patusho25, All three of the Phenakospermum guyannense I got from Tropilab in Suriname are doing well. I've only had this latest group for about 6 months. I finally got them to send me some with roots and leaves attached. They have been outside under shade cloth ever since I got them, but they'll go inside the greenhouse some time in November when the nights start to fall into the low 50's. Here's a letter I got from a strelitzia "expert" in South Africa concerning the various kinds. Dear Gary Strelitzia alba: Stems unbranched, up to 10 m tall, with tuft of leaves at the apex, producing young growth from the base. The leaves are distichous, petiolate with an oblong blade. The sepals are white, and abaxial. The two lower petals of S.alba have small rounded auricles. Strelitzia nicolai : Stems in clumps, unbranched above, up to about 10 m tall. Leaves are petiolate. The colour of the petals of Strelitzia alba is white, while those of Strelitzia nicolai is blue and rarely white. The two lower petals of S.nicolai togetrher form a sagittate blade. The inflorescence is compound. Strelitzia caudata: Differs from S.nicolai in florescence, in the shape of the base of the petals and in the tailed lower sepal. Differs from S.alba in the more pronounced lobes of the lower (adaxial) petals. Differs from both in the more divergent sepals and petals. The slender tail like projection form the middle of the keel of the lowest petal is the reason for the specific name of S. caudata. Stems unbranched, generally up to 2 m tall or more. Leaves petiolate. Sepals white and petals light mauve throughout or only towards the base. S. kewensis (cross between S. reginae and S. augusta) although S.augusta is a illegitimate name and therefor a synonym of S.alba (1970. Moore & Hyypio. Baileya 17.) I'm not sure if it is still being grown in South Africa. Sources: http://www.encyclopedia-online.info/Strelitzia Dyer. 1945 Flowering plant of Africa Volume 25 Plates 995-997 Yours sincerely Mrs.Snyman PRECIS Information Officer Hannelie Snyman PRECIS Information Officer South African National Biodiversity Institute Phone: +27 12 843 5000 Fax: +27 12 804 3211 E-mail: SnymanE@sanbi.org URL: www.sanbi.org (I just wish they would have sent some photos!)

Hello Secretsquirrel007 Sorry for my late response, I need to change my settings so I get notifications! My next response will be faster! Oh thats very interesting & I think the plant is at the age of flowering. Do you have any ideas about why its taking one leaf over 3 months to 'sort of' open and why the plant is generally shrinking and majorly slowing down (its usually flourishing making new leaves every month or so... for the last 9 months its basically been dormant). Im in zone 4. Thanks again : )

I don’t use much fertilizer so I can exclude chemical burn. Did you know your plants can suffer from fertilizer burn, the malady, even if you have never fertilized? Solutions with a low concentration of dissolved solids/salts move to an area with a higher concentration of dissolved solids until isotonicity (balance) is reached. You might remember the process of osmosis from biology. Water in the soil solution normally moves into cells through the semi-permeable cell membrane until the level of solutes in bound water (water inside of the cells) is the same as the level of solutes in the soil solution. The technical name for fertilizer burn is plasmolysis, and it occurs when the level of dissolved solids in the soil solution rises to a point higher than the level of solutes in bound water (water inside of cell walls). Under this condition, water no longer moves freely into plants through the root cell membrane; rather, it moves out of cells into the soil solution in the same way that curing salt pulls moisture from ham or bacon. As cells shrink due to dehydration, plasmalemma is torn from cell walls, destroying cells. If you're not flushing the soil with regularity, dissolved solids from tapwater accumulate in the soil until osmosis is severely impaired, at which time the plant starts to exhibit symptoms of drought stress, even if the soil is awash with a sea of plenty. My guess is, you're over-watering. Over-watering = a reduction in the oxygen required for roots to function normally = impaired root function = the plant's inability to move water efficiently = drought stress and accompanying symptoms, which include spoiled foliage as seen in the images you provided. Heat stress might also be in play, as the potential for heat stress increases as respiration decreases. I would A) start using a "tell" to "tell" you when it's time to water (see below), B) flush the soil thoroughly the next time you're sure the plant needs water (see below), and start the plant on a more appropriate fertilizer, like Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 and see how it goes. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support good root health, which is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to a build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Flushing Soils When you water, you should be able to flush planting's soil to eliminate the potentiality of salts from fertilizers and tapwater accumulating in the soil, thereby limiting the plant's ability to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in the water. If you think you shouldn't flush the soil during your regular water applications for fear the soil will remain saturated for a lengthy period, limiting root function or worse, you should consider a different soil or take steps to reduce the amount of excess water your soil can hold. By whatever means necessary, getting to the point you can water correctly is going to make a very big difference in the opportunity to realize as much of it's genetic potential as possible. Once you can water correctly, you no longer have to do battle with a water-retentive medium over control of your plant's vitality. There are several methods of limiting how much water your planting can hold, all but 1 or 2 are completely passive, requiring no effort on your part other than set-up, which is monkey easy. I can help if you have interest in that, I'm continually improving my proficiency at monkey easy tasks. To flush the soil of a planting: Water with room temperature water until the soil is completely saturated. Allow the planting to rest for 15 minutes to an hour to allow as much of the salt accumulation as possible to go into solution, then pour a volume of room temp water equal to at least 10X the volume of the pot the plant is in slowly through the soil. This will remove most of any accumulation of offending salts and resolve any skewing of nutrient ratios. It's a good idea, no matter what time of year, to fertilize most plants immediately after flushing the soil. Try to be sure you're using a fertilizer that has a ratio as close as possible to the ratio at which the plant uses nutrients. The NPK % listed on fertilizer packaging is not its ratio. 7-7-7 and 14-14-14 are 1:1:1 ratios. 9-3-6, 12-4-8, and 24-8-16, are all 3:1:3 ratios. Container growers should try very hard to avoid use of fertilizers advertised as 'bloom-boosters', or any number with a middle number (Phosphorous) higher than either the first or third numbers (Nitrogen or Potassium). These fertilizers can badly skew nutrient ratios with even the first application). On average, plants use about 6x as much N as P, so there is NO potential for a positive outcome when supplying many times as much P as the plant requires. I, and a large number of other members, use Dyna-Gro's Foliage Pro 9-3-6. It's designed to closely mimic the uptake ratio of the average plant, and has many other attributes not commonly found in other fertilizers. It also has ALL of the nutrients essential to normal growth. Summarized, it makes fertilizing as easy as it can be, and from 1 container. BTW - when you water, are you allowing the plant to sit in the effluent that would normally exit the pot if it had a drain hole? and, Does your home have an ionic exchange water softener (the kind you have to regularly recharge with salt? Al

Hey Ken Im in Sydney (currently its winter). Some nights have been 3 degrees C (~37F). I put it outside in the courtyard coz I moved from an apartment to a house. Here is a pic of the whole plant. In the summer it got some strong afternoon sun. Many thanks for your expertise.