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Gardening with Gael - One of my favourite plants

 

20181007 142807-34I am on a mission this week to save a giant bird of paradise. A strelitzia nicolai. My friend Marg has one growing in her garden. It is hard to realise when you buy a small one just how tall they will grow. Although it is well below her house and she can still look over it, because it is positioned near the front of her garden, its established size shades some of the plants behind it. It is a beautiful specimen.

Strelitzia nicolai is commonly known as the giant bird of paradise or sometimes as wild banana because of the banana-like shape of its leaves which fan out from erect woody stems. The mature plant is stunning and is ideal in a tropical landscape. A native of South Africa, it thrives near the coast in warm, sunny frost-free locations. I have grown many by the coast and they all thrive. Although they survive droughts no trouble at all, they also love water. 

I once transplanted one that was at least four metres tall. They can grow to over six metres and can clump up to three metres wide. This one had not got to that size and was still a small clump. I dug down just over half a metre and with a friend to help steady the plant between us we carried it to its new site. I braced with some waratahs, watered it regularly and it has thrived. I had read that when they are dug out and divided they make take a couple of years before they flower.

I fed it and the timing of mine must have been just right because the following year there was one of the glorious large blue and white beak-like flower heads. Because their roots aren’t enormous they can be grown in containers and they bloom best when they are slightly pot bound.

Equally attractive, and also perfect in a tropical garden, is strelitzia reginae. A close relative and one more commonly seen in many gardens, it is also known as bird of paradise or crane flower because of the birdlike flower head. This has to be one of my favourite plants. Tropical and exotic-looking strelitzia reginae is more readily grown in most frost free gardens. I have grown them equally successfully in sun and semi shade. I do know that they respond very well to feeding. A good dose of horse manure and you are rewarded with masses of beak like flowers, which consist of three bright orange sepals and purplish blue petal. The ‘beak’ part from which these emerge are usually flushed with a pinkish red. The long stems make them ideal as a cut flower. I have read the leaves described perfectly as ‘paddle’ shaped. I think they are a great plant for near pools. There is no litter from dead leaves or flowers. Both need to be cut from the plant when they are spent.

Last weekend we farewelled Harold Gardner who on many occasions helped us form paths and roads on our property.

“Can we manage one here?” we would ask. “Of course,” was always Harold’s reply. “We can do it.” His farewell took place near his son Ben and daughter-in-law Hannah’s beautiful subtropical garden. I think Marg’s giant bird of paradise could happily find a home there and I think Harold would agree with me. Ben? Hannah? I hope you are reading this.

The mature giant bird of paradise is stunning and ideal in a tropical landscape. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

 
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