Enormous Bird Of Paradise (Strelitzia) Plant

Loli, I bought (courtesy of my late father) my miniature/dwarf already in bloom. Dad died in 2006 and I paid 50 Euros then for it ... so, if you want to pay the price ... They only come up to my knees (the leaves) and I am 5'3" tall/short ... I am an 'instant' gardener like you and want to see things now so I pay the price.

The ones I have photographed above must be 25-30 feet tall as I am on a first-floor balcony (not good with heights of such things). Here is one many years ago (evidenced by the fact I have LoL on the photo) at one of the garden centres I frequent nearby (the largest GC on the Iberian Peninsula I might add) ... and it was then and is now still in a large plastic pot ...



I am working on a laptop at the moment using Ubuntu (of which I have no knowledge) as my desktop went asunder, so when I 'get going' again next week on my own new Notebook (using Ubuntu) I will photograph my 'babies' and put them up ... when I have figured out how to do it before they die ...

 

I grew mine from seed, which I started about 10 years ago. Today it is 15-20 feet tall:

Because of the strong winds in the Azores, the leaves get tattered. But the good news is that after saying year after year, maybe it will flower next year, it finally has its first bud. It is getting bigger and bigger, so soon my first flower.

 

Oh Wylie, which island are you on? T'other half and I wanted to buy on Faial ... love the place.

 

I live in Altares on Terceira. It's on the northwest section of the island where it is still very rural. I can see Sao Jorge and Graciosa from my backyard.

 

Lucky you ... it was Terceira where we saw this when we did a brief stopover ...



... oops, sorry for the bad photo with my old camera ...

 

Bilbo, Victoria and Wylie - lovely photos of S. nicolai. I saw one last year at Wisley for the first time - really impressive.


I was seriously tempted to get some seed of nicolai - then Kristen (many thanks) introduced me to a close relation - Ravenalla. However mine are slightly less impressive at 6 inches after a year than the one above.

 

Air Force radar plane. My first duty station was the US Navy E-2B carrier (USS Enterprise) radar plane. Are you in the Algarve?

 

Yes, near São Bartolomeu de Messines ... 20 minutes from the coast and 20 minutes from the mountains in the middle of 'orange country'. It smells heavenly at the moment with thousands of trees in bloom.

 

I have always thought it would be too hot in the summer there. Here it stays 27C and below.

 

We go into the high 30s but normally it's mid 30s because of the sea breezes. Currently we are 23-25c days.

@Lolimac, the BoP seeds should be on their way to you tomorrow, if my 'private courier' remembers to post them in the UK ...

 

You know that if the orange beard is attached to the seed, it should be gently remove before sowing as it will prevent germination. And be patient - it takes a while to get started.

 

Wylie, these are T&M ones bought in the UK and brought here and heaven only knows why my friend gave them to me last week when he went back to the UK ... I have fully grown blooming ones and have no intention whatsoever of doing them from seed ... again ... did that once 7-8 years ago and a friend is still waiting for them to bloom ...

It's 25.3c here at the moment ... Must go water the garden soon. Tomorrow we go to the beach for a special occasion lunch at my favourite Chinese, so looking forward to my crispy fried duck pancakes and vegetable chow mein, yum! Must remember to put new batteries in camera and take with me ...

@PeterS ... is that you in the photo?

 

We just don't have real garden centers here, so if I want anything different than the usual petunias or marigolds, I have to do it from seed. This year I started and planted around 250 daylily seeds, which will flower next year. Proteas are becoming popular. Regular Strelitzia regina are everywhere, but I wanted the big one, so I had to do it from seed. People think it is a banana, but I tell them that the only bananas in my yard are the ones that are visiting.

 

That's funny as t'other half (who is American, from Ohio but we met in Alabama) thought he bought me a Banana plant and turned out it was a S nicolai ... so he has named it the Banana of Paradise plant ...

Edit: Forgot to say (but completely off topic) but I ONLY buy Azorean butter and milk and sometimes the cheese for t'tother half (São Jorge) which is entirely too strong for me.

 

- I wish I could be so handsome. My Ravenalla is only 6 inches tall, so that would make me very short.