I have a place where I'm taking up a smaller pond I have and will need to back-fill anyway. Might be a good protected spot for it in terms of wind. Is your's in full sun, or part?

I cut it back when I mulched over it and it started sprouting out the top during the winter. It is in full sun. I think wrapping it in newspaper helped and covering with mulch to hold on the papers. It was warm enough to keep growing under the covers. The top leaf is darker but looks moist and in good shape. Not dead looking. There was also a baby growing beside it but I haven't uncovered it yet to see if it made it. There is still 6 inches more of mulch over it right now. Didn't want to risk it if we get another frost and I forget to cover it. We usually get another frost around the middle of April when peaches are in bloom but this year it was hotter and they already bloomed. So I'm a little worried about uncovering it all the way down just yet.

Gotcha. Thanks so much for sharing your experience with this. I'd love to try mine in the ground and have some full-sun spots to work with. Think I'll wait a couple more weeks before I put them there though, just to be safe. For now, if need be, I can truck 'em back into the GH.

Hi tropicman, I met you when I was in Wichita working, Debra brought me over to see all your beautiful greenhouses and plants. I also have a bird of paradise like yours, I have had these for at least 20 years.....since I am in about the same zone as you I thought I would tell you mine only bloom in the early winter after I bring them in from the outdoors.....go figure....

All summer long they grow and grow and stay beautiful green, but only have blooms sometimes after Thanksgiving......

Well, it's May and no other frosts came so I uncovered the rest of my white BOP and found the baby one. It is a lighter shade of green and so healthy but the tip of the big one which popped through the top during winter turned dead and came off but the whole plant is still growing and doing great. Definately still in good shape. I also found my dark burgandy festival grass which I was told wouldn't over winter out here either sprouting back up and just as shiny and dark and more beautiful than before. SO lots of mulch and good paper wraps do the job. We had the worst winter than we had had in I forgot how many winters, the weather people said, and they survived just fine. The tropical vines in my greenhouse however didn't. The power outage while in the teens for a week or more was just too much. Next year, gonna keep those in the house and the ones outside will just get a great mulch make over.

In some warped since we are lucky in the colder zones because we know it is going to get cold and stay that way. Winter was horrible for you folks in the south, I would hate to lose plants.....

Well, I'm always zone pushing as the kinds of plants that just grab me are mostly tropical and it's just my little paradise because I'll never get to travel and see the whole big world of beauty and just can't help myself. Just got to give the right kind of care when you do this.

Mekos wanted me to come over and post about our round-up we are planning. I am new to this forum, bu hope you don't mind me popping in to visit and let this link for Mekos.
http://cubits.org/CharleyTheBigRedMule/thread/view/20356/
We are so looking forward to this round-up, hope to see you all there. I'll come back and visit fi you don't mind too.
Thank you.
Ridesredmule
Charleen

Thanks RRM. If anyone is in or around the SC-Ga. area and would like to come, we're planning it in Augusta Ga. for September 25th. It's gonna be in a nice park with covered areas and water and bathrooms and a neutral place for all of us planning it. I'm going to bring some seeds and plants and hope to see some of you there. We can talk turkey and gardens too.

Yes Hap,I remember!
Same here,mine bloom right before or after Xmas time.
I finally have everything out and planted this year,now if things would just grow fast enough to please me!!!! LOL
Charlene everyone is more than welcome to chime in here,we welcome are gardening folks!

I beleive I fit!! Ask Mekos. but i don't have a bird of Paradise. but i can talk other things. i beleive we have talked before Tropicman.
Thank you for the warm welcome.

Tropicman, wish I could say the same about having everything planted. You are a zone warmer than me, but I am still getting in the low 40's. Does everything do ok for you if it gets that cool? I haven't put out the ee's or tropical hibisicus yet. Took the brugs out already. Coleus I am still waiting on also. You have been very busy...LOL

Was busy in the garden until thunder started and raining to way south of me....I am a little paranoid of thunder since lightening struck a little too close one time when I was on the porch.... :D

thatis enough to make you scared. Don't mess with lightening. Stay away from Screen doors too..

Honestly I never took it seriously until then. There was a rain storm going on but nothing major....I stepped out of the door to feed the dog who I can never get to come inside, as I was pouring food, lightening hit and I felt weird and jumped so hard I almost fell in the door along with the dog.....the dog and I both have a new found respect for lightening. He wants in and I stay in....LOL
I felt weird for about 2 hours after that happened. New respect....

Oh MY! That was close. We had a neighbor once that got hit by lightning and everytime he went out if a storm was close he got hit again.Did it three times before he started staying in if stormy weather was forcast wheather it was close or not. He almost died 3 times. Blew off his toe the last time. He moved after that so not sure what ever happened to him after then. Weird. Doctors were baffeled as to why.

Don, I also have everything out and going, I wish I could actually see a banana this year. It is in full sun, the one you gave me, is that okay?

Hi Debra! Is our season long enough for bananas to be produced?

welll, Don gets bananas...

Yep full sun
Plants can take a little cool weather,as long as it warms up in the day.
My plants saw 39* for a couple hours,and I couldn't tell it hurt them at all,it warmed up into the 50's later in the day.
Not sure they could take a frost though!
I also place plastic on the ground over the beds in early march to warm the soil up quickly.for about 3 to 4 weeks before I plant.

Wowzer guys, I did not think we could get bananas, I am zone 5a but we don't have that much difference in weather than I can see. Debra glad you posted that, I just never would of thought.....I don't have mine in the ground. How hard are they to dig up?

Oh Debra, how exciting I hope you get fresh bananas, that is so cool!

It usually takes about 3 summers of planting and digging back up to get bananas,I have done it in 2 summers.
Pink bananas you can get in one summer most of the time,but they are not edible.

Tropicman, if you know anything about ee's I posted a please id. Would you look at it and see if you can figure out which ee it is I have. One person did responde, I would just like a second opp.

Bump.

I see some faces I recognize from other forums. Helloooo. :)

A fellow DG'r sent me a clump of S. reginae this spring. He lives in TX. He dug it up from the mother plant. There appeared to be about 3 pups there all together. It had no roots and the way he shipped it made me fear that it would rot.

The leaves had all curled up, and it looked very stressed out. i put it in a relatively small clay pot, considering. I think it was 8'-10'. I just wanted it to sit on top of the soil without much water so it could dry out and root if possible.

Well it did (thank GOD - I felt bad it cost him over $40 to ship!!!). I had new growth over the summer in part to full sun. The new growth also appears to be curled (the leaves) but the thing was root bound (!) so it's now in a maybe 12"-15". Same thing - I just took the plant and all those beautiful roots and didn't disturb the roots at all. It's doing just fine outside and gets part sun now. Leaves still curled though.

I'd read conflicting information earlier. Now I'm reading this whole thread from the EXPERTS and wonder if Tropicman ever got his white BOP to bloom and whether the lady in Raleigh got hers to grow overwinter in my zone?

In any event, I will likely bring mine in overwinter. The question is about temperature. I've read they want bright/full sun in winter, though I see several comments here that suggest a compact fluorescent or LED might be just as good. What about overwinter temperature? The brightest room in the house happens to be occupied by my green iguana. It can get up to 80-90 degrees in winter at upwards of 50% humidity. I made the mistake one year of putting my orange tree in there till I found that it wanted cool temps. Didn't panic till all the leaves started to fall. H ah a.

I read that it's a water hog. I read that it wants a lot of fertilizer to bloom. Anyway. I'm all ears and eyes.

If there's a new thread on BOP somewhere please direct me to read it. I'm a novice but also in love with the flower and have wanted one for years.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

~Amanda

This message was edited Oct 27, 2012 5:04 PM

yes, he did, and somewhere I have a picture of it.. I know he also posted it on facebook. it was beautiful and took 18 years to bloom.. he has since moved to texas.

Well hey, Debra. It must be worth the wait.

Still need help!!! :)

Mine has never bloomed. I guess I don't give it enough water. It's neglected!

I know someone in the propagation forum who has the white BOP and it blooms all the time. Pretty different from the orange variety I'd say.

I had been telling people I wanted the BOP and I kept getting weird seeds - you know how common names of plants are . . .. I think one turned out to be the pride of barbados. POB. Ha ha. That's another tropical I need help with. Grew them from seed, gave a few away and kept one. It's about 10" tall. I just brought it inside for the winter. It may need transplanting.

My orange one blooms every winter my white has never bloomed but never read up on why not. My white and orange both go in the solar room and get full sun when the sun shines here in the winter. In the summer I keep it in part shade because we have horrible hot summers. But don't follow what I do because mine has never bloomed but has big healthy leaves.

Well if your orange Strelizia blooms every winter then that's what I need to know.

That's the plant I have, not the white BOP.

Solar room/full sun.

What about temperature?

Humidity?

Do you water it/feed it?

It'll be my first winter with it so i have absolutely no clue.

thanks.

A.

Amanda, glad to hear you have the orange BoP not the white one. The orange ones will bloom nicely in a pot once they get really good and crowded. Yes, you need to give it as much sun as you can, but they do well with dry spells here in the spring and fall. Lots of water and heat in the summer, so outdoors where you are, full sun and lots of water and fert. They'll eventually fill a really big pot, of course. But let them get crowded before you pot up or they'll not bloom until the plant is huge.

With any of these tropicals, you just have to think about where they grow as natives, and try to give them as close to those conditions as you can. They grow in full sun in the ground here, in huge clumps. the bigger and more crowded the clump, the better they bloom. In winter they have variable weather, from lows in the 30's to highs in the 80's. I wouldn't feed and water them more than what they'd get in nature - probably water weekly, fertilize monthly on the light side through winter. Increase when you move it outside in late spring.

Don ( Tropicman) sent me the pics since I couldn't find them..

Ha ha 18 years is a long time to carry a plant around . . ...

Dyzzy - thanks for the info. I guess the room I would put it in with the most light gets pretty warm and would be more humid than the rest of the house.

I suppose I will just start it in there and see how it acts.

Any thoughts on leaf curl? Not like the leaves are very malleable so once they curl, they don't unfurl.

Thanks again - I won't expect this girl to bloom this year. Might have I suppose if I'd left it in the pot I initially had it in all summer.

A.

Mine curl up their leaves when the weather gets dry. They might smooth out when you get it inside in your humid room with the iguana. We'd love to see a picture of that!

As long as you have good drainage in the pot, there's really no fear of overwatering it if it's in warm conditions, so try watering it generously with warm-ish water for a few days after you bring it inside. The leaves may plump up and flatten out. These are not desert plants. Lots of tropicals furl their leaves to conserve moisture - my gingers do that, too.

I was commenting to Deb that I really think the white BoP's are not good pot plants. I have 4 huge clumps of them taking up a lot of room in my garden, and even though I cut out the tallest trunks each spring, by this time of year they're up there tangling in the power lines, and the trunks are 6in. thick. They like lots of water, lots of sun, and unless you have a sunny 3-story atrium, and a football team or a forklift at your disposal you're very quickly going to not be able to house or move the thing. It's also going to take you 18 years to see a flower . . . so if somebody offers you a pup, say 'no thanks' and run!

Elaine

Amanda, funny mine have never bloomed in the summer but usually between November and January I will get blooms from my orange bird in the solar room. My room is not overly humid altho this year I am overwintering some pond plants in a big tub so that is helping with the humidity. Mine is very pot bound, and I am not good at fertilizing which I know I should. I am on well water and maybe there is enough left over fertilizer from the farmers I don't need to....rofl, scary thought. They do take more water, in fact it and my big white I do not have drainage holes in the bottom of those pots. Well kind of sad to hear the white won't ever bloom but I love it for its leaf anyway. I have it in a huge pot and I have a 55 gal drum roller to move it around that I picked up at a car swap meet. The guy who sold it to be for 15.00 asked if I knew what it was, he said it was to haul 55 gallon drums of oil and stuff, told him nope it is to haul really large tropicals in and out....he just shook his head....rofl
Would love to see tropicmans place since he moved south, I was lucky enough that Debra took me by his place in Wichita and I got to meet him and it was amazing! I thought I had a lot of tropicals but I have nothing compared to him.
Bestus of luck.

here you go Happ!

And

O geez. I just realized by logging into DG just now that the darned plant is still outside in this crazy weather. It'll be the coolest it's been overnight - 40 degrees tonight with chance of snow/icy rain in the morning. I guess I should get out there before I get too comfy. We've got some high winds and light rain/sprinkles, but no where near being impacted like they are farther up the coast.

Thanks for the advice. the plant has been outside all summer. I'm pleased that she grew such nice roots. I'll let her sit by the back door where it's cool so the shock of coming in isnt' so great. Not high heat in the house, it's nice and big and old and drafty. Ha ha. Still, we have it around 65 deg. Wonder if I throw a plastic bag over it if it will warm up more gradually. -sigh-

How did I forget that plant! I also have 3 tropical hibiscus out there on the side of the house.

Will keep you posted. This is one plant that Rita, my 4' long green iguana, may not be fat enough to crush or knock down. ;)

A.

ha ha - never did hit the "send" button. Plant is in the house. Temp didn't get down much past 40 overnight.

Crosspost with TropicMan - nice setup! Especially for your birds . I'm excited to have this plant. Thanks Elaine for the words of advice. ha ha

This message was edited Oct 30, 2012 10:19 AM

Why hi there tropicman! Really a nice setup to say the least and the 'real' birds how great is that. Hope everything is going good for you..... let's see you probably have 100 tropicals to my 1 ratio....rofl. Course compared to my friends I look like I have a lot and when it comes to watering it feels like a lot. Gonna have to look at those pictures closer tonight and see all the wonderful plants you have.

Amanda I hate that when I am all comfee and warm and I realize I have to go rescue something I have forgotten in the elements...especially if I have taken a bath and in pj's, then stomping around out there I really wonder how nuts I am.. ;)