Hello Lucy! Nice blooms. I have some kangaroo paws in ground. They are actually very fussy plants. They are from parts in Australia where they experience regular, prolonged drought. They often go dormant in the summer, so summer water will kill them. I have mine on a drip irrigation system and they receive minimal water in the summer, but they also have excellent drainage, so the water just keeps them from going dormant. They are an excellent plant for xeric gardens. I have mine growing alongside aloes, agaves, beschorneria, ice plants, yuccas, sedums...all of which have similar water needs. One other thing, they are very suceptible to a kind of fungus if they are watered overhead. That's why I have mine on a drip system. Do a google search to find out more infomation on them. They are also fussy about soil PH requirements I think. Good luck! Note: If you remove spent blooms, most varieties will rebloom for you.

Dear moontraveler, When you used the word "hybrid" it is hard to know what you mean exactly, a hybrid normally referring to a cross between two separate species, but I have a hunch that you are referring to SEEDLING paw paws, as opposed to named cultivars. In answer to WHERE folk get or buy their trees, we'll I've just had shipped to me (in L.A. Calif.) 7 highly touted cultivars from a wonderful nursery in Oregon called One Green World... They came in by fedex in special packing boxes, ALL perfectly secured by ingenious methods, all without the slightest damage. These were the varieties Mango, KSU-Atwood, five Peterson-Paw Paws (Susquehanna, Shenandoah, Wabash, Potomac, Allegeny). I have three 3 ten year olds I bought at a local nursery that don't offer these any longer -- Sunflower, Rebecca's Gold, Wells) I happen to live in citrus country, very, very hot and dry in the Summer which is NOT a Paw Paw friendly venue, but I babied these trees like noting else I've ever grown -- shade cloth all summer for five years, six inch mulch, misting stands, AND letting my hose run at very low pressure just about all day when the temperatures reached 110 degrees plus...they are ten feet tall now and need no sun protection, the leaves not even burning, and a pretty impressive crop of delicious fruit...which I have a hard time getting others to taste. The Peterson cultivars are supposed to be highly superior, much bigger than what my fruit I get now, these ready to fall of or e picked with first week of September. I simply LOVE this fruit and have ten all inter spread amongst their more tropical cousins, cherimoyas and Atemoyas, which thrice here if you water them enough. Hope I have been of some help, Guy

I gave one a try last year - and just like Wallisadi said, mine also did not make it through the heat I grow a lot of Aussie orchids and they are not easy to grow - they all tolerate cold well and low humidity, but they do not want to get all hot and sweaty.... For example, both Australia and California are famous for their cymbidiums - which makes me think CA and Australia are more similar in their general growing climate than us. To grow cymbidiums in Fl, one has to find heat and humidity tolerant varieties... The Kangaroo plant sure was cute, I wish I still had it growing :) Olya

They can be tricky. They want water while in flower but once done flowering they like to dry out and go dormant. If you water while dormant you'll definitely shorten their life. They are also very susceptible to ink spot so it is generally recommended not to overhead water. Each fan only blooms once and it's recommended that the fans be cut back as far as possible after blooming is done without damaging the new fans. They want excellent drainage. Then there is the problem that they don't like excessive phosphorus and so many residential garden soils are overloaded with phosphorus from decades of ill conceived fertilization with 'balanced' 20-20-20 fertilizers.