Ok, is a giant bird of Paradise a special type or just one that got big?? If they are hardy I would like to plant one. I always thought they needed pampering. Where is a good place to buy one?

Jim

Jim, different species than regular orange-flowered BOP. The White (or Giant) Bird-of-Paradise is Strelitzia nikolai, somewhat hardier than the smaller BOP (Strelitzia reginae). In my area (Lake Jackson, south of Houston, avg rain 50"/yr, clay-silt soil) they get about 15'-20' and also bloom off and on all year. The flowers are about the same size as orange BOP, but they appear smaller cuz there's a lot o' foliage.

Local nurseries or plant sales are your best bet to buy one, but Stokes Tropicals has it for - gulp - about $25.

Monica

Here is a link that might be useful: U of Florida Fact Sheet White BOP

I boutht mine at a nursery near 1960 and I-45 about 10 years ago.I think Wal-mart and Home depot Lowe's all carry them at times.Good luck.Jessie

Jim, like Jessie I bought mine in a one gallon pot, they grow very fast. The small bird of paradise on the other hand grow very slow. I need a ladder to trim mine. Lowes had them for $5.99 a gallon last year. I will email you the next time I go down, and you can come over to make sure that is what you really want. Wait until you see the blooms they are hugh! Barbra,

Thanks, I want one. I always liked the BOP but figured it was a green house item and had to be pampered. I have an acre+ to plant on. I could take in another 1/2 away from the sheep if I wanted. Room or water is not the question but since it is hardy and can take the heat it will have a home here. I do like aggressive plants. I will keep my eyes out for one a Lowes.

Barbra I bought some aggressive roses. They root from cuttings real fast. So I hear. They are the type you cut back with a chain saw and roundup. If you are interested let me know I will root some when they get here. I do like roundup if takes care of any mistake. That is my type of plant if you need roundup to control it. I would much rather have to control it than pamper it to grow.

Happy Gardening

Thanks for the help.

Jim

My experience with the White Bird (Strelitzia Nicolai) is a little different than Monica's. I find the white bird to be more cold sensitive than the Orange Bird (Strelitzia Reginae) and the blooms larger than the orange bird. I been growing both for 15 years and the white bird will get leaf burn at 28 if exposed to frost and north winds. Consequently, I have mine planted on a southern exposure under an oak canopy with good morning to noon sun, then mostly shade. It is in bloom right now and survived one night of 24, one night of 25 and one night of 26 in early December. However every leaf is brown and I will need to trim those leaves once this nasty, wet, cold winter is over. However, there is already a new leaf starting to appear. If this plant would have been out in the open, exposed to a hard freeze of 24, it would have been killed to the ground. For me, this plant doesn't bloom until it has reached a trunk height of at least 5 feet, leaf tip height of around 8 feet. The blooms don't appear on stems like the orange bird, the blooms appear from the seams of the trunk of the plant. They also ooze a very sticky substance from the bloom and can be quite messy.

Steve

I wonder if BOP would grow 15 miles inland from the MS gulf coast? Would wrapping the stem with a blanket on cold nights help?

Looked at some pics. Lot of foliage for few flowers. I still need one. I do have plenty of oaks for shade. I see a bunch of seeds in the pics on google. How are these propagated? Seeds or plant material? You think I could graft a brung in the middle?? ( just kidding)

Jim

vancleaveterry,

Wrapping the trunk with a blanket for sure works. Can't do much to protect the leaves once they get tall with lots of leaves but you can sure protect the trunk.

Steve

Wahoooooooo Found some 5 footers at Lowes for $19.99 I had to get 2. I felt as if I hit the Jackpot today. What is the best place to plant full sun or morning and some afternoon and then shade? Or would they be ok in a 25 gallon pot until I found their best spot?

Jim

Jim,

They can take the sun. I would plant in a spot that would be protected from frost. I have two in the ground and both are up against a south wall of my house. The leaves will get burnt in sub freezing weather but the stem should remain alive. Wrap the stem with a blanket when the temps are predicted to go below 28.

Steve

I do have an almost full sun south face that I can plant on. Do the leaves shred much from wind? Mine already have a small tear in one of the leaves. We are pretty windy here. Should I look for some shelter from the wind also? From what I have read once you plant it that is where it has to live.

Jim

The leaves do shred but it takes a good stiff wind. It really doesn't look that bad though and they don't seem to turn brown after shredding like banana leaves.

As far as transplanting, it can be done. I transplanted both of mine last March because of Hurricane Rita and dug up the whole clump. They didn't miss a beat and one is putting out blooms now. They were both over 12 feet tall.

Steve

Jim, I have mine planted on the South side of a storage bldg, so it is protected from the cold, but not the wind, when you come by next Saturday, you can see my plant. This is one plant I do not worry about freezing. Every spring I just cut back the leaves that are nipped by the cold. I will show you how to trim the plant, when you come down. We were in Florida in March, I watched a crew of men trim the hugh bird of paradise plants from my window. I had been doing it wrong, and they made it look so easy, now I can trim like the pro's, and it looks so much nicer. Barbra,

Ok I like information. My only problem is my good south exposure is not fenced from the sheep yet. So it may see a larger pot unless I get around to fencing that area off. I do need to do it soon for I have no large shade trees on that side to block the sun. That is where I was going to try the pecans.

Where did you get your creepers from? I need a few more and some confederate rose. My fox terrier decided they were good tasting and dug up 12 of my small plants. They were about 18". He has left everything else alone. Must be something good about them.

See You this weekend. I will email phone number.

I got mine at Lowes, but they are a few cents cheaper at Wal- Mart. I got mine at one of Lowes Cart Sales, they had many diffrent vines, I got alot left over, but no creepers. Do you need any vines that take moist soil? If you do, how many do you need? You need to go to one of the cart sales in Ingleside, it is great! Barbra,

Now Lowes Cart sale??? There is one in Aransas Pass, but have never heard of a cart sale. Tell me more.. A plant that needs moist soil would surely die at my house. I do have some Banyan tree rooting. It is my all time favorite tropical ( at this moment) It is a full sun invasive tree. I do not think they are invasive but can be a problem if planted close to a foundation. Kind of like a varigated rubber tree except they get a lot larger. Very beautiful. When they get a full set of roots I will bring you some. They are at nubbies right now, unless you want to baby a tree for a while I can bring one or two with me.

I still have creepers but they a dormant right now. They got the early growers. I did find a few of the roots but no foliage. I now have 3 lemons and 3 oranges. They are proud of their citrus here. If they bear a good amount of fruit then they will be worth it. They were planted in a premium area of the yard.

Jim

Jim, you and I are talking about the same Lowes, the exit I take says Ingelside, the way you come is thru Aranasa Pass. I'll have to check my receipt to see what it says. When you go to Lowes the next time, ask them about the $5 cart sale. You will thank me.
Barbra,

I will do that. Is that the cart in the garden area where everything is dead looking? I snt my phone number so you can holler at me when you get down here.

Thanks,

Jim

I live in the northeast and have 2 birds of paradise in a sunroom. They were doing ok until we went away for a week and sufferred a bad frost. The leaves and stems are brown, but the base seems to be pretty green. Is there hope? Should I just cut down to the base? Help

My guess is it would be okay to just cut it back, and it will probably do fine. They take more than an occasional frost down here and come back--she says, never having grown it! But I do have friends who have, and they definitely get nipped most years.

I would like to have a few of these also as I just put in a pool last fall and have the tropical look all around . All of my plants are frozen or frost bit ; I'm so disappointed but cannot say I wasn't warned . I.m in the Fla gulf coast zone 8.5 . If anyone else is around this area I'd appreciate an e-mai on where its available .

If the leaves and stems are pretty brown from the freeze, do I cut everything back to the base?

Mine gets the full brunt of any north wind we get. The thing is close to 20' tall & bloomed all winter. Plus it is in the shade of a pecan.
The flowers are white not orange on the giant one.
Tally HO!

I love the lowes cart sales !!!!!!

arrellpn, I got one yesterday, when they totalled it up, it was over $380, all for $5. I have been so busy, planting outside. I have so many plants, that grow only in San Antonio, and not in Rockport. Since you are in San Antonio, don't forget this Saturday is the San Antonio plant swap, check it out on Gardening in Texas Forum. Hope to see you there. Barbra,

I realize this is an old thread but was wondering about my Bird of Paradise. I live in Houston, Tx and when building a new fence, was forced to cut a huge trunk off the BoP. This one piece of the plant is approx 12 feet tall and looking at the base (like tree rings) which I had to cut off in 3 sections, I found numerous little pups or nodules around the last 2 feet of the base section. I've stuck these large cross sections of the trunk in the ground with the pups exposed. Will they grow or am I wasting my time? We've been real sucessful in transplanting by cutting off or seperating a small clump of base leaves but not anything from a pup like this. Am I planting them correct, is there a secret to planting the small pups or should I dig up my mess and toss? We've started 5 new plants from the original monster BoP that was in our yard when we moved in years ago. Our BoP are on the South east side of the house and get medium sun and a lot of water from splash over in the summer when kids are in the pool.

Pieinsky, the pups, are they around the base of the original plant stalk in the ground? If they are, I think they'll do fine.

Now if you are moving the pups, and keep in mind I'm not a BoP expert, I would suggest that when you detatch it from the clump, or main corm, that you cut into that corm, so that the pup will have some food to feed itseld until it gets established.

That's the procedure for banana's, and bananas are closely related to the BoP.

Either way as you know, you got what you got. So hope for the best.

Happy gardening!

I have i giant BOP near my front porch and it is growing under the eaves. I need to move it, but digging up the roots is almost impossible with out a jack hammer. Can I cut it near the root and just plant it? will it root on it's own like some plants do in water. It is a shame to chop down such a beautiful plant. Anyone want a 12 foot BOP? come on over and dig it up!

This sounds like an awesome plant!! I live on the MS Gulf Coast and was wondering if anyone had any luck growing them here?

My giant bird of paradise froze in Feb, we just cut it down last weekend. This week looks like its coming back from the 5 ft round base. It was much taller than the store room. There was no way we could have covered it. This is the first year it froze to the ground. The orange ones did not freeze and are blooming right now. I think I planted it in the late '90's. Jim if you read this, how did yours do? Barbra

Jeep461 Confederate Rose is a plant that likes water. If you can find a neighbor who has that tree any branch that is cut off will if just stuck into a bucket of water will take root. Strip off all the leaves and put a nice stick in water and keep in the shade you will see white nubs form soon then the root will not take very long before they are big enough to put into the ground. You need to keep it watered until it gets established. They can get over 20' tall and quite wide. They can be cut back to the ground each year to help control their size and shape The trunk can get to 12" across. I had mine cut back to 3' last fall and it it over 8' tall now. They bloom in the fall when the weather starts to cool down. In the summer months they will lose leaves when the weather is hot and dry but will come back in the fall with cooler weather and moisture. When I got my first start is was a 3' stick. Put this into the ground and it just sat there until we had a hurricane which brought lots of rain which knocked it over and had to be replanted. From all that rain it took off and ended up being about 8' tall and full of blooms in October, it has never slowed down since then so I have nice shade for my back window. I know this is the BOP site but you mentioned Confederate Rose so I wanted to throw this in for you. Thanks