I'm an hour away (in Monmouth County), but might be able to arrange come pick it up this weekend if no one closer is interested and you can protect it that long. I have a small greenhouse in which to overwinter the plant. It would be a shame to lose it to the cold! Hard to tell in the photo, but do I see some small shoots there that might be divided off ... something for you to keep?

Alex, I wrote a reply that disappeared when my internet crashed, just explaining in case it turns up later... And if I sound a bit short now! Basically : yes, you're right, some plants are more susceptible to mealy bugs. If your treatment efforts (admirable, by the way) don't work, try a pesticide spray or soil treatment (look up options/brands for your country) Regarding the bent stem, the leaf may well die but no harm propping it up for now, you never know. The plant will pull any nutrients it can out of it if it's dying, no need to rush to remove it unless it's an eyesore Hopefully someone can confirm it's a bird of paradise :)

Usually the answer to that problem for all plants is at the roots. Are they healthy? Has the soil gone stale or worse, sour? (smells). If you are not seeing a strong root system..that would be why it does not have the energy for flowering.

Thank you for your reply. If you click on the picture, you can see that there is plenty of light. The leaves are not yellow either. Only the really old leaves are yellow. They have turned brown on the edges. They are wilty and not crispy. So I had smaller pots for the plants and recently switched to a lot bigger ones with obviously a lot more soil but i continued to water same amount as before. I don’t think I was watering enough as most of the soil would be dry (since now there was so much more soil). Because if this, I felt the soil would dry out really quickly too. Therefore, I started watering more and have noticed the stems breaking. I‘ve also noticed that when a new leaf is about to grow, the stems break from the spot where the new leaf comes out from. I’m not sure if this is the reason??