When I buy a 5 gallon plant from a mass merchandiser, I have noted they are almost always VERY root bound. If I am not ready to plant right into the garden I water it everyday as the pot full of roots will not hold water. Al

This is not the easiest plant to grow. Sensitive to incorrect irrigation, plus they often end up with a disease called "Black Ink" that makes them really ugly then kills them. I used to think it was me, but then I noticed all the ones in people's yards around here die pretty quick. Some carefully tended ones, too, by more expert Australian plant gardeners than I, also are all dead.

Too bad, such a gorgeous plant. I love them.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a row of the most beautiful yellowish kangaroo paws thriving right next to the tracks in the median of 19th street in San Francisco (where you come off of 280 and turn left onto 19th to go toward Golden Gate Park.) Whatever those gardeners are doing is an amazing success!

I have a kangaroo paw which I planted about 1-1/2 years ago. I have had no problems with it other than black leaf tips - I was concerned it was the famous "Inkspot" disease but I guess not as it is still alive. It had a few flowers when I bought it but this year had a lot more. I don't think you are supposed to water it much - in the summer I water it for about 2 mins daily using a single dripper (I think 0.5 gpm). During the winter I turn off irrigation as the rain gegerally keeps the ground wet enough unless we have a long dry spell in the winter.

It is hard to know what is going on with your plant. You say you water twice a week - for how long and what is the total amount of water supplied. If you have clay soil and poor drainage you may have drowned it.

I would suggest doing a moisture and soil test to see if everthing is okay.

this is definitely a plant that does not like clay soils... amend soil well and water well.. it is a tricky one, but if soil is right, and you water it well, it will do well once established (that 'establishment' phase is what I struggle with)

A 5 gallon nursery can with crammed roots in a south facing spot and only getting handwatered twice a week; you killed it from lack of water, plain and simple. I agree that Kangaroo Paws can be temperamental to grow with regard to drainage and proper watering, but the Anigozanthus flavidus cultivars are among the easiest to grow. Do amend the soils for good drainage, give it full sun and good air circulation and avoid overhead spray on the foliage if you want to minimize the Ink Spot disease, and regularly prune off infected foliage to the ground, especially if it isn't getting full sun and/or good air circulation. I have found that some species/cultivars of Anigozanthus are much more tolerant of clay soils than others, and any of the A. flavidus cultivars are fairly tolerant of clay, as well as it is sloped or amended slightly so that it doesn't stay saturated. Not a good candidate for planting where it gets constant overhead spray irrigation which in combination with too little full sun can lead to the fungal disease. While this plant is rather drought tolerant in the ground once it is established, as a container plant in its original size container from the nursery, twice a week watering in full hot sun just isn't enough, and you cooked it.

Get another one now that it has cooled down, get it into the ground in full sun with good drainage, and the twice a week watering regimen will probably work just fine. If you prefer to keep it in a container, buy a smaller one gallon, repot into a larger 5 gallon container, and hook it up to an automatic drip irrigation system so that it gets a little bit every or every other day, or keep an eye on the plant so that it doesn't ever go bone dry between waterings.

Sorry did not read the OP carefully. If it has not been transplanted then the only issue could have been watering

I cannot grow kangaroo paws. When I was at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden recently, in their plant sale area there was a green flowered kangaroo paw plant for sale. I have to say that the flower color was pretty neat. But I cannot grow kangaroo paws to save my life.

Two years ago our garden club grew several hundred from plugs for our Hall of Flowers fair display. In one gallon pots through two weeks of July heat in an enclosed building with low light, they held up very well. At the close of the fair we were able to sell every one of them. I have them in my garden mixed with my ornamental grasses in a clay/loam soil watered during the summer with sprinklers and not watered at all during our wet winters. Al