Strelitzia juncea

The short answer is no, I cover it up.

Its been there for about 6 yrs now, I erect a very poor timber frame around it each year and it gets covered with a couple of blankets on cold nights.

Sal, even this year, the rain is not a problem, they just need to be frost free.

 

Pete,
I would have thought they need a few degrees above freezing.
But yours is proof that they can take the cold!

 

Ive just bought one today,its huge!,she told me her parents grew them for yrs in the garden(belper derbyshire),she told me to keep it contained as her dad had to get a jcb to dig some of theirs out when it spread
Ive done some googling,its says repot when the plant is bulging out of its pot but it will only flower when its roots are about pot bound so how does this affect the flowering if you plant it out,do i have to wait yrs for more flowers? thanks x

 

Who did you buy it off Julie?
They wont survive unless you are prepared to keep them frost free.
Its not easy once planted out.

Planted out they grow much better without root restriction.
In my opinion the old pot bound "thing" goes back to forcing flowers on seedling plants as early as possible, you do get flowers that way, but they are usually sparse, and not very big.

They are not fast growing in the UK, so you must expect to wait a year or so for flowers.

 

I got it on alfreton indoor market pete £65,it did have a flower on till it met the back door,she told me there were 3 varities of strelitzia and this one was hardy so i jumped for joy and got it i dont mind a couple of yrs for more flowers when planted out but i want to at least take a photo this yr before i do

 

Its a good plant but........
I think she told you a fib.


Or possibly a down right lie.

 

I was hoping it was the hardy version, hang on.. do you think i bought juncea?i got caught up in the last posts so with her saying this one can be planted and your other one is sorry

 

As far as I know there is no hardy version.
Otherwise every front garden would have a clump.
You will be hard pressed to find it growing unprotected outside of the Med region.
As far as I know juncea is not hardy either, just takes up less space when grown in a pot.

 

I will protect it from frost but your is living proof to me its hardy or stands a good chance, 6yrs in the ground,brilliant pete how many plants more hardy died in 2010,i lost a few

 

Dont be fooled Julie.
Its not hardy, I protect it religiously all winter.
One missed night and it would be wiped out.
It can become an obsession, so be warned.

 

Darn,you made it sound quite easy,she didnt even tell me to protect it from frost!,i will throw all the protection i can at it pete and hope every winter it makes it through like the others i will be planting out this spring,cant wait ..hope we get a good summer display x

 

Can you have it in a large pot, plunge the pot in the border outside during the summer, and bring it under cover in the Winter? or at least on cold nights? (for which a dark, but frost free, garage would do - doesn't need a conservatory if you are prepared to lug it in and out depends on the winter weather. It will be happy in the dark during a week of Siberian weather ... so long as it gets to go outside some percentage of the winter.

Conservatory / frost free greenhouse would be better of course.

 

Pete - thats a wonderful sight. I just bought quite a large one yesterday - £32 (its the most I have ever paid for a plant !). There are 4 big parts and I was told it should flower this year.

Though its not as impressive as yours Jools.

 

Thats a bargain pete ive put mine in the greenhouse and i got another flower this morning ,fingers crossed for a few more x

 

Yesterday I saw a big strelitzia , for £24 I would say that it`s already flowering size , look like your Pete silver leave , the one I got it`s completely different big green leaves . .
I`m tempted to try your sistem , with a twist ....I`ve noticed that the other strelizia
didn`t suffer at all to be dry for the last 4 months in the greenhouse and didn`t suffer the cold temperature of the unheated greenhouse.