![]() Just plant into a good growing medium, but leave the ‘cut’ to heal for a few days before watering.Īnother species, Strelitzia juncea, is a bold drought resistant variety and has a similar bird-like flower, but with narrow reed-like stalks – without any leaf litter! It can grow up to 4ft or more and is equally useful for container planting or as part of a landscape. The good news is they can be divided up in-ground every 5 years or so, giving you free plants to put in elsewhere! The plant grows from a rhizome, and all you need to do in the spring is sever a piece of the rhizome with a clean sharp knife, with each division having a fan and roots attached. It is a relatively small plant with a manageable height of 5-6 ft when mature, but be warned, they may not bloom until they are 5-6 years old if you have just put a small one into a pot or in the garden. The splits that appear in the leaves are normal and are the plant adapting to more damaging winds by becoming ‘aerodynamic’ - to prevent the leaves from becoming giant sails. I very much want one of these in my garden, with their flamboyant flowers that come in a shock of orange, yellow, blue and red against tall, dense, grey-green or blue-green leaves that are reminiscent of banana leaves. ![]() It is actually native to South Africa, but conditions in Portugal are ideal, where it will grow well in full sun, and will even tolerate light salt spray and winds, but they don’t do so well in the cold, so would do well in a sheltered position. With a tufty head and an uncannily realistic beak, it is a dramatic bloom, a real showstopper in its own right. It also has the nickname Crane Flower, but I think Bird of Paradise sounds much more exotic and tropical, and indeed they look like the birds they are named after. ![]() ![]() Queen Charlotte was a patron of the arts and an amateur botanist and helped to expand Kew Gardens. Its real name is Strelitzia reginae (why do these plants have names that are so hard to spell, let alone say?), but apparently it is a plant of nobility, a queen of flora, having been named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen consort and wife of King George III. ![]()
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