Birds of Paradise

My leaves of my BoPs are all curved inward, lengthwise just like the new ones opening. They are in a pot and are watered daily. Is this normal - I don't recall seeing others around the place like this?

 

Well I usually put it down to dryness, but if your watering well then it cant be.
Just a thought, but I have trouble keeping up with the watering in summer over here so I bet you do there. Are you sure the water is going right down, I usually water large pots once and then go back and water a second time in half an hour or so.

 

Good idea, I'll try that, especially since it's a clay pot. Many thanks.

 

Bird of Paradise or Strelitzias are the national flowersof Madeira. These were at a market in Funchal

 

Fantastic wild flowers Hornbeam :D
Its not native though, is it?

 

Here's where I get techno ... native to South Africa. Introduced to Europe in 1773 bound for the Royal Botantical Gardens of King George III. Named after the King's wife, Queen (reginea in Latin) Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

However, in saying all that, I may agree with Hornbean that they have been adopted as the national flower of Madeira and they are listed in my book of the Plants and Flowers of Madeira (and Portugal).

PS Lovely grouping!


All this technical stuff is too much for me, so time for a cup of tea and bed!

 

Interesting L of L and thanks. Madeira is a great place for plants and the botanic garden in Funchal is totally mind blowing.

 

One of my, must go there one day places, along with about 50 others.
Thank for the info L of L

 

T'other half just came home with a nice BoP, the S nicolai, the Bird of Paradise tree with white flowers! It has banana-like leaves and can grow to 30 feet :eek: , the leaves can be 8 feet long :eek: and the entire bird can be as large as 7 inches high and 18 inches long :eek: with a blue/black body, white sepals and a bluish-purple tonque! It blooms in the Spring. As it's in a 30cm pot, I don't think it will attain those statistics!

My S regina appears to have four birds emerging now as it's winter flowering here. I'm really excited about the new one and hope we may have some big birds this coming Spring! :rolleyes:

I've also discovered there's a black S nicolai ... hmmmm!

[ 18. August 2006, 06:01 PM: Message edited by: Lady of Leisure ]

 

There's some splendid S. nicolai (I presume) in Kew gardens. Huge things, very Banana Man to my eyes

 

I've seen them growing and they are really impessive, do you think they are going to do well in a pot?
Come on dig out some of that rock you have and give it a good planting hole. :D

 

No, Pete, the info I have says they can do really well in pots ... so I'll try at least! If all else fails, I'll get the pick axe out .. whach this space! :rolleyes:

 

My reginae make masses of root so I hate to think what one of those will do. :D

 

All the info says "blooms best when potbound"! Me and t'other half say how the hell can they be "potbound" in the ground as we see them here .. same thing for Agapanthas! This pot was more than potbound ... bursting the bucket so to speak!

... and only God knows where "whach" this space" comes from ... :eek:

 

I think you'd do better to plant it out. S. nicolai is a very large growing species that really needs a lot of root room. It can be kept constrained to a large container for a while (around 100cm. not 30cm.!), but really needs to get its roots down so it can show its full potential.

You need to wait another year or so for that LOL. The 'trunks' grow to at least 2.5m. excluding the leaves before flowering commences and more commonly it flowers at around 3-4m. It will flower for you and should do extremely well in S. Portugal, but if it's in a 30cm. pot, it won't be quite large enough just yet

It's all down to common names. Strelitzia nicolai is variously known as 'Great White Bird of Paradise' on account of its white petals, or 'Black Bird of Paradise' on account of the very dark, almost blackish violet-purple colouring of the spathe, from which the petals emerge.